Congratulations to Laura Trott on her re-election as our MP. It was a

considerable achievement on a disastrous night for the Conservatives.

Her vote share was down significantly, however. In 2019 it was 61%; this time

it was only 37%. She still won because of our unfair electoral system, which

meant that the other 63% counted for nothing.

And this was not an isolated case. Right across the country, the results of the

election often failed to reflect the way people voted. Labour won far more

seats than they would have done with proportional representation, for

example. At the other end of the scale the Green party have just four MPs, or

less than 1% of the total, despite winning 7% of the national vote.

We clearly need something fairer than first-past-the-post. Unfortunately,

successive governments haven’t wanted to get rid of a system that brought

them to power. Senior Labour figures are already ruling out any changes on

their watch, even though the party has recently been in favour of PR.

The Conservatives have ended up with 121 seats in the House of Commons,

including Sevenoaks. But with a different allocation – one that reflected their

share of the vote – that total would be 156. The number of Labour MPs would

be halved.

Perhaps then it’s time for Laura Trott and her colleagues to think again about

their longstanding reluctance to change first-past-the-post. A new system

could benefit them in future – and help to restore faith in politics.

Paul Wharton

Source: Sevenoaks Chronicle (p.10), 11/7/24

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