The recent City of York Council by-election in Heworth Ward delivered one truly encouraging headline: that nearly 75% of those who voted on 15 January – whether for Labour, Greens or Liberal Democrats – supported progressive party candidates, and so resoundingly rejected Reform UK’s divisive message.
Put another way, 3 out of 4 voters in Heworth obviously do not want Reform to represent them. That aspect of this result can be celebrated by all Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters together.
Progressive parties can’t afford to be complacent
Congratulations are due to Anna Perrett, Labour’s successful candidate on her election to City of York Council. Yet it should be genuinely sobering that Labour held this seat with only 36.7% of the votes cast.
When several candidates, and there were six in this contest, stand for a single vacancy, our first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system distorts public opinion by enabling winners to be elected with a minority of votes. In Heworth, this failed to deliver a truly democratic outcome that reflects the diversity and pluralism of the electorate.
As relative newcomers who haven’t previously stood for election in Heworth, Reform still won a 20% share of votes and narrowly took second place. This should ring alarm bells and means that, under FPTP, and in a ward with a less well-established progressive party, we could have seen a very different result.
Greens and Liberal Democrats will celebrate their increased vote shares, largely at Labour’s expense, but in wards with weaker incumbent parties and slimmer margins of victory, the risk of divided progressive votes remains real, potentially enabling unrepresentative Reform candidates to win by default.
Why strategic progressive co-operation is needed to defeat Reform
As we and many other campaign groups have pointed out, Reform’s divisive, anti-migration, anti-human rights rhetoric threatens to tear communities apart, while its cost and waste-cutting promises have proved empty for the councils it now controls.
We remain consistent in arguing that, under our dysfunctional FPTP electoral system, lack of strategic co-operation between progressives risks vote-splitting, so giving Reform the chance to win swathes of seats despite only minority support.
Compass York and North Yorkshire was not in a position to make any recommendation for tactical voting in this by-election, but we trust that sensible discussions might lead to informal tactical understandings amongst York’s progressive parties in future.
While this does not necessarily mean any party being asked to stand aside, voters need progressives to work collaboratively and pragmatically where possible around those goals and priorities they share. Campaigning strategically by focusing their efforts where they can realistically win is more constructive than aiming pointless tribal attacks at each other and risking counter-productive vote-splitting.
Heworth: a missed opportunity
This by-election was a lost opportunity to offer a united message of hope against the divisive politics of Reform. In these times of exacerbated social and political polarisation, responsible local politicians – in all parties and none – should put community resilience and social cohesion before their party’s, or their own, political advantage. This, of course, calls for a different kind of political culture and practice.
We therefore deeply regret that York’s leading progressive parties – whether Labour, Lib Dems or Greens – appear not to fully appreciate the real risk that Reform poses to the UK’s increasingly fragile and failing democracy, or the need for a concerted progressive response.
In our recent Heworth street actions, we asked local voters what they thought about last Thursday’s by-election and the candidates competing to be their new ward councillor. We found that many had not understood the risk of split progressive voting and its possible outcomes. Many also told us that they wanted to see Reform defeated but were unsure which of the progressive candidates it would be tactically most effective to vote for.
Keeping up the pressure
We will continue our discussions with elected representatives and local political parties, as well as the wider public, because we remain convinced that strategic co-operation to prevent a wave of Reform wins across York and North Yorkshire will prove necessary for some time to come. The next City of York and North Yorkshire Council elections and the Combined Authority Mayoral election are due in May 2027, with a general election in 2028/29.
In view of the increasing fragmentation and volatility of British politics, we are confident that Compass’s appeal for progressive parties to engage constructively with each other will become a growing popular demand to political leaders everywhere. And we are encouraged that growing numbers of voters are realising the serious risk that Reform could gain virtually unlimited power on a small minority share of the vote.
Making the democratic case for proportional representation
Alongside our advocacy for strategic progressive co-operation, we also plan to work even more closely with Make Votes Matter and other cross-party allies to step up our campaign for proportional representation. This crucially important democratic reform needs to be introduced as an urgent priority, while there’s still time before the next General Election, so that all votes would then count equally, wherever and for whoever they are cast, and tactical voting would no longer be needed.
The UK deserves a properly democratic electoral system which does not force voters to choose between voting for a party they really support or for a different party that seems best placed to defeat their worst nightmare.
We must demand a fully representative and proportional system which fairly reflects the UK’s political diversity by ensuring that all parties, including Reform, gain representation in proportion to the share of votes they receive. This change would also prevent a party with minority support gaining disproportionate power, and would stop election outcomes being decided by small numbers of swing voters in marginal seats while those in safe seats are ignored.
We therefore need fundamental electoral reform to upgrade and revive our democracy and to help restore people’s trust in politics.
What can be done right now?
The current government could take a useful first step by using the opportunity offered by the upcoming elections bill to set up a national commission on electoral reform, as called for by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections.
Such a commission could examine the options for voting system reform, initiate an inclusive public consultation process and start building the broadest possible consensus behind a preferred system to replace FPTP. It should then bring forward clear proposals in time for implementation before the next general election.
Meanwhile, all our political leaders need to acknowledge the values and priorities they hold in common as a route towards starting to work together for the wider public good. That’s where real hope lies for a more collaborative, democratic and pluralist future.
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