Campaign updates

By Make Votes Matter CEO Emma Harrison. Like a lot of people who campaign for fair votes, I've never been all that interested in the mechanism for its own sake. It's rare to find someone who grew up dreaming about D'Hondt formulas or STV ballots. What I care about is what a fairer, more proportional…

Today Andy Burnham officially became the new leader of the Labour Party. On Monday he’ll be sworn in as Prime Minister - our fifth in four years. Over and over again, First Past the Post gives power to governments most people didn’t vote for, poisons our political culture, and breeds instability. The situation is only…

By Reuben Bance, Fundraising Coordinator at Make Votes Matter. Heading North on a train to Wigan on a cloudy Saturday morning would normally be a mundane affair; a journey to see family, or to meet up with an old friend from university. But this is a Saturday morning in early June, so the context is…

Blog by Emma Harrison, CEO of Make Votes Matter. This week, Make Votes Matter published a new report examining the electoral systems that could replace First Past the Post (FPTP). While discussions about voting systems can sometimes seem technical, they raise a fundamental question about the health of our democracy: does Britain's electoral system still…

By Emma Harrison, CEO of Make Votes Matter. As a cross-party, non-partisan organisation, we attend events across the country, and across the political spectrum, to champion Proportional Representation. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Liberal Democrats’ Spring Conference in York, at a fringe event on electoral reform. One thing was clear…

By Livvy Gibbs, Young Make Votes Matter Coordinator. We do not yet know how the Gorton and Denton by-election will end. But we can be almost certain that, whatever the outcome, most voters won’t get the MP they wanted. All polls are pointing to a very close race between the Green Party, Labour and Reform. Unless something…

By Emma Harrison, Make Votes Matter CEO. It’s a big week for Make Votes Matter. Today MVM was appointed co-secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections, the largest APPG in Parliament, which we’ve supported since its inception (and in prior forms).  We are delighted to partner with Unlock Democracy, and thank Fair Vote…

Written by Reuben Bance, youth campaigner and researcher. When was the last time you saw politicians from every major party in a room together, laying aside their political differences and engaging in a collaborative discussion? Over the last few months, Young Make Votes Matter have been teaming up with the London Assembly to tackle one…

The way we elect our mayors matters.These leaders control major decisions about transport, housing, policing, and regional investment. Given that they face no formal opposition in office, it's incredibly important that they aren’t elected on a tiny mandate. That’s why the government’s decision to restore the Supplementary Vote (SV) is more than a procedural tweak…

For decades, British politics was shaped by a tug-of-war between Labour and the Conservatives. But those days are over. The 2025 local elections have confirmed that we are now living in a genuinely multi-party democracy—just one still shackled by a voting system built for another era.