The closing months of 2009 saw renewed interest in electoral reform, a cause neglected since New Labour’s landslide victory at the 1997 general election. Senior Labour figures were said to be planning a referendum on reform to coincide with the general election expected in May 2010.
It could be said that parties which favour electoral reform while in opposition come to see the merits of the first-past-the-post system used in elections to the Westminster Parliament once they are safely returned to office. This observation has certainly been true of New Labour. The party has enjoyed Commons majorities of 178 (1997), 166 (2001) and 65 (2005), but there has been little effort to deliver on the promises of electoral reform made in the election manifestos (see Box 1). More than a decade since the Jenkins Commission made its recommendations — and since alternative systems were first introduced in elections to the European Parliament and to many devolved institutions — the first-past-the-post system remains in place at general elections.
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