Il sostegno alla rappresentanza proporzionale è caduto tra gli elettori del Reform UK

Key takeaways

• By 45% to 25%, Britons tend to prefer proportional representation (PR) over first past the post for UK general elections

• Majorities of Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters back PR, as do 45% of Reform UK voters

• Support for retaining FPTP among Reform UK voters has risen from 17% to 31% since January last year

*For many years, one of the most prominent advocates for proportional representation (PR) in Britain was Nigel Farage, whose parties have historically been significantly underrepresented in parliament.*

*At the 2024 election, for instance, Reform UK won less than 1% of seats despite winning 14% of the vote, as part of what was then the most disproportional general election result in British history.*

*But with voting intention polls over the last year showing clear Reform UK leads, it is likely that our current first past the post system (FPTP) would cease to be a disadvantage for the party: YouGov’s MRP in September projected Reform could win 48% of seats on just 27% of the vote. This has led to some in the party dropping their support for electoral reform.*

i would bet good money the number of people who could not give an approximate explaination of either system would be close to 70%

That’s officially what the titular “Reform” is right?

Don’t want it now they’ve got a shot at the required amount to gain power?

I’d love to know the sentiment towards authoritarian leadership amongst Reform voters generally and then amongst those who don’t prefer PR.

This isn’t to say that everyone against PR wants authoritarianism, that’s absurd. It’s just that in the past I remember reading some studies about personality traits, political leanings and beliefs that tend to be more common amongst those who are pro-authoritarianism. And I think it’s super important to have an eye on those things and their prevalence in society.

Lest we end up more like America.

Imo, more now than ever, things like Sociology are so important.

Well, that’s predictable. Unfortunately a lot of “principles” that people claim to espouse are really just based on naked self-interest. Think about, say, radical libertarians who want to slash taxes and cut welfare – that’s really just because they stand to benefit.

And for a party like Reform, whose only real ideology is hollow populist xenophobia and social conservatism, that’s even more apparent. For the likes of Nigel Farage, their only real criticism of FPTP was that it prevented them from holding power and enacting their agenda. 

Now that Reform are, by some polls, the most popular political party, it stands to benefit the most from FPTP, and so the complaints of its members and leadership have evaporated.

On a different note, rather than “pure” proportional representation, I’d instead advocate for the [Single Transferable Vote](https://electoral-reform.org.uk/voting-systems/types-of-voting-system/single-transferable-vote/) or STV. It uses multi-member constituencies and balances proportionality with direct local representation and voter choice, and is favoured by the Electoral Reform Society.

I’d like ranked preference voting. I’d rank Nigel’s parties dead last.