The quiet crisis at the heart of UK democracy 🗳️

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With five parties now polling above 10%, the old Labour-Conservative binary no longer captures the country’s political energy. Reform UK’s rapid rise, despite winning just five seats last year, exposes the distortions of First Past the Post.

But the right isn’t the only force reshaping the landscape: the Greens are gaining momentum under Zack Polanski, their membership now higher than the Conservatives'.

Together, these shifts point to a quiet crisis at the core of Britain’s democracy and a system struggling to contain an electorate in flux.

FEATURED STORY

The quiet crisis at the heart of British democracy

Emma Harrison

If the past 18 months have shown us anything, it’s that the UK’s two-party system is no longer fit for purpose.

The old ‘red vs blue’ divide simply doesn’t describe our politics anymore, and the public’s aversion to both Labour and the Conservatives is increasingly clear. Five parties are now polling above 10%. The country’s political energy is more diverse – and more fragmented – than at any point in recent memory.

The challenger party grabbing most of the airtime is right-wing populist Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which is also polling better than any other party, consistently securing around 30% of the vote. Given it won just five seats at the July 2024 general election, the party’s rise says as much about the failings of the British parliament’s First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system as it does about its own message.

But Reform is not the only party reshaping the landscape. Progressives are gaining ground, too. Since taking office in September, Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s ‘eco-populism’ has drawn widespread attention. The Greens’ surging membership is now higher than the Tories’; the momentum sits with them, though, like other ‘smaller’ parties, their first major test will come at the local elections and the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections in May 2026.

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And the Labour government’s challenge doesn’t end there.

Last week saw the official launch of Your Party, the new left-wing entity founded by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana. Despite a chaotic start, the 2,500 attendees to the party’s inaugural conference last weekend voted to adopt a collective leadership model that puts more power into the hands of the members. Many have returned to their communities energised and ready to fight in the May elections.

These parties may all have very different politics, but they are united in their support for electoral reform (although Reform has notably gone quiet on the issue in recent weeks, knowing that if it can convert its projected 30% support into votes under FPTP, it could win a landslide).

Our voting system is fundamentally broken. No matter how the public votes, FPTP distorts election outcomes, and at great cost. Trust in democratic institutions is at yet another all-time low.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Elections is now the largest APPG in Westminster. Academics, democracy experts, and political thinkers are increasingly aligned behind the need for electoral system change. But most importantly, the public wants it. This year’s British Social Attitudes Survey found that 60% of people support a shift to Proportional Representation, and Make Votes Matter activists can feel that shift on the doorstep.

And yet the question I hear more than any other is: won’t Proportional Representation just let the far right in? It’s an understandable fear, but the evidence shows the opposite.

Research by Compass, a British left-wing think tank, into PR systems across Europe found something striking: it’s First Past the Post – not PR – that allows right-wing populism to flourish unchecked.

Finland and the Netherlands show that, under PR, extremist parties can be contained, moderated and forced to compromise. Many PR systems also include a minimum threshold, often around 3%, to prevent fringe parties from securing seats or exerting outsized influence.

Under FPTP, however, smaller parties can drag major parties sharply to the right or left with no such safeguards. And here’s the irony: the very scenarios people fear under PR are already happening under FPTP.

Is MAGA a religion? Why has protest been criminalised in England and Wales? Who is profiting from anti-immigration sentiment? And how can we engage with young men who’ve fallen down the alt-right pipeline?

These are just a few of the questions that we’ve put to leading thinkers, frontline activists, and global experts on our new podcast, In Solidarity, over the past six months.

In Solidarity is a podcast for people who understand that politics doesn’t just happen in the halls of power. Every show, we tackle a new theme to uncover how authoritarianism spreads, who is benefiting from fear, and how solidarity is evolving into resistance movements around the world.

To ensure you never miss an episode of In Solidarity, subscribe to get an email notification whenever a new one is released.

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Just ask Labour MPs who worry not only about Reform’s disproportionate influence over national debate but also about its impact on their own party’s messaging. “We can’t out-Reform Reform” became a recurring refrain during Labour’s recent deputy leadership contest. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are lurching further right in an attempt to reclaim voters. And if they can’t win them back, they have another option.

This week’s rumour mill was full of talk about a potential electoral pact – or even a merger – between the Conservatives and Reform. Why? Because both parties know that under FPTP, stitching themselves together could be their most viable route to power at the 2029 general election.

How both parties’ voters would feel about such a pact is unclear, but one thing is certain: they want their votes to count and their views to be fairly represented. Reform has dismissed a report that Farage told Reform donors that an electoral deal was “inevitable”, but it would not be the first time he has made a pact with the Tories; he did so as leader of the Brexit Party at the 2019 election.

There has also been talk of pacts and ‘stand asides’ (decisions by one party not to field a candidate in a certain constituency to boost another party’s chances) between the left and centre-left. Your Party and the Greens have exchanged positive signals, but it may be Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey who becomes the decisive figure. He has already offered cross-party cooperation with the Labour government on democratic reform, and his party will push hard for PR in the forthcoming Elections Bill, expected in early 2026.

The bill, which contains measures to introduce votes at 16, strengthening rules about political donations and some kind of automated voter registration, is a golden opportunity for the government to put the voter first by acknowledging that FPTP works for politicians, not voters.

We are calling on the government to bring PR in for the next election. If it feels it can’t be that bold – although with such a huge majority, it really could be – we want a National Commission on Electoral Reform to work out what system could replace the antiquated one we have.

FPTP rewards tactical pacts, warped incentives, and endless gamesmanship, while shutting out genuine political diversity and silencing millions of voices. The result is a democracy that no longer reflects the country it serves.

Last year’s general election had the second-lowest turnout since universal suffrage in 1928, with just 59.9% of eligible voters casting a ballot. It’s painfully clear that far too many people have simply given up on voting. And who can blame them? When votes don’t count equally, it’s no surprise that millions choose not to cast one at all.

The UK’s politics have already changed. Our electoral system hasn’t, and it’s holding the country back. If we want a healthier, more responsive, more stable democracy, the solution is clear: it’s time to give voters a system where every vote counts and every voice matters. Only then will our politics catch up with the reality of modern Britain.

Emma is the CEO of Make Votes Matter, the cross-party, grassroots campaign for Proportional Representation

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