If you are interested in electoral reform you may like to know that residents in Bath took part in the campaign group Make Votes Matter’s first Equal Votes national lobby on Friday 12 March, highlighting the urgent need to change the UK’s First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system.
Unable to meet Bath MP Wera Hobhouse in person due to the pandemic, activists from across the Bath constituency joined a video call with her.
Wera had been active in the Electoral Reform Society before she was elected Bath’s MP in 2017. She shared her views on how to achieve a proportional voting system in the current political situation and urged Bath Make Votes Matter campaigners to work with Labour party members. advocating for a change in Labour Party Policy on these issues.
Wera Hobhouse said: “Electoral reform is the right thing to do for democracy in our country. Our voting system is broken and our politics suffer accordingly. Under our current FPTP system, the votes of so many people simply do not count. I believe in people power. Making each vote matter will truly empower all voters in this country.”
With local elections going ahead on May 6th, campaigners say the time is right to push electoral reform to the top of the political agenda. At a local and national level, they say that PR would give voters the voice they are unfairly denied under FPTP.
Emma Knaggs, Grassroots Leader at Make Votes Matter, said: “Thanks to hundreds of committed supporters who took a stand for what they believe in today, a number of MPs are acutely aware of the strength of feeling there is among UK voters to change to the voting system.”
A petition calling for MPs to support Proportional Representation can be signed here https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/sign-petition
