Burnham plans electoral reform in Great Britain for 2029

The traditional majority voting system in Great Britain could soon be history - at least if British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has his way. His Labor Party will run at the next election with a promise to reform the electoral system, Burnham said at the Labor party conference in Liverpool, northern England. To this end, he will set up a national commission to develop reform proposals.

Burnham has long advocated the transition from the current first-past-the-post majority system to proportional representation. The current system requires a party to win at least 326 of the 650 seats in parliament to secure a majority.

“We will run into the next election with a promise to change the electoral system,” Burnham told the delegates. The next parliamentary election is scheduled for 2029. Burnham announced that he would invite all political parties to take part in the commission in order to achieve cross-party support for the reforms.

The Prime Minister criticized the political instability of the past few years - he is the seventh head of government in ten years. The current system divides the country because one party can form the government with 30 percent of the vote or less. “I want to underpin our plan for Britain with a new policy,” Burnham said. The changes are difficult and not everyone will like them, but they are necessary.

The local elections in May showed a weakening of the traditional two-party system. The formerly dominant Labor and Conservative parties lost votes to the right-wing populist Reform UK, the Greens and nationalists in Scotland and Wales. An earlier attempt at electoral reform failed in 2011 when British voters rejected the introduction of an alternative electoral system in a referendum.