Proportianility and fair result

Question 1

FPTP?

Answer 1

• The number of seats won does not directly reflect the proportion of the number of votes cast for each party.
• EG, in 2019 the Conservatives won 77 more seats than their proportion of the overall vote entitled them to. By contrast parties such as the Brexit and the Green Party were significantly underrepresented in terms of seats. For example, the Green Party won 2.7% of the vote but just one (0.2%] MP.
• Whether FPTP delivers a fair result is more debatable. Some would argue that as the Conservatives won the largest number of votes overall in 2019, they were entitled to win the election overall and form the government.
• On rare occasions such as in 1951 and February 1974, the party with the most votes overall did not win the largest number of seats

Question 2

STV?

Answer 2

• Tends to deliver results that accurately reflects overall shares of the vote
• Tends to be the most preferred by advocates of a more proportional system, such as the ERS

Question 3

AV?

Answer 3

AV is not a proportional system, nor has it ever been used in national or regional elections.

One study of the 2017 election predicted that it would have resulted in a less proportionate result than FPTP. The Liberal Democrats and the nationalist
parties would have ended up with fewer MPs than under the current system, with Labour picking up some seats of the Conservatives.