first past the post

Question 1

how has the number of constituencies changed over time?

Answer 1

-there used to be more flexibility when redrawing boundaries
-now it is fixed to 650 constituencies that are no larger than 13000sqkm

Question 2

how does a party win the general election?

Answer 2

by winning 326 or more seats (a majority government)

Question 3

what is a hung parliament?

Answer 3

where no party has a majority of seats, so there can either be a coalition government or a minority government

Question 4

how do candidates win seats under first past the post?

Answer 4

whoever wins the most votes in their constituency wins the seat

Question 5

what does simple plurality mean?

Answer 5

what matters is the total votes a candidate receives, not winning a majority

Question 6

in what way are the results of first past the post not proportional?

Answer 6

the percentage of votes each party wins is unlikely to match the percentage of seats they end up with

Question 7

what are the advantages of first past the post?

Answer 7

-easy to understand and vote
-leads to a strong and stable government
-limits extremist parties
-results in a two party system
-maintains a link between voters and their representatives

Question 8

what are the disadvantages of first past the post?

Answer 8

-disproportionate result (e.g tories got 43% of vote but 58% of seats in 2019)
-unfair to third parties - reform got 14% of vote but only 5 seats 2024
-votes are wasted (e.g. in 2010 15.7mil votes were wasted)
-safe seats
-tactical voting prominent
-limited voter choice (two party system in GB)

Question 9

how can FPTP be seen as unrepresentative?

Answer 9

winner party does not often even get half of the electorate actually voting for them - e.g. labour only got 33.7% of vote in 2024 - that doesn’t take into account people who didn’t vote!