As the Queen’s Jubilee approaches, equal votes campaigners have identified 213 ‘Platinum stale seats’, which have been represented by the same political party at every election since Queen Elizabeth’s reign began 70 years ago.
Proportional Representation campaign Make Votes Matter is calling on the government to put an end to the First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system, which leads to such stagnant constituencies existing.
In what are normally called ‘safe seats’, enough voters will always vote for a certain party regardless of the quality of candidate, so political parties often take people living in those areas for granted. The seat may be a safe win for the party but FPTP means that these are places where democracy has gone stale and the people don’t have a real say in who will represent them. By contrast, with Proportional Representation there are no stale seats - all voters have an equal voice, regardless of where you live.
The only countries in Europe to use First Past the Post are the UK and Belarus. Most developed democracies use forms of Proportional Representation, where every vote counts equally, regardless of what postcode you live in.
Klina Jordan, co-founder and CEO of Make Votes Matter, said: “If voters don’t think their MP is doing a good job, they should be able to vote them out. Stale seats get in the way of that, and create a class of politician who think they’re above the scrutiny of the voters.”
“MPs in stale seats are more likely to have lucrative second jobs, and spend six hours a week less dealing with constituents’ casework. The fact that nearly a third of our MPs are from constituencies so stale that they have been represented by one party for over 70 years clearly shows that our antiquated voting system is unfit for purpose. We need equal votes, now.”
Activists in Make Votes Matter groups are mobilising on the weekend after the Jubilee to ‘Get Moving for PR’. Inspired by the 1913 Great Pilgrimage for votes for women, campaigners are recreating stretches of the walk in Lancashire, Cumbria, and London, with many others joining in on walks of their own across the country.
A petition for the government to adopt Proportional Representation can be signed here.
213 constituencies (just shy of one-third) have been represented by the same party in every election for the entirety of the Queen's reign. As this only includes 1 Scottish constituency and no seats in Northern Ireland, the total represents 37% of English and Welsh seats.
Of the 213 platinum stale seats, 128 have solely returned Conservative MPs, 84 have only elected Labour MPs and one seat, Orkney and Shetland, has remained in Liberal/Lib Dem hands throughout.
The least competitive region is the South East, where 48 of the 84 constituencies (57%) have remained in one party's hands since 1952. This is followed by the North East (52%) and the East of England (41%).