Why Robin Walker is wrong on electoral reform: Total Politics letter

This letter taking issue with Conservative MP Robin Walker’s claims about electoral reform appears in the latest edition of Total Politics:

Conservative MP Robin Walker is mistaken to think that voting systems other than first-past-the-post all give a leg-up to extremist parties.

In fact, it is the lower threshold for winning under first past the post compared with many other systems that often lets extremists parties slip through and win at local election level in the UK. That is because an extremist can win under first past the post with a third or less of the vote. Under AV (or a clutch of other systems) that isn’t enough to win as you need to win enough transfers to get to over half the vote.

Myself, I am very dubious about picking a voting system on the basis of which parties you do or don’t like to see winning. But if that is your criteria, Robin Walker’s argument is not one in favour of keeping first-past-the-post; it is one for getting rid of it.