The writer is professor of politics at Queen Mary University London and co-author of ‘The British General Election of 2024’
Excitement among advocates of electoral reform has been building, buoyed up by the possibility that Andy Burnham may take over as UK prime minister. This is understandable — he’s an enthusiast too, and the fracturing of our party politics makes it look inevitable — but they shouldn’t get ahead of themselves. For good or ill, anyone hoping to see a shift from first past the post to proportional representation before the next general election, and without a referendum, is fooling themselves.
Burnham’s support for electoral reform is seemingly genuine. At last year’s Labour Party conference he told a rally: “There is nothing more unstoppable than an idea whose time has come — and PR’s time has come.” Last week, he confirmed that he was “committed to proportional representation”, being unable to see how “first past the post and the point-scoring inherent within it lifts Britain out of the doom loop it is in”.