The vote share of the winning party in UK general elections has been in steady decline since the 1930s. In last year’s election Labour plumbed new depths thanks to the FPTP system, winning 33.7% of votes but 63.2% of seats.

Lib Dems take concerns over FPTP to Dollimore

The fact that the mayoral elections next May will be based on the first-past-the-post system has attracted widespread criticism, including most recently from local Liberal Democrats, who wonder just how low the support for the successful candidate could be. When they took their concerns to Hastings & Rye MP Helena Dollimore, she accepted the point in principle. Nick Terdre reports, research and graphic by Russell Hall.

In May next year the inaugural election is due to be held for the mayor of Sussex, including East and West Sussex and Brighton & Hove.

“The government makes clear this will be a powerful new role with strategic responsibility for planning, transport etc,” Liberal Democrat councillor for Rother District Council Andrew Mier told HOT. “So you would think the Labour government would want the victor to have the support of a majority of those voting? Not so. The election will be run on the discredited First Past the Post System.”

When, as now, there are several parties with high levels of support, FPTP produces bizarre results, he said. “The West of England Mayor was recently elected on just 25% of votes cast. Combined with a low turnout (the turnout for the Police & Crime Commissioner election in 2012 brought out just 12% of voters), then the proportion of the electorate supporting the new Mayor may be under 4%.”

He acknowledged that the Labour government agrees the system is unrepresentative and has introduced the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill which stipulates the use of supplementary voting, involving the counting of second choices until one candidate has 51%, for future mayoral elections. But he criticised both the government and local MP Helena Dollimore for not delaying next year’s election.

“That bill won’t be law in time for 2026, but the government and Helena Dollimore MP won’t hold back our election for Sussex Mayor.”

When he raised the matter with Ms Dollimore, who was appointed a parliamentary private secretary to the Treasury in last week’s reshuffle, she agreed with the point about the voting system but argued that the parliamentary process needed to be properly followed. “The parliamentary scheduling has been very tricky in this situation as we must ensure that this legislation receives the proper parliamentary scrutiny before becoming law,” she wrote. However, she reassured him that “I support the supplementary vote system in principle for mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections.”

She also explained why she wanted to see the end of the two-tier system of local government, as is due to happen under the devolution process. “I believe it is vital that we reform the structure of our local government as soon as possible,” she wrote, adding that she had experienced “absurd situations” when dealing with the two-tier system, which “makes no sense for anyone and just leads to inefficiency.”

Mier told HOT that in Europe only Belarus and Russia also use FPTP. “What worst start could there be for the new Mayor to be Mr or Mrs 4 per cent?”

Candidate selected

Meanwhile the Lib Dems have selected as their mayoral candidate Ben Dempsey, who according to Sussex World has served as a district councillor for Hassocks in West Sussex and came second in the East Grinstead and Uckfield constituency in last year’s general election.

Meanwhile Austin Tansley, chair of the Hastings & Rye branch of Reform UK, has confirmed to HOT that the party has “every intention of fielding a Candidate for the Mayoral Elections when they are announced, unfortunately HQ have decided that this selection will be made by them, not at Branch or District level, despite representation from us on the ground.”

When HOT asked if Reform has ditched its support for proportional representation in favour of FPTP in view of its lead in the Westminster voting polls, he said he had put the question to HQ and was awaiting a reply.

The party plans to hold a public meeting this week. Tansley said it had not publicised the venue as opponents had caused previous meeting arrangements to be cancelled.

Hastings Borough Council wants the government to postpone next May’s local elections. In the report to the special meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny committee scheduled for 18 May, it says: “Given the time scale associated with LGR [local government reorganisation] and Hastings being in the unique position of having elections scheduled for next year all group leaders have written a letter to request a postponement to next year’s borough elections should this priority programme timescale [set by the government] continue.”

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