National Commission on Electoral Reform
Cross-party Commission on the UK voting system announced by Andy Burnham in September 2026.
Andy Burnham launched the National Commission on Electoral Reform at Labour's Liverpool conference on 29 September 2026, inviting every party to join a review of how Britain votes; by early October it still had no chair, REMIT or timetable.
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UK Local Elections 2026Background
The National Commission on Electoral Reform is a cross-party body announced by Andy Burnham in September 2026 to consider changing the UK's voting system. Burnham invited every party to take part.
It is tied to Labour's pledge to fight the next general election on a commitment to electoral Reform. No REMIT, chair or timetable had been published by early October 2026, and no preferred system has been named.
Its nearest predecessor is the Independent Commission on the Voting System, chaired by Lord Jenkins, which reported in 1998 and recommended a mixed system known as AV-plus. That proposal was never put to voters. The only national vote on Westminster's system since, the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum, ended in a large No.
The commission starts without a chair
the Commission arrived with a manifesto promise attached. In the same speech on 29 September 2026, Burnham said Labour would go into the next election committed to changing the electoral system, though he did not say what should replace First past the post. Conference delegates went further, passing a show-of-hands motion for proportional representation at general elections.
The cross-party offer met an early refusal. Kemi Badenoch rejected the body in a PA Media interview on 2 October, accusing Burnham of pursuing Reform to keep the left in power. Campaigners were warmer: Unlock Democracy's Tom Brake welcomed the move. Without Conservative involvement, the Commission begins as a body of Reform-minded parties.