The UK general election under proportional representation

"Labour gained over 200 seats but their vote share increased by less than two percentage points to 34%"

The UK general election is just a periodic reminder of how unfair and distortional the UK first-past-the-post (FPP) electoral system is. While Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Party have stormed to a large parliamentary majority, it is not bolstered by the knowledge that a large proportion of the British electorate have actually voted for them. The above quote is from the BBC, which also notes that Reform won 14 percent of the vote but only five seats, which is 0.8 percent of the total seats. Notably, the Green party also won 6.8 percent of the vote, but only four seats (0.6 percent of the total seats).

Fortunately the Electoral Reform Society has produced a simulated UK general election conducted under proportional representation, which illustrates that to form a government comprising a majority of voters, Labour (236 seats under PR) would need to form a coalition or other similar arrangement with both the Liberal Democrats (77 seats) and the Greens (42 seats), giving a government of 355 seats. The Conservatives (157 seats) could equally form a coalition with Reform (94 seats) and the Liberal Democrats to give a government of 328 seats. The latter would be a flimsy majority, though.

Source: Electoral Reform Society, 2024