22OCT

Burnham pledges to change voting system

3 min read

16:26UTC

Andy Burnham told Labour conference on 29 September that the next manifesto will commit to a new electoral system, and announced a cross-party commission to design it.

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Key takeaway

Labour will fight the next election promising to replace First past the post.

Andy Burnham told Labour Party conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour will "contest the next election with a manifesto commitment to change the electoral system so that everyone's vote counts and everyone's voice is heard"⁠¹. He announced a National Commission on Electoral Reform and invited every party to join it; no remit or chair has been published. He did not name proportional representation (PR), under which seats follow vote share, or any other system. First past the post (FPTP), he argued, lets a movement enter government "on less than 30 per cent of the vote", close to Reform UK's current standing.

The hall went further than the platform. Delegates passed, on a show of hands, a motion that Labour "must make a commitment to introduce proportional representation for general elections in the next manifesto". Tom Brake of Unlock Democracy, which campaigns for voting Reform, said FPTP "bakes in volatility".

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, rejected the commission outright in a PA Media interview on 2 October, ahead of the Conservative Party conference, accusing Burnham of using Reform that could lead to PR to "lock in the left"⁠².

The pledge binds a future Parliament, not this one. Any change Labour makes would come after a general election fought under FPTP, and the Government's own elections bill touches neither the voting system nor the size of a donation. Parliament has already taken one set of elections off FPTP this year: in April it restored the Supplementary Vote for English mayors and police and crime commissioners.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Britain elects MPs by First past the post: in each constituency, the candidate with the most votes wins, even with well under half. A party can win most seats with a minority of the national vote. Proportional representation is a family of systems in which a party's share of seats roughly matches its share of votes. Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister and Labour leader, says Labour will promise to change the system at the next election. He has set up a commission to look at options and invited every party to join. The Conservatives say no.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

First past the post rewards the largest party in each seat, which worked as a two-party filter while two parties shared most of the vote. With five parties winning seats in England, small swings now produce large and unpredictable seat changes.

The 2011 referendum on the alternative vote set a convention that Westminster's voting system changes only with a popular vote. That convention is political, not legal, so a commission can recommend but a referendum would decide.

Burnham was also answering his own conference in Liverpool. Delegates passed a motion demanding a proportional representation pledge, so the commission lets the leadership accept Reform in principle while keeping the design open.

What could happen next?

Meaning
Labour is now committed to change in principle, but without a named system its pledge can still be met by a commission report alone.
Medium term · Assessed
Consequence
With the Conservatives refusing to take part, the commission starts without the main opposition party, weakening any claim to cross-party consensus.
Short term · Assessed
Risk
A referendum on a specific system could fail as the 2011 vote on the alternative vote did, closing the question for another generation.
Long term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: Labour's 1997 manifesto promised a referendum on the Commons voting system, and Lord Jenkins's commission recommended a hybrid called AV-plus in 1998. Tony Blair's government shelved the report, and no referendum followed.

Counter-parallel: New Zealand set up a Royal Commission on the Electoral System in 1985, which recommended mixed-member proportional voting. Referendums in 1992 and 1993 adopted it, and the country first voted under it in 1996.

Immediate: a national commission and any later referendum carry public costs, but none has been set out, and no remit or budget has been published.

Structural: in countries such as Germany and New Zealand, proportional voting usually produces coalition governments that agree budgets between parties. Fiscal plans would rest on deals between parties after each election rather than on one party's manifesto, a shift investors and business groups watch for its effect on policy stability.

Consensus view: Tom Brake of Unlock Democracy, the campaign group for constitutional Reform, said First past the post 'bakes in volatility'. Reformers read Burnham's own line, that the system lets a movement govern 'on less than 30 per cent of the vote', as a case against a Reform UK majority built on a minority of votes.

Counter-view: Kemi Badenoch, for the Conservatives, called the commission an attempt to 'lock in the left'. Her objection is mechanical: proportional systems tend to produce coalitions, and she reads a cross-party commission as a route to a standing alliance of centre-left parties.

Key tension: Whether a pledge made before the system is chosen can survive the referendum that both main parties have treated as the price of change since 2011.

First Reported In

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Brussels Signal· 7 Oct 2026

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Causes and effects

This Event

Burnham pledges to change voting system

A governing party has promised to end first past the post at Westminster, though any change would follow an election fought under it.

Led to

Labour holds Holborn as Greens close in

Burnham's voting-system pledge came a week before polling day.

Occurred 8 Oct 2026

Read story →

Different Perspectives

Scottish National Party / John Swinney

Swinney told the SNP conference in Aberdeen on 17 October that Scotland is ready for independence, but set no referendum date, bill or Section 30 request. He launched a new campaign instead and extended the £2 bus fare cap to the north east from April 2027.

Liberal Democrats / Ed Davey

Davey ruled out a national partnership with the Greens on 19 October after their Brighton conference passed a "Zionism is racism" motion, and wrote to two Jewish community bodies. He left untouched the councils the two parties already run together.

Reform UK / Richard Tice

Tice alleged ITV's reporter used false details to get a press-office job and said ITV had "likely broken the law", telling members not to speak to it until it apologises. Reform also opened investigations into members, with some suspensions, so the party is contesting the broadcaster and disciplining councillors at once.

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.