Westminster election results three times more ‘disproportionate’ than for London Assembly, says study
Results for Westminster elections are three times more “disproportionate” than results for the London Assembly election results, according to a new study from a pro-electoral reform group.
The Electoral Reform Society claims that across the past seven UK elections that the largest party has won 66 per cent of London seats on the basis of 46 per cent of votes.
The group said that in the six London Assembly elections in the same period that the average result for the largest party is 42 percent of seats, after receiving 35 percent of regional list votes.
General Elections use first past the post, which sees candidates with the most votes being elected for each constituency with no second or third preferences taken into account.
The London Assembly is elected via a mixture of first past the post and proportional representation, which awards seats according to how many total votes a party wins over a larger area.
The government has already said that it wants to switch more local elections to first past the post and proportional representation is very unlikely to be implemented any further in UK elections.
Dr Jess Garland, Director of Policy and Research, Electoral Reform Society said: ““It’s clear that English voters are being left behind, short-changed by our electoral system and, all too often, they see their votes cast aside on the scrap heap come election time .”