Tories plan to rig local elections with change from proportional representation to FPTP
The Conservatives are planning to make it easier for them to win local elections by changing the voting system to make it less representative.
Currently, elections for Combined Authority mayors, the mayor of London and police and crime commissioners are carrried out using a version of proportional representation which takes into account the preferences of people whose first choices do not have the highest number of votes.
Two candidates go through to the second round if no one gets more than 50 per cent of the primary vote.
A winner is then chosen from the remaining two by taking preferences into account from the voters who chose eliminated candidates as their first preference.
This means that everybody’s vote helps to influence the result – but the Conservatives lose out.
That’s why they want to change the system to FPTP – “First Past The Post” – in which the party winning the most votes in a single round of voting wins the election, even if it doesn’t have the support of a majority of the people.
Priti Patel announcing the plan to change the system, lied that the British people had rejected proportional representation in a referendum in 2011.
She was wrong. The public endorsed FPTP only for general elections, because the referendum was focused only on them.
The intention is clear: the Tories are going to rig local elections to ensure that they have the best chance of winning.
The London School of Economics has warned that the change could wipe out the accountability of a London mayor (for example) by removing small parties like the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party from the London Assembly, which holds the mayor to account.
And London Labour warned,
For the Tory Government to impose a change to the electoral system without first asking the views of Londoners in a follow-up referendum demonstrates their breathtaking arrogance and their utter disdain for devolution.
Fortunately for democracy, any change to electoral systems will have to be approved by Parliament via legislation, and this cannot happen before the local elections – including the London mayoral election – on May 6 this year.
Just watch how quickly the Tories try to impose the change if they lose that election!
Source: Government plans to change London mayor elections to First Past the Post : CityAM
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
The public never got a chance to “reject” PR because it wasn’t mentioned in the 2011 referendum. We were only asked if we wanted alternative vote System. I know quite a few people who rejected that as they wanted PR, not AVS. So of course Patel is lying, as usual.
That would stop small parties of both left and right from having any political influence at all, as they could never get enough voters to get in. As those who wanted to keep out the left would have to vote Conservative whilst those who wanted to keep out the right would have to vote Labour.