Thursday’s by-election that saw Boris Johnson’s technical majority in the commons reduced to just a solitary seat has certainly provided an abundance of talking points. One of these main talking points is the First Past the Post electoral system which is used in Westminster elections. Whist FPTP in its current form has been in use for living memory it is widely accepted that this system hugely favours a two-party political system. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that we are in a period of multi-party politics. This has led many, such as UKIP to campaign for electoral reform.
Although the UK held a referendum in 2011 on the proposal of moving to an AV electoral system, which was resoundingly rejected. This was largely because it was a hybrid system and certainly not a pure form of proportional representation. One advantage of the FPTP system is that, as history shows it is far more likely than PR to produce a majority government. However, if current polling is to be believed then it seems highly unlikely to produce a majority for an of the parties.
Brecon certainly highlighted FPTP’s flaws in a glaring way. The Green party and Plaid Cymru agreed not to stand candidates in order to split the remain vote with the Liberal Democrats. In contrast Nigel Farage’s Brexit party did not take the same stance. This shows the FPTP to be open to manipulation and its democratic credentials in this situation have to be keenly looked at.
This theory can be backed up by numbers. In the Leave camp, there was the Conservatives, the Brexit Party ad UKIP who together secured 15,974 votes together. On the Remain side there was the Liberal Democrats and Labour (if they are pro remain this week) and those two together secured 15,506 votes. This clearly shows that manoeuvring and conspiring forces from the Remain side in order to get a Lib Dem victory. However, some on the Brexit side will surely be asking and suggesting for similar unity among Pro Brexit Party.
Watch below now what David Clews of UNN had to say about the result:
Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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