First Past the Post

The main electoral system in the UK, known as first-past-the post, is a plurality system. It is used for elections to the UK Parliament, and to English and Welsh local government. It is also used in the USA and India. The UK remains the only democracy in Europe to use First Past the Post (FPTP) to elect its MPs. Since 20222 it has also been used to elect metro mayors and police and crime commissioners. Although in 2025 the Labour government announced the abolition of police and crime commissioners.

How it works

A simple plurality system means that the winner is the candidate who gains the most votes. The winning margin needs only be one vote; quite often it is less than 50% of the votes cast.

Voters simply put an 'X' in the box, indicating their choice. There is no order of preference.

The UK is divided up into 650 constituencies. These are single-member constituencies, that is, only one MP is returned per constituency.

The 'winning post' in a constituency is determined after all the votes have been counted; whoever gets the highest number of votes wins the seat. The winning margin could be as small as one and or as huge as over 20 thousand.

The winning post required to form a government from the results of these constituency elections is, however, fixed. With a total of 650 seats, if one party gains 326 MPs this gives it a majority of two over all others. In May 2010, no party reached this total.

Apart from a few exceptions, all adults over 18 years of age and who are UK citizens are allowed to vote. Exceptions include most prisoners (this has become a controversial issue, with the European Court of Human Rights ordering Britain to allow them to vote in a 2010 judgement), and those certified with serious mental illness

The continued use of FPTP for Westminster elections has aroused controversy for decades.

In modern times the UK's parliamentary system has been based on single-member representation: each constituency elects one MP. Until 1948 some constituencies returned more than one member (for example, several Lancashire towns, including Blackburn and Bolton, were dual-member constituencies).

The average number of voters in a constituency is roughly 70,000, but there is considerable variation. The size of constituencies is regulated by an independent Boundary Commission, which recommends periodic changes based on movements of population. In 2005 the number of Scottish constituencies was reduced from 72 to 59 to bring its representation more closely into line with that of the rest of the UK. Before the 2015 general election it had been agreed to reduce the number of constituencies in the UK from 650 to 600. This reform was delayed owing to disagreements within the coalition government, but the election of a Conservative government put it back on the agenda again. It is expected to involve an extensive redrawing of constituency boundaries. Among the planned changes is the splitting of the Isle of Wight, which currently has 110,000 voters, into two separate seats.

The Boundary Commission for England published its proposals for new constituency boundaries in June. A consultation ends in August, which will be followed by revised proposals in 2022 and final recommendations in 2023.

There's quite a lot of variation between different regions of England. Broadly, the South is getting more seats whilst the North will have fewer. Leading experts said the Conservative party would have won an additional five seats at the last election 2019  under new draft parliamentary constituencies.

Advantages of FPTP

 Speed and simplicity FPTP is easy to use, with voters making a single cross and choosing one candidate. The result is usually known early in the morning after polling day and a new government is rapidly formed, allowing a swift and orderly transfer of power. The May 2010 general election was an exception, when negotiations between the prospective parties of government did not produce a result for 5 days. This would be the norm under a proportional system. The outcome of a general election would be determined by horse-trading between the party leaders, which can take time. After the 2010 general election in Belgium, which uses a proportional system, it took almost 18 months to form a government. Admittedly this is an extreme example, but the fact remains that proportional systems are far less decisive than FPTP. The ease and familiarity of FPTP help to explain continuing public support for its retention. When voters were given the opportunity to replace it with the Alternative Vote (AV) in a referendum held in May 2011, almost 68 per cent of those who voted chose to retain FPTP. Another example of the delay in forming a government is the federal elections in Germany, which were held in 26 September 2021 to elect the members of the 20th Bundestag On 23 November, following complex coalition talks, the SPD, FDP and Greens formalized an agreement to form a traffic light coalition, which was approved by all three parties. Olaf Scholz and his cabinet were elected by the Bundestag on 8 December. 

Since FPTP is simple to understand, it may encourage participation, which contrasts with PR systems that may involve complex calculations and formulas to arrive at a result. The simplicity of FPTP may encourage a sense of legitimacy since the winner is clear and arrived at quickly.  General election in the UK take little more than 24 hours from voting to result.

·      Strong and stable government FPTP tends to promote a two-party system, which gives voters a clear choice. At general elections it usually gives a clear majority to one party, which then has a mandate to carry out its programme. The government can be removed at the next general election if the voters disapprove of its record. For example, it enabled Margaret Thatcher to carry out her plans for the reduction of trade union power and privatisation in the 1980s, and allowed Tony Blair to undertake extensive constitutional reforms after his 1997 victory. Supporters of FPTP argue that, by boosting the significance of smaller parties, proportional systems give them undue influence. In Germany between 1969 and 1998, the Free Democrats never gained more than 10 per cent of the popular vote but were able to hold the balance of power between the two largest parties. They sustained the Social Democrats in office until 1982, when they switched their support to the Christian Democrats or German conservatives. Proportional representation is far more likely than FPTP to produce a coalition government. This means that the government's programme will be worked out behind closed doors in negotiations between the party leaders, without the voters having the opportunity to give their verdict on it. In addition, coalitions are sometimes unstable and can break up if one of the coalition parties has a fundamental disagreement with its partner. In the UK, coalitions are rare. Since the Second World War there has only been one formal coalition, 2010-2015.

It gives rise to a coherent parliamentary opposition. In theory, the flip side of a strong single-party government is that the opposition is also given enough seats to perform a critical checking role, and present itself as a realistic alternative to the government of the day.

