Negatives of FPTP

Question 1

Government elected by the minority

Answer 1

• Majority gov can be formed on the basis of minority support in terms of votes
• As most MPs are elected with less than 50% of the vote, this is the same for governments getting elected
• The 2019 General Election saw the Conservative Party win with only 29% of the vote with the other 71% for one of the other parties or not voting at all

Question 2

Not proportional

Answer 2

• The proportionality between seats and votes is poor in this system
• As only one more vote is needed to win a seat, the percentage of votes a party wins does not translate accurately into the percentage of seats they get in Parliament
• This means larger parties are regularly over represented and smaller parties and under represented
• In 2019 the Conservatives won 43% of the vote and gained 56% of the seats while the Lib Dems won over 11% of the votes but less than 2% of the seats

Question 3

Ineffective votes/tactical voting

Answer 3

• Only one MP is elected in each constituency so voters who did not vote for that MP are not represented
• This means their votes are wasted
• This can encourage people not to vote, especially if they live in a safe seat of a particular party
• There are also some voters who only vote for a candidate because they don’t want another candidate to win, this is tactical and not fully reflective of their views
• 25.7 million voters live in safe seats and in the 2015 election, half of all votes went to losing candidates representing 15 million people who did not see their choice reflected in the outcome

Question 4

Can produce “hung parliaments” and coalition government

Answer 4

• FPTP system does not always produce decisive results
• There have been instances in recent years of the largest party not having enough MPs to form a majority government
• This means either coalitions have to be formed after the result has been announced or the winning party form a weaker minority government
• In 2010 the Conservative party formed a coalition with the Lib Dems. This happened again in 2017 when the Conservatives entered a confidence and supply deal with the DUP after winning 318 seats