The Guardian view on Labour and PR: fix a flawed system | Editorial

When running to be Labour leader, Keir Starmer pledged a constitutional convention and to look at reform of the voting system. He should keep his promise

Britain is the only major country in Europe where parliamentary seats won at a general election are not shared out between the parties in a proportional manner. Any vote not used to win a seat is, in effect, wasted. First past the post" does offer ideological clarity and accountability. But this is at the expense of representation. All this contributes to the cynicism and disaffection felt for politics, and a dangerous sense that British voters have too little sway over those who govern them.

Brexit was built on such discontents and there is widespread agreement that, in the future, power ought to be redistributed more fairly. The question is less what to do than how to do it. To build a better society we need a better politics. The present electoral system shows no sign of delivering this. Instead it reinforces a Labour-Tory duopoly, shuts out smaller parties and rewards nationalist ones - because votes piled up in one area are easier to convert into seats than those that are thinly spread.