Skip to main content
We need a new movement as much as a new voting system
There are strong arguments in favour of proportional representation, argues NICK WRIGHT, but any left-wing government relies on a committed set of MPs and a mass movement in support of change outside of Parliament above all else
The lessons of history are that Labour has a chance of forming a radically reforming government only when the working class and its allies are mobilised and united — and when the mass popular mood acts as a brake on the tendency of the right to side with the class enemy

THE letters page of the Morning Star features an interesting exchange between proponents of a proportional representation (PR) system for elections and those who favour continuing with Britain’s first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.

A politically respectable argument for FPTP is that it provides the best chance for a majority Labour government.

Its supporters argue that PR leads to coalition government with the progressive tendency always at the mercy of its least progressive component.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Jeremy Corbyn
Your Party / 2 December 2025
2 December 2025

Your Party can become an antidote to Reform UK – but only by rooting itself in communities up and down the country, says CLAUDIA WEBBE

RIGHT ANGER, WRONG ANSWER: Faversham’s small anti-migrant demo assembles, Sunday October 5 2025
Features / 9 October 2025
9 October 2025

Once again, our broad-based coalition outnumbered the anti-migrant protest in Faversham, but tackling the sentiment behind this wave of anger requires explaining the real reasons pushing millions into leaving their homelands, argues NICK WRIGHT

Guillaume Périgois
Politics / 14 August 2025
14 August 2025

Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT

A ballot box arriving during the count for the Blackpool South by-election at Blackpool Sports Centre, Blackpool, May 2, 2024
Features / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

In the run-up to the Communist Party congress in November ROB GRIFFITHS outlines a few ideas regarding its participation in the elections of May 2026