How people vote and how political power works is always of interest to sociologists. Critics have not been slow to point out that the voter turnout in 2024 was down to a near record low level and that this suggests a general disillusionment with party politics, rather than wild enthusiam for politicians or Labour (see Figure 1). Only 52% of those eligible to do so voted. Parth Patel, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research described the turnout as ‘shocking’. He said, ‘If democracy is collective self-rule and only half of us are voting, you do have to ask about the other half, who politics and policymaking are less responsive to as a result.’
Labour’s share of the vote in 2024 was only 34%, even though that party won 63% of the parliamentary seats at stake. In fact, Labour and Conservatives together won only 58% of the total votes cast. This has led to a further debate about how representative and democratic the two-party, first-past-the-post system is. Should we move to a form of proportional representation in which the number of seats in the House more closely aligns with the percentage of votes won? If we did so, Reform UK could have up to 94 seats today, instead of the mere five they ended up gaining.
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