December saw our final Action Day of the year, ‘Shine a Light on PR’, as well as a lot of planning and organisation for our Elections Bill protest on 5th February. The Labour campaign has also been working on preparing for 2022’s union policy conferences. We sadly had to postpone our Democracy Awards, but have also welcomed new Alliance members and held a meeting of the APPG on Electoral Reform.. Read more…
Campaign update: November 2021
The campaign for Labour to back PR had a breakthrough this month, thanks to Unite officially backing electoral reform. The grassroots and alliance teams have been coordinating on our planned demonstration against the Elections Bill on 27th November, and there has been a great deal of activity from our local groups. Our Equal Votes video was also released, and the APPG on Electoral Reform is holding its next meeting. Read more…
Campaign update: October 2021
The Labour side of our campaign is now focused on winning over affiliated trade unions, beginning with Unite’s policy conference. We have lots of new MVM groups forming, including the launch of MVM Leicester and MVM Overseas, to engage new activists with our campaign. Our Alliance team is preparing to launch their ‘Equal Votes’ film and planning the first in a series of ‘Democracy Loves…’ events, all about the link between PR and climate crisis action. Read more…
Campaign update: September 2021
The Labour Party conference proved that the party’s membership not only overwhelmingly supports Proportional Representation, but views it as a top policy priority. Absent any support from the Leadership, there were insufficient trade unions with policy in favour to pass the motion overall - yet we have both moral and practical victories to capitalise on. The Alliance and Grassroots teams have been working hard to support the push for Labour to adopt PR as party policy. We have created a new short film featuring allies and have been generating more media coverage and discussion on the fight for equal votes. Read more here…
Campaign update: August 2021
August saw many headlines created about the movement following our summer day of action Make Noise for PR. Exciting fringe events for Labour Conference were organised and preparations for some upcoming online events with new and existing allies are in the pipeline. Read all about it here…
Campaign update: July 2021
So many supporters and high profile allies are set to join our summer day of action Make Noise for PR on Saturday 31st July. And with news that 83 per cent of Labour members support a move to Proportional Representation, this is a great month in the campaign for fair votes! Read more here.
Campaign update: June 2021
To help combat the spread of Coronavirus, June saw the planned easing of lockdown restrictions extended to Monday 19th July. Having considered the government guidelines on outdoor events, we decided to reschedule our planned action day to 31st July, when restrictions should be lifted… Continue reading.
Campaign update: May 2021 →
May’s elections, dubbed ‘Super Thursday’ shone a light on the flaws of First Past the Post (FPTP), juxtaposed with Proportional Representation in action - a showcase for fair representation at the ballot box. It was the perfect time to launch our petition against plans to introduce FPTP for future mayoral and crime commissioner elections. It’s attracted more than 20,000 signatures already… continue reading
Campaign update: April 2021 →
April was a bumper month for our incredible local groups, with 15 meetings taking place across the UK. We also continued our popular training sessions to support activists when speaking about PR. The quarterly Alliance meeting went ahead, and our work with the Labour for a New Democracy coalition secured Momentum’s backing for PR ahead of September’s Labour Party conference… continue reading.
Campaign update: March 2021 →
March saw our first virtual lobby for equal votes take off. Many new local groups sprang into action, meeting online for the first time and over 200 Constituency Labour Party branches have now signed a motion supporting PR. TV pollster and professor John Curtice joined us for an exclusive chat… continue reading.
Campaign update: February 2021 →
Several big announcements this month. The Alliance had a great success with the launch of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Electoral Reform on 11th February. The Labour team reported fantastic progress in mobilising grassroots support for PR among the party’s membership. The Grassroots team is firmly focused on delivering our first virtual lobby early in March.… continue reading
Campaign update: January 2021 →
Highlights of this month include the first quarterly Alliance meeting of the year, the announcement of the Equal Votes Lobby, the close of our successful Crowdfunder, an update and consultation on our 2021 strategy, and amazing progress in our joint Labour work… continue reading
Campaign update: December 2020 →
We finished the year with a festive grassroots action day, by raising the number of CLPs that have carried pro-PR motions to 121, by sending a giant Xmas card to Keir Starmer, and by launching our 2020 crowdfunder. If you haven’t yet, please chip in to help power the campaign into 2021... continue reading
Campaign update: November 2020 →
The end of the year is in sight - but before we get there the movement has one more big Action Day to deliver: on 12th December. We passed 100 CLP motions in favour of PR - and reached 111 by the end of the month. A number of promising new Alliance projects were set in motion… continue reading
Campaign update: October 2020 →
October saw scoping of major campaign actions for the rest of 2020. Our grassroots activists and cross-party speakers continue to do great work in campaigning for PR at every level. 6 additional CLPs called for PR at the time of writing. A deferred Alliance meeting will now take place in November. continue reading
Campaign update: September 2020
September saw the long awaited launch of Labour for a New Democracy: an exciting joint project to secure a commitment to PR at the 2021 Labour Party conference. The race is now on to mobilise support among Labour and union members across the UK. We’ve rapidly expanded our cross-party speaker programme, taken part in virtual party conferences and continued developing our volunteer programme. An all-activist call at the end of the month will start to plan our next big grassroots intervention. continue reading
Campaign update: August 2020
What a month it’s been at Make Votes Matter! Our socially-distanced Day of Action was one of our biggest actions yet, gaining great publicity. The connections made all over the UK are the stuff that powerful political movements are built on. We’ve also arranged our first cross-party speaker engagements, and made preparations for next month’s public launch of our joint project: Labour for a New Democracy… continute reading
Campaign update: July 2020
Volunteer involvement in the movement has continued to grow rapidly through the summer, made possible by technological innovations and huge amounts of enthusiasm! We’re planning a socially distanced action for late August, launching our speaker programme, and improving how we bring together and communicate with activists and a growing number of vital regular donors. Labour’s policy consultation saw members call emphatically for PR, building momentum towards conference 2021.… continue reading
Campaign update: June 2020
This month, we’ve been working hard to get our new batch of volunteers all set up and ready to go. Proportional Representation returned to Parliament, with the Wendy Chamberlain MP and her Lib Dem colleagues demolishing the arguments for First Past the Post during an adjournment debate. We racked up significant wins within the Labour movement, with a massive response to the National Policy Forum’s (NPF) consultation and a third Labour-affiliated trade union coming out in favour of PR… continue reading
Campaign update: May 2020
This month, we’re excited to have launched new routes for volunteers to get involved in Make Votes Matter and our regular giving channel, both of which will help ensure the sustainability of the movement. Labour’s consultation on constitutional issues is a significant win, but with the 2020 conference cancelled we expect next year’s conference to be the decisive moment in terms of changing Labour policy… continue reading
