Andy Burnham will face an immediate test of his backing for electoral reform in his first week in parliament as prime minister, with almost 100 Labour MPs supporting a bid for a new national commission.
Burnham, a longtime advocate of electoral reform, will be asked to support the new commission into ditching first past the post in his first 100 days as prime minister.
MPs have said the commission must report before the next election and hope to put electoral reform in Labour’s next manifesto. Number 10 said Burnham remained committed to electoral reform in Labour’s next manifesto but stopped short of backing the new commission.
New polling of MPs by YouGov suggests the change is now supported by a majority in the Commons. Of those polled, 53% of MPs said they supported a review into first past the post – the current system of voting.
An amendment to launch the commission has been backed by 185 MPs, including a number of former ministers and supporters of the previous prime minister, Keir Starmer.
The amendment has been tabled to the representation of the people bill, which returns to parliament for its remaining stages on 2 September. A Labour source said: “The representation of the people bill has been designed to deliver our manifesto commitments on votes at 16 and strengthen political donation rules to guard against foreign interference, and that’s what the government is prioritising.
“Andy remains strongly committed to electoral reform, and has indicated this is a matter for a future party manifesto, given a mandate would need to be secured for it.”
Burnham endorsed the call for a national commission on electoral reform at last year’s Labour conference, saying then as mayor of Greater Manchester that he backed “a manifesto commitment to a system of proportional representation to be introduced into Westminster elections in the next parliament.”
The 98 Labour signatories to the amendment, tabled by Labour’s Alex Sobel include influential backbenchers such as Luke Akehurst and Chris Curtis, leading Labour centrists. Overall, MPs have signed from eight parties, as well as independents.
Signatories also include MPs who have recently become ministers and ministerial aides – including the energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, communities minister Florence Eshalomi and the prime minister’s parliamentary private secretary and close ally Jo Platt.
However, the newly appointed frontbench MPs may by convention withdraw support for backbench amendments once parliament returns.
A new commission would not require legislation – meaning the amendment itself may end up out of scope of the bill. But MPs intend to use the amendment as a way of signalling to the prime minister the breadth of support for swifter reform.
A national commission could consider a range of other proportional voting systems to replace first past the post, the current system for a general election in the UK which means the winners of the most votes in each constituency are elected. Other systems are used across the UK, including the Scottish parliament, the Welsh parliament and mayoral votes.
In Scottish elections, there are votes for a candidate and for a party, so additional members can be elected from a list alongside constituency representatives. In Wales a closed-list proportional representation system was introduced for this year’s Senedd elections, with voters casting one vote for a party, and seats allocated proportionally from party lists. In the recent Greater Manchester mayoralty, voters were given a first and second choice.
Sobel said it was time for the prime minister to endorse the push – signed by more MPs than any other amendment in parliament. “Now we know a majority of MPs back this proposal, including a majority of Labour MPs. I know the prime minister is committed to reforming our electoral system and I and all the MPs who signed this amendment want to work with him to set the UK on a road towards fair, modern general elections,” he said.
MPs told the Guardian that Burnham should announce the commission before the October budget. Rachel Blake, the former Treasury minister, said: “The PLP agrees with Andy Burnham that first past the post is broken, and that a national commission is the way to get a grip on it. The government should press ahead and launch this process within the prime minister’s first hundred days.”
Akehurst, a member of Labour’s governing national executive committee, said: “Parliament is catching up with the public, most of whom already support electoral reform. Andy Burnham has a good track record on proportional representation, and it’s now hugely popular across the Labour party. He should seize this opportunity.”
Labour MP Lizzi Collinge said first past the post “particularly devalues the votes of renters, young people and BAME people, and delivers parliaments that do not represent what most people voted for.”
Another former Labour minister, Catherine Fookes, said first past the post “can’t cope with modern, multiparty politics. Andy Burnham has long talked about the need to move to a fair, proportional system. If he acts now by setting up a commission, he will find that most MPs support him from across parliament – and make good on his promise to rewire British politics.”
A sixth Labour MP, Mike Reader, said that the poll of MPs showed there had been “a sea change in support for PR across Labour and the public. Most MPs know it is the fair thing for the country, it’s just a matter of how we get there. We hope Andy Burnham will now stick to his guns.”
Labour members at the party’s annual conference in 2022 had previously backed a move towards proportional representation, which Burnham called a “historic vote” and said would be a move towards “a country that works for everybody, where everyone’s vote counts”.
Campaign groups said they hoped Burnham would seize the moment for reform while he had a workable parliamentary majority. Make Votes Matter chief executive Emma Harrison said: “I’ve spoken alongside Andy in favour of proportional representation, I know he supports it – now he must show the public he deserves our trust.”
The UK last rejected electoral reform in 2011 after a referendum was held to ask whether to change to an alternative vote system, where voters rank candidates in order of preference.
