In an unusual and striking display of cross-party unity, City of York Council (CYC) publicly affirmed its support for proportional representation (PR) on 26 March. CYC members voted by an overwhelming margin of 38 to 2, in favour of a motion entitled ‘Fair votes for all’. The motion was proposed by the opposition Liberal Democrats and supported by the ruling Labour group.
This motion endorsed PR “as an essential element of a modern and democratic UK”. It called for the government to urgently establish a national commission on electoral reform, with clear terms of reference and a requirement to report in time for its recommendations to be implemented before the next general election. Deliberately framed in non-partisan terms, it supported the approach taken by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections, which is chaired by Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley.
The CYC motion requires party group leaders to write to the prime minister and the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, advocating for a national commission on electoral reform. They are also mandated to send copies of their letters to both of York’s MPs and to the mayor of York and North Yorkshire, all of whom are Labour politicians.
A local challenge to FPTP
Every Labour and Lib Dem councillor who was present supported the motion, with only two Conservatives voting against, demonstrating an emphatic cross-party consensus. This was the kind of cooperation that Make Votes Matter and Compass campaigners had pushed for in the run up to the vote.
Labour presently holds a majority of just one seat on the council and, in view of the longstanding rivalry between Labour and Lib Dems for control of the council, this vote represents a remarkable step towards a more collaborative political environment.
It is also a significant moment for the Labour movement’s ongoing campaign for electoral reform: it is the first time since the 2024 general election that a local council has publicly endorsed changing our first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system. And it’s a direct challenge to the government’s current resistance to PR.
The prime minister has previously stated that electoral reform is ‘not a priority’, focusing instead on other issues like the cost of living and ‘democratic renewal’ However, it is widely argued that such renewal depends on moving to an electoral system that closely matches seats won to votes cast.
Handing future elections to the far right?
York’s decisive cross-party vote for proportional representation has helped reignite the ‘fair votes’ debate among Labour councillors.
FPTP produces highly unpredictable and unrepresentative results, that split the vote between five or six parties. In 2024, it delivered an overwhelming majority of MPs for Labour – 411 out of 650 seats (63.2%) – on just 33.7% of the popular vote. This apparent ‘landslide’ was extremely fragile, with Labour support spread broadly but quite thinly, and it’s clear that FPTP could just as readily enable right-wing Reform UK Limited – especially should it unite with the Conservatives – to win power on a similarly small vote share.
Moreover, it’s conceivable that even with less than 30% support for Reform UK (as suggested by recent polls), FPTP could still give it a House of Commons majority to govern alone.
At a time when recent polling shows Labour’s support dropping to record lows, could projections like these encourage the Parliamentary Labour Party to recognise the potentially disastrous consequences of FPTP? A Reform UK win would mean the destruction of what positive legacies Labour has so far built.
A way to increase pressure for electoral reform
Against this background, the representation of the people bill is currently making its way through parliament. While the government has stated that the bill aims to “restore trust in our democracy”, we argue that FPTP contributes to voters’ distrust and alienation. ‘Democratic renewal’ depends on creating a truly fair, inclusive and representative democracy in which everyone’s vote carries equal value and effective power.
Could the City of York trigger more widespread action to promote electoral reform? Campaign Groups Compass and Make Votes Matter believe that, with York’s council having voted so decisively for PR, a process could be set in motion to influence the government to think again.
If, inspired by York’s example, other local councils are encouraged to stage their own cross-party pro-PR motions, public momentum for change will build, increasing pressure on local MPs and the government to examine the performance of FPTP, and to set up a national commission to recommend an alternative voting system for UK general elections and English local elections. (It should be noted that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already have different forms of PR for their devolved elections).
In York, liaison with Labour-facing groups such as the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform and Labour for a New Democracy contributed to the effective lobbying of Labour councillors. This was accompanied by a targeted letter-writing campaign by individuals asking councillors to come together in non-partisan cooperation.
Compass and Make Votes Matter argue that this kind of cross-party action is the only viable route to achieving PR in the UK, less as a ‘tactic’ than as a complete ‘culture shift’. As the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections recognises, a commitment to work together for shared goals is not only the means of achieving ‘fair votes’ for all parties and every voter but also raises hope for the collaborative politics we need to see once PR is achieved.
This article is revised from a previous version as published in Left Foot Forward.
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