A meeting of the Conservative-controlled North Yorkshire County Council’s (NYCC) executive on Tuesday 7 February saw councillors refusing to support a proposal calling on the government to introduce proportional representation (PR) for all future general, local and mayoral elections.
Call for proportional representation
One Conservative executive member branded the debate as “political posturing” and “peripheral” to the concerns of the public in North Yorkshire who wanted councillors to be making decisions on housing, health and social care, not PR.
What the Conservative council refused to address is the fact that, because of our First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system, the executive members who make those vital local decisions on housing, health and social care, do not have the backing of the majority of their electorate.
In last year’s local elections to NYCC, which will also serve as first elections for the newly created North Yorkshire Council when it comes into place in April 2023, the Conservatives won just 41% of the popular vote. The combined Labour, Lib Dem, Green and Independent vote share represents 58%, a majority of the voting public in North Yorkshire. Since then there has been a by-election that the Conservatives soundly lost. They now are now claiming the right to all the power on the basis of receiving 40% of the popular vote but holding 46 out of the 90 seats.
FPTP: winner takes all
Despite obtaining less than the majority of the votes, our FPTP system means that the Conservatives obtained control of the council, with 47 out of 90 seats (52% of the councillors). The remaining parties are therefore locked out of meaningful involvement in decisions being taken by the council, even though these parties collectively received more votes.
With these figures it is clear that the Conservative executive of NYCC do not have a proper democratic mandate from the people of North Yorkshire, so why are they entitled to make decisions single-handedly on all our behalf?
A fair system would see the parties represented on the council in the proportion that people voted for them. A 41% vote share would have given the Conservatives 37 of the 90 seats, the rest being shared between the other parties, consistent with their 58% vote share. The executive members of the council would have to work cross-party to make decisions that legitimately reflect the views and interests of its electorate.
Tyranny of the minority
Like countless other councils across the country, we’re being forced to endure a tyranny of the minority, but when we propose a solution to break this log jam, it is dismissed as peripheral to the real issues of the day.
There is a growing awareness of this dilemma in the country.
Polling by Compass in 2022 showed support for voting reform among the public has hit a record high, with 56% now backing a change to the UK’s FPTP voting system. The public has also lost faith in our voting system, with 62% saying it doesn’t provide strong and stable government.
People across the country struggle to engage with politics and feel like their voices aren’t being heard. Our winner-takes-all voting system plays a huge role in that by shutting out views that should be represented and by closing off debate.
Unstable or unrepresentative?
Predictably those in favour of FPTP at the executive meeting ran the argument that PR could lead to unstable coalition governments – but failed to mention that two of the last four general elections under the FPTP voting system have produced ‘hung’ parliaments, with five prime ministers since 2016 and 3 during 2022 alone.
It is no surprise that the Conservatives are so keen to defend our unfair voting system, since they’re the ones who most benefit from it. FPTP has kept the Tories in power for two-thirds of the past century, although they’ve never gained a majority of the total votes cast in any general election since 1931.
Time and time again, more people vote for progressive parties, but because their votes are split, they get unrepresentative Conservative governments and/or administrations. In 2019, the Tories won a landslide 80 seat majority in the general election, on just 43.6% of the vote share.
A representative system is needed
By dismissing the PR submission, Conservative councillors are ignoring the bigger picture: it is only going to be by changing our dysfunctional voting system and political culture can we build a democracy that truly represents all of us, and help restore trust in the political process.
Those of us in Compass know that no one organisation or political party can achieve the society we need single-handedly, and that a new politics is needed, in which all parties work together to take on the huge challenges the country faces: the climate and cost of living crises, housing, social care, technological shifts and much more.
Compass: progressives building consensus
There are clear local signs of a concerted opposition push back against Conservative dominance on NYCC.
In the recent Masham and Fountains by-election, the Green candidate didn’t stand. The by-election became a choice between Lib Dems and Conservatives, with 62.7% of those voting backing the Lib Dem candidate, enabling the Lib Dems to take a council seat from the Conservatives, which further reduced the NYCC’s overall Conservative majority to just two. The combined opposition now holds 44 seats against 46 for the ruling Conservatives.
All progressives can share in this victory. When one wins, we all win.
As candidates, activists, and citizens, people in Compass will be using their activism, resources, to promote the message of ‘Win As One’.
It is open to everyone that wants to work together to secure a progressive majority for change.
- Build trusted cross-party relations to reduce competition between progressive parties
- Back candidates in favour of real political reform, in the shape of PR
- Create a movement of campaigners and activists on the ground
- Maximise the number of votes going to progressive candidates who can win and who want to change the system.
Come and join us.