Exclusion of extremists & moderate politics. Although critics of FPTP point to the way it under-represents smaller parties, the advantage of this is that extreme parties — which may feed on racism, xenophobia and other extremist views — are much less likely to gain a foothold.The First Past the Post voting system encourages a two-party political landscape in the UK, with two dominant parties helping to keep politics from becoming too radical. Major UK parties must ensure their policies appeal to a broad audience to secure a plurality of votes in constituencies. Meanwhile, extreme or radical parties often struggle to concentrate enough support in any single constituency. This is evident in the contrasting fortunes of the British National Party (BNP), which won two seats in the European Parliament in 2009 under the proportional closed list system but failed to secure a single seat in the 2010 UK General Election despite having the fifth-largest vote share of any party.

In severely ethnically or regionally-divided societies, FPTP is praised for encouraging political parties to be 'broad churches', encompassing many elements of society, particularly when there are only two major parties and many different societal groups. The USA has two dominant parties which help to create a sense of national unity. (less so in recent years)

 A strong link between MPs and their constituencies The relatively small size of most FPTP constituencies, and the fact that a single MP is responsible for representing those who live within the constituency, are often seen as strengths. MPs handle correspondence from their constituents and hold surgeries at which they make themselves available to those seeking help and advice.

Disadvantages of FPTP

·      MPs and governments can be elected on less than 50 per cent of the vote More than half of MPs typically do not command majority support within their constituency. This is because they do not need an overall majority of the votes cast, but can win by gaining just one more vote than the second placed candidate. It is quite possible for more votes to be cast against rather than for the winning candidate.

·      At national level, FPTP regularly produces governments elected on a minority of the popular vote. The lowest percentage was recorded in 2005, when Tony Blair was re-elected on 35.2 per cent of the vote. This weakens the mandate enjoyed by the winning party, especially as general elections since 2001 have been characterised by low voter turnout. This feature means that significant numbers of voters feel that the system lacks legitimacy.

·      Lack of proportionality FPTP does not translate the number of votes into seats for each party with any real accuracy. The system favours parties whose vote is concentrated, rather than those whose support is spread across a large geographical area. A party may come second in a large number of seats, but FPTP does not reward this because only one candidate can win in each constituency. For example, UKIP won almost 3.9 million votes in 2015, but only one seat. By contrast the Scottish National Party replaced Labour as the largest party in Scotland, taking 56 out of 59 seats with 50 per cent of the vote, because it campaigned only in one part of the UK. FPTP does not reflect the fact that the number of people voting for the two largest parties has been in decline for some time. Between 1945 and 1970, on average ten MPs from smaller parties were elected in each Parliament. By 2015 that figure had risen to 87 MPs.

·      The winner's bonus The winning party under FPTP enjoys a share of the seats in excess of the share of the vote it receives. This occurs if a large number of seats are marginal between the two main parties. For example, in the elections of 1983 and 1987 Margaret Thatcher won majorities of 144 and 102 respectively, on 42 per cent of the vote. In the 2015 election the winner's bonus was much less marked, with David Cameron winning only a 12 seat majority, but there was still a mismatch between votes and seats. The Conservatives won 50.9 per cent of the seats with 36.9 per cent of the vote.

·      Limited voter choice FPTP limits the choice for voters in several ways. Each party puts forward a single candidate, so there is no choice between individuals representing different shades of opinion within the party. The prevalence of safe seats means that many voters have little hope of seeing their favoured candidate win. This can depress voter turnout, as people feel that there is no point in voting for a candidate who cannot hope to be elected. Alternatively, people may resort to tactical voting — voting not for their favourite but for the candidate most likely to prevent the party they dislike from winning. In 2015 a number of vote-swapping websites were set up. These enabled people living in constituencies where their vote would be wasted to swap with someone in an area where it would make a difference. This is not illegal (unless inducement or pressure is applied) but it does shed a light on the way that the UK's system of representative democracy works.

·      Votes are of unequal value In a small constituency a vote usually counts for more than it does in a larger one. Votes are said to be 'wasted' if they are cast for a losing candidate, or if they are cast for a winning candidate, in excess of the plurality needed for him or her to win. The Electoral Reform Society calculated that 74.4 per cent of votes cast in the 2015 election were wasted, compared to 71.1 per cent in 2010.

The rise of smaller parties like the Greens and Reform highlights another issue with first-past-the-post. Newer parties can gain popularity with voters but often lack the concentrated support needed to turn votes into seats. In the 2024 general election, for example, Reform needed 823,400 votes for each seat it won, while it only took 23,600 votes per seat for Labour.

The existence of safe and marginal seats means that voters’ influence varies across the country. Since a winning candidate only needs one more vote than their closest rival, any extra votes are essentially wasted. Likewise, all votes for losing candidates are also wasted. This perception of wasted votes can discourage people from voting if they feel it won’t impact the outcome. In contrast, voters in marginal seats find their votes carry more weight, as results there are often very close. In 2024, seven constituencies were decided by fewer than 100 votes.

FPTP produces another kind of distortion known as 'electoral deserts': areas of the country where one party cannot win seats. South-east England is an electoral desert for Labour. An area that is an electoral desert for one party may be described as a 'heartland' for its opponent. For example, north-east England, Merseyside and South Wales are Labour heartlands

Another symptom of Westminster’s electoral system are candidates winning with huge majorities – piling up votes far beyond the amount needed to claim victory. Though indicative of a party’s support in specific areas, such large winning majorities mean that thousands of votes have no effect on the overall outcome. These are 'wasted votes'

The problem is, under First Past the Post, huge portions of us end up without a representative that we actually voted for. In the 2024 General Election, 73.7% of votes cast made no difference to the result – either going to losing candidates or candidates who already had enough votes to win. 

Manifestos are designed with swing seats in mind – and parties spend most of their money campaigning in them.   In 2024, Labour avoided any suggestion of rejoining or even being closer to the EU since it was their Brexit constituencies which were more vulnerable.