Nigel Farage has launched a campaign against the first-past-the-post electoral system, saying his party would have won 100 seats under proportional representation.
The Reform UK leader and newly-elected MP for Clacton called the current voting system “outdated” and said he would “campaign with anyone and everyone” to change it as his party won its fifth and final seat on Friday evening.
James McMurdock replaced the Conservative Stephen Metcalfe in South Basildon and East Thurrock, who was elected in 2019 with 65.4 per cent of the vote. He won the seat with 12,178 votes and beat out Labour’s Jack Ferguson by a narrow margin of 98 votes in the last election result to be declared.
More than four million votes were cast for Reform in the general election, but the party returned only five MPs. The Liberal Democrats returned 71 MPs with just 3.5 million votes.
James McMurdock replaced the Conservative Stephen Metcalfe, who was elected in 2019 with 65.4 per cent of the vote. Mr McMurdock won the seat with 12,178 votes and beat out Labour’s Jack Ferguson in second by a narrow margin of 98 votes.
Analysis has suggested Friday’s nationwide election result was the most distorted in history, with Labour winning nearly two thirds of the seats in the House of Commons with just over a third of the popular vote.
As of Friday morning, Labour had won 411 constituencies – 63.7 per cent of the seats available – with a vote share of just 33.8 per cent.
The 30-point gap between the popular vote and seat share is the most skewed result ever, far outpacing the previous 22-point gap recorded in 2001 under Tony Blair.
Labour secured just over 700,000 more votes than Jeremy Corbyn in 2019, one percentage point more, but managed to pick up more than 200 additional seats.
It hands Sir Keir Starmer a majority similar to Tony Blair’s in 1997, when Labour won 43.3 per cent of the vote. Sir Keir’s vote share is below even the 35.2 per cent which Mr Blair achieved in the 2005 election, when his majority fell to 66 seats.
Writing in The Times, polling expert Prof Sir John Curtice said: “In the most disproportional electoral outcome in British electoral history, Labour’s strength in the new House of Commons is a heavily exaggerated reflection of the party’s limited popularity in the country.”
Reform won 14 per cent of the vote. At a press conference in central London, Mr Farage said: “It’s very much my view that our outdated, first-past-the-post electoral system is not fit for purpose and we will campaign with anyone and everyone to change this electoral system.
“That’s what we’ll be doing and we’ll make those arguments in parliament as quickly as we can.”
He told supporters and journalists: “If we had proportional representation, we’d be looking at nearly 100 seats.”
The first major Reform press event since the party’s four victories on Thursday night was hit by a wave of protesters who stood to heckle Mr Farage as he began to speak.
The first of seven protesters to get up to shout at Mr Farage said: “Nigel, you’re a racist, you’re a liar.” Another said: “Nigel, you’re a racist, your party’s filled with racists.”
They were all quickly escorted out the room by security, while Reform supporters booed and voiced their support for Mr Farage, with one telling him: “It means you’re doing something right Nigel.”
Richard Tice, the Reform MP for Boston and Skegness and party chairman, later also voiced his criticism of the current electoral system, hinting at a potential referendum campaign on the issue.
He told journalists: “How could it be right that the Conservative Party, that has just over 50 per cent more votes than we have, have 30 times the number of MPs?
“How could it be right that the now ruling Labour Party have double the number of votes that we have, and they’ve got some 100 times the number of MPs?
‘Flawed democratic system’
“This is a flawed democratic system and I think that people will be looking at these results and saying this is not a real, genuine fair democracy. And I think that the people will demand, absolutely demand real change.
“We quite like referendums, we’ve quite a good track record. And I’m absolutely convinced that if there was a referendum this weekend on PR we would win it hands down. No ifs, no buts.”
Both Labour and the Conservatives have generally not voiced support for proportional representation, as the two parties are more able to obtain large outright majorities in Parliament.
But smaller parties, such as the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and now Reform, have all backed changing the electoral system.
Before the election, Sir Ed Davey said that if PR in Parliament meant that more Reform MPs enter Parliament, then “so be it”.
He told BBC Panorama: “We believe in fair votes and therefore you take the democratic response and if that means parties who I don’t agree with or I don’t share anything in common [with] get more MPs, so be it. That is democracy.”
Meanwhile, Rupert Lowe, the new Reform MP for Great Yarmouth, has said that he will donate his MP salary to local charities.
The former Southampton FC chairman and banker, 66, who previously represented Ukip as an MEP, said: “I’m donating my entire net MP salary to Great Yarmouth charities/worthy causes.
“Each month, a different one will be chosen and I will post proof for every single one.”
Making reference to a suggestion on social media that he had become an MP to take “all the cash and freebies you can get”, he added: “So not that great at ‘taking all the cash’!”