Jenkins Commission
Independent Commission on the Voting System, which recommended AV-plus in 1998.
Andy Burnham's 29 September 2026 promise of a new Commons voting system, with a National Commission on Electoral Reform still lacking a chair or REMIT, revives the Jenkins Commission as the last Labour-era inquiry into replacing First past the post.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Jenkins Commission
Recommended AV-plus in 1998; report shelved
UK Local Elections 2026: Mentioned in: Burnham pledges to change voting systemMentioned in: John Major questions first past the post
UK Local Elections 2026Background
The Independent Commission on the Voting System was set up in December 1997 under Roy Jenkins, with Liberal Democrat backing, to give effect to a Labour manifesto promise of a referendum on how MPs are elected.
Its REMIT weighed broad proportionality, stable government, voter choice and the link between MPs and constituencies. The 1998 report proposed AV-plus: most MPs chosen by the alternative vote in single-member seats, with a smaller number added from lists.
Tony Blair's government shelved the report and held no referendum. That outcome makes it the cautionary case for any Labour Commission on electoral Reform, set against New Zealand's royal Commission of 1985, whose proposal voters adopted.
A shelved report gains a successor
the Commission's AV-plus design never went before voters. Labour had offered a referendum in its 1997 manifesto, but once the report arrived in 1998 ministers filed it away.
On 29 September 2026 Burnham told Labour's conference that the next manifesto would commit the party to changing the system, and announced a fresh National Commission on Electoral Reform. That body had no published terms and no chair, and Burnham gave no hint of the system he preferred. The Jenkins record sets the bar it has to clear: a recommendation ministers can bury unless a referendum follows, as one did in New Zealand after its own royal Commission reported in 1986.