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Proportional representation, power and class
Unsurprisingly, Keir Starmer has rejected reforming the first-past-the-post system out of hand. It is time to give up our lingering prejudices and recognise a step that would aid the left inside and outside of Labour, argues NICK WRIGHT

LAST week, opinion polls suggested that Labour would win 48 per cent of the vote and finish with 424 seats in the Commons in a general election. The Tories, on 21 per cent, would get 121 seats; the Lib Dems, on 10 per cent, 33 seats; the SNP, on 5 per cent, 49 seats and the Greens, on 7 per cent, just one seat.

This is even higher than the 40 per cent actually won in 2017 with Jeremy Corbyn’s radical manifesto.

Labour’s lead is the result when, in a first-past-the-post (FPTP) election regime, the Tories have become terminally unpopular. On this score, under proportional representation (PR), Labour should have 100 fewer seats; the Tories a handful more; the Lib Dems more than double and the Greens 44 new seats.

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