Elections (proportional representation): Ten Minute Rule Motion

This was a Ten Minute Rule Motion, a procedure that lets a backbench MP make a short case for introducing a new bill. Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat) sought permission to bring in a bill that would replace the current "first-past-the-post" voting system with a form of proportional representation for UK parliamentary elections and for local elections in England. She argued that first-past-the-post can hand a large majority of seats to a party that won only a minority of votes, and that a fairer system would better reflect how people actually vote. A Conservative MP, Lewis Cocking, spoke against, defending first-past-the-post and noting that a 2011 referendum had rejected changing the voting system. MPs voted 138 to 136 to allow the bill to be formally introduced. In practice this stage carries little weight: such bills are given a first reading but almost never become law without government backing, so the vote was largely symbolic and the bill did not progress into legislation.

Read the full debate in Hansard →

AI-generated from the official voting record.