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Summary How does the FPTP system work and the disproportional results it creates
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A one page summary of the UK's electoral system
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'Explain how the First Past the Post system works and why it tends to lead todisproportional outcomes'.
First Past the Post (FPTP) is the voting system operated in all the constituencies of the UK for
general elections and by-elections. Each eligible member of the electorate is entitled to one
vote. The defining feature of FPTP is that a candidate is elected if they obtain a simple
plurality. This means that they only require a single vote more than the second most
popular candidate in order to become an MP. Due to this, it is not uncommon for MPs to
lack a majority (50% of votes).
FPTP comes under criticism as it most likely will not produce a set of MPs that truly
represents the preferences of the electorate. The house of commons only contains MPs
who only represent a percentage, and often a minority, of their constituency. Consequently,
voters who support the opposition in a constituency are not represented by anyone. For
example, in the 2015 election a conservative MP was elected in Watford by 43.5% of the
voters. This meant that the majority (56.5%) of Watford’s voters who voted for other
candidates had no representation in parliament. When this kind of abnormality is repeated
in several constituencies, disproportionate outcomes can be produced on a national scale.
In the 2015 general election, the perceived popularity of different political parties was
distorted by FPTP. In several cases the difference between the numbers of votes was greatly
enlarged. For example, the conservatives only achieved 6 percentage points more votes
than labour, yet they won 15% of seats in the House of Commons more than labour. This
was due to the distribution of party supporters being in the favour of the conservatives.
Another example of disproportionate results is UKIPs vast underrepresentation in
parliament. Despite winning 12.6% of the country’s votes the party obtained just one seat
(0.2%). In this scenario it can be argued that FPTP does not allow representative democracy
to function correctly and completely. The lack of official political recognition of the third
most popular party was followed by a sentiment of anger towards the injustice from UKIP
supporters. A flaw in FPTP was exposed and direct democracy in the form of the Brexit
referendum was called upon to fill the gap.
FPTP favours larger parties and parties with concentrated support and hinders smaller
parties and parties with voters more evenly spread across constituencies. In a time where
people’s political needs were strongly linked to where they lived, when political preferences
within a constituency were more homogenous FPTP may have worked better. An advantage
of the system is that each area has their own representative in parliament to push their
demands. However, in a more modern society where demographics are more significant
than locality in determining political preference the FPTP system no longer seems as useful.
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