In his speech to the 2026 Labour party conference, prime minister Andy Burnham said: “Conference, in past years you have voted twice to support electoral reform. I hear you, I agree with you and today I am announcing a new national commission on electoral reform. I invite all the political parties to be part of its work. We 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.”
That sounds like a commitment to electoral reform. However, we have heard such talk before: is creating an electoral commission really just a smoke screen for keeping the status quo? There is no doubting Andy Burnham’s personal commitment to PR, and the Labour Party itself is now clearly serious about reforming the electoral system, but is that enough to make change happen? Political history shows that periodic drives to move away from the current constituency system often falter as crunch time approaches.
We’ve been here before – the Jenkins Commission
In 1997, prime minister Tony Blair’s newly-elected Labour government established the Jenkins Commission (The Independent Commission on the Voting System), chaired by the former Labour cabinet minister Roy Jenkins. It was tasked with finding an alternative to the First-past-the-post (FPTP) system for UK general elections. The commission’s 1998 report proposed the AV+ (Alternative Vote top-up) system, whereby most MPs would be elected by the alternative vote, with a small number of additional members elected from party lists. The report was never voted on and, despite Labour’s manifesto commitment to hold a referendum on alternatives to FPTP, it was effectively shelved.
The 2010 general election resulted in a hung parliament, with the Liberal Democrats opting for a coalition with the Conservatives in return for a referendum on AV (but not AV+). AV is a preferential voting system, which ranks candidates in order of preference. It is NOT a system of Proportional Representation (PR), which aims to align vote percentage with seat distribution. When the referendum was held in 2011, the Conservatives supported a ‘No’ vote, the Liberal Democrats a ‘Yes’ vote, and Labour took no official stance. Voter turnout was less than 42%, and AV was rejected decisively by a 68% majority.
Labour unites behind electoral reform
In 2022, the Labour Party Conference voted for a manifesto commitment to PR for general elections. This was built upon in 2023, when the National Policy Forum and Conference voted and adopted a policy which recognised that “the flaws in the current voting system are contributing to the distrust and alienation we see in politics”. Now, in 2026, Andy Burnham says he agrees with these votes, and therefore with the wider Labour Party’s position. Does that mean electoral reform is going to happen?
As a first step, Burnham has announced a new national commission on electoral reform and a manifesto commitment“ to change the electoral system, so that everyone’s vote counts and everyone’s voice is heard”. That sounds positive, but for those of us who lived through the Jenkins Commission, it also rings alarm bells: is setting up another commission actually the kiss of death for electoral reform? Why should Burnham’s be any different from the Jenkins Commission? Is it just a way of placating Labour supporters, with no real intention of implementing radical change?
Just another electoral commission?
No. This time it’s different. Andy Burnham has a long-standing, personal commitment to electoral reform. He started publicly supporting it after his first victory in the Manchester Mayoral election in 2017, held under the supplementary vote (SV) system. Referring to PR in 2021, he said he had “come round to it”, and that FPTP “breeds resentment by failing to represent voters”. He supported the Labour party backing for PR in 2022, writing that “First-past-the-post, combined with the whip system, takes the votes of millions and turns them into inordinate power for a small Whitehall elite.”
Quoted in The Guardian in 2023, Burnham said: “I don’t believe all people in all places will be equally represented in Westminster until every vote matters”. Following the 2024 general election, he called for a review of FPTP saying “why not launch a review of the voting system for the House of Commons? Why not consider carefully whether proportional representation has the support of the country?”. And at the Compass Conference and the Labour Conference in 2025, Burnham explicitly called for PR, saying that “There is nothing more unstoppable than an idea whose time has come, and PR’s time has come”.
PR in opposition, but FPTP in power?
Parties with large parliamentary majorities are the primary beneficiaries of FPTP, so the incentive to change the rules that put them in power is almost non-existent. A governing party with a large, secure majority has never voluntarily moved away from FPTP in UK parliamentary history. In the 2024 general election, Reform UK won 14.3% of the vote, making them the third largest party, but returned only 5 MPs (0.8%). However, Labour returned a massive 411 MPs (63.2%) with 33.7% of the vote. According to the Electoral Reform Society, the 2024 general election had the most disproportionate outcome in UK electoral history.
Conversely, opposition parties aggrieved at the unfairness of FPTP often commit to electoral reform, arguing it would be good for the country and good for democracy. It was a founding principle of the Social Democratic Party in 1981, who proved their point when they won 25.4% of the total vote but returned only 23 MPs, while Labour finished up with 209 MPs on 27.6%. Yet when in power, as beneficiaries of FPTP, commitment to a fairer system often dissolves, as self-interest in party survival overcomes earlier altruism. So why would Labour, elected with a massive majority, be any different?
PR’s time has come
Perhaps driven by decades in opposition, the Labour party is now overwhelmingly in support of electoral reform, despite having a commanding majority in parliament. Meanwhile, the old two-party political system has been replaced by a much more fragmented, five-party landscape, all of which, bar the Conservatives, are against FPTP. Burnham’s personal experience of working in a fairer voting system as Mayor of Greater Manchester, and his commitment to changing the way politics is conducted, could make this the best opportunity yet for UK electoral reform. It’s just possible that PR’s time really has come.
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