British politics is experiencing a seismic shift, with the traditional two-party system teetering on the edge of collapse and calls for fundamental electoral reform growing louder. On November 7, 2025, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey declared his party’s willingness to "work with the government" to overhaul the country’s voting system, signaling a renewed push for proportional representation (PR) that could fundamentally reshape how power is distributed in Westminster.
For more than a century, the UK’s political landscape has been dominated by the Conservatives and Labour, with the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system ensuring that one of these two parties almost always formed the government. But as The Guardian noted in a recent commentary, the combined support for these parties has plummeted from 76% at the 2019 election to less than 40% in current polls. Reform UK, the Greens, and the Liberal Democrats now find themselves matching—or even surpassing—the traditional giants in some polls, creating a volatile and unpredictable political environment.
Sir Ed Davey, speaking on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, made it clear that the Liberal Democrats remain steadfast in their commitment to electoral reform. "Indeed I go so far as to say that I'm prepared to work with the government if they wake up," he told host Nick Robinson. He criticized the current system for producing what he called a "loveless landslide," referring to Labour’s recent overwhelming victory that was achieved with just a minority of the popular vote. Under the existing FPTP system, the Liberal Democrats secured 72 MPs in the 2024 general election, but Davey contends that this does not fairly reflect the party’s share of the national vote.
The Liberal Democrats have long advocated for proportional representation, arguing that it would ensure the number of MPs a party receives more accurately mirrors the votes cast across the country. This would be a dramatic departure from FPTP, where the candidate with the most votes in each constituency wins, often leading to significant disparities between votes received and seats won. As Davey put it, "They've got this loveless landslide, they don't require a relatively small share of the vote with this huge majority they've got, so maybe they think they've a vested interest."
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who once championed electoral reform during his 2020 Labour leadership campaign, has since dropped the pledge. Although he previously promised to consult party members on the issue through a constitutional convention—a promise rooted in Labour’s 2019 manifesto—no such commitment appeared in the party’s successful 2024 manifesto. The government also declined to support a Ten Minute Rule Bill introduced by Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney in December 2024, which aimed to kickstart the process of introducing PR. While Olney’s bill passed its initial parliamentary hurdle with a razor-thin majority of two, it was not granted further time for debate, and Downing Street made it clear there were "no plans" to alter the voting system.
Olney herself highlighted the stark consequences of the current system, pointing out that Labour managed to secure 63% of the seats in the House of Commons with just 34% of the vote—a result she described as "the most disproportionate election result that this country has ever seen." According to the BBC, Olney further observed, "Thanks to first past the post nearly 60% of people who voted in the general election in July are not represented in Parliament by the candidate that they voted for."
This sense of disenfranchisement is fueling the push for change. Sir Ed Davey warned that the FPTP method could allow Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to become Prime Minister on a relatively small share of the vote, a scenario that some recent polls suggest is within the realm of possibility. "I would hope that would make them think again about the wisdom of first-past-the-post," Davey said. "There is a potential and on a really small share of the vote and I would hope that that will worry people."
Ironically, while Nigel Farage and Reform UK have promised to introduce PR in their 2024 manifesto—arguing that "large numbers of voters have no representation in parliament" under the current system—Farage himself has expressed reservations. In May 2025, he told a Spectator event, "I think if PR was ever instituted in this country, we will end up in a state of gridlock. We will not be able to do the frankly quite ambitious, and in some cases radical, things." This ambivalence reflects the wider uncertainty about what a move to PR would mean for British governance: more representative, perhaps, but potentially less decisive.
The shifting political sands are not just theoretical. According to analysis published by GB News on November 6, 2025, voters from the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party are now so concerned about a possible Reform UK government that they would even consider backing the Conservatives if it meant keeping Farage out of Number 10. The analysis suggested that a coalition of Greens and Liberal Democrats could act as a bulwark against Reform UK’s rise, underscoring the new, unpredictable alliances that are emerging in this fragmented landscape.
Meanwhile, the website Electoral Calculus projects a dizzying range of potential outcomes for the next general election. Reform UK could win anywhere from 170 to 426 seats, Labour between 33 and 243, the Tories between 14 and 200, the Lib Dems between 29 and 93, and the Greens between 7 and 70. With such wide margins, every party’s fortunes could be massively amplified or diminished by an electoral system not designed for multiparty competition.
The Guardian’s Andy Beckett paints a picture of a political order in flux, where safe parliamentary seats could vanish, political careers grow shorter, and voter groups become ever more fickle. The once-stable world of British politics is giving way to a landscape where party heartlands are crumbling and old loyalties are dissolving. As Beckett observes, "If, as seems likely, the results of the next general election are more unfair than ever before, in the link between votes and seats won by each party, then the case for proportional representation may finally become irresistible."
However, the road to reform is anything but straightforward. Some argue that a more fragmented, multiparty system could make politics more responsive and offer greater choice to voters. Others worry that it could lead to instability, gridlock, and a loss of accountability. There’s also the risk that unelected interests—big corporations or the civil service—could gain more influence as party structures weaken.
What’s clear is that British politics is at a crossroads. The old certainties are gone, replaced by a dynamic, unpredictable contest for power. Whether the answer lies in proportional representation, new coalitions, or some yet-unknown political order, the coming years promise to be among the most consequential in modern British history.
