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Andy Burnham has declared that Labour will campaign in the upcoming general election with a commitment to reform the UK’s voting system. During his inaugural speech as prime minister at the party conference, he unveiled plans to establish a national commission that would investigate different electoral reform options. Burnham extended an invitation to other political parties to collaborate with this commission to guarantee that “everyone’s vote counts, and everyone’s voice is heard.”
Burnham has a history of supporting proportional representation (PR) systems, having stated at last year’s conference that “PR’s time has come.” The current first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system, in which candidates with the highest vote totals in each constituency win, has come under increased scrutiny due to the UK’s increasingly fractured political environment. This debate has gained momentum particularly since Labour secured a substantial parliamentary majority in 2024 despite winning only 34% of the popular vote.
A recent parliamentary amendment, supported by about 100 Labour MPs and Burnham himself during his tenure as Greater Manchester mayor, called for the creation of a commission to review alternatives to the existing system. Speaking to conference delegates, Burnham said, “We will all have failed in our public duties if we carry on as we are and open the door of No 10 to a divisive government on less than 30% of the vote or less.” He further emphasized that maintaining current political instability would hinder the UK’s success on the global stage, adding, “We can’t succeed in the eyes of the world if we continue with the levels of political turbulence we have seen in recent times.”
Burnham did not specify who would head the proposed commission or when it would begin its work. The Liberal Democrats have expressed support for such reforms and have previously urged Burnham to implement proportional representation before the next election, scheduled no later than 2029. Despite this, Conservatives are expected to resist any change from first-past-the-post. Reform UK, which advocated PR during the last election, appears to have become less enthusiastic. Reform leader Nigel Farage commented after Burnham’s speech that while he was open to discussing a change at some future point, other political issues were more pressing. He remarked, “Is this an absolute priority for the general election after the next one? I don’t believe that it is.”
Within Labour, backing for electoral reform is not unanimous. Deputy leader Lucy Powell acknowledged that “parts of the Labour Party” oppose changes to the voting system. Speaking on BBC 2’s Politics Live, she expressed her personal support for reform but did not commit to endorsing a specific alternative, noting that “lots of models” exist. Among the potential options are the single transferable vote (STV), currently used in Scottish council elections and favored by the Liberal Democrats, and the additional member system—a hybrid that blends first-past-the-post with regional party lists, utilized in Scottish Parliament elections. Interestingly, earlier this year, Wales elected the Senedd members for the first time using a closed-list proportional representation system
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