{"id":786334,"date":"2026-09-29T12:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786334\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T12:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:14:09","slug":"andy-burnham-expected-to-say-he-will-push-ahead-with-electoral-reform-plans-electoral-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786334\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham expected to say he will push ahead with electoral reform plans | Electoral reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham is expected to announce that he will push ahead with plans for electoral reform in his first conference speech as Labour leader, in the latest sign that he intends to radically transform the UK\u2019s political system.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, a longtime advocate of reform, will kick off a process that could eventually lead to ditching the first-past-the-post system in favour of proportional representation.<\/p>\n

Government sources told the Guardian that Burnham would set out his plans in \u201cbroad strokes\u201d in the speech, underlining his commitment to drawing up proposals before the next general election.<\/p>\n

Along with social care changes and closer ties with the EU, the plans \u2013 which would represent the most significant shake-up of the electoral system since 1918 \u2013 would then be put in Labour\u2019s manifesto to get public backing.<\/p>\n

One option open to Burnham is to set up a new national commission<\/a> for electoral reform, an idea he endorsed at last year\u2019s party conference as Greater Manchester mayor.<\/p>\n

At the time, he said there should be \u201ca manifesto commitment to a system of proportional representation to be introduced into Westminster elections in the next parliament\u201d.<\/p>\n

Almost 100 Labour MPs supported the plan when the representation of the people bill went through parliament earlier this month. The minister leading the bill, Florence Eshalomi, told MPs that Burnham \u201cremains committed to electoral reform\u201d, while warning it was \u201cpremature to legislate now for one approach\u201d.<\/p>\n

Polling of MPs by YouGov suggests the change is supported by a majority in the Commons. Of those polled, 53% of MPs said they supported a review into first past the post.<\/p>\n

In May, before he returned to parliament, Burnham told the Guardian<\/a> that sweeping changes to the electoral system to make politics \u201cless point-scoring, more problem-solving\u201d would be needed if he became prime minister.<\/p>\n

Critics of proportional representation have said it would lead to a more chaotic form of government, with unstable coalitions and an inability to pass legislation.<\/p>\n

Yet Burnham has long argued that Britain has suffered from an overcentralised, London-centric form of government in which two parties dominate at the expense of many of the UK\u2019s nations and regions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham is expected to announce that he will push ahead with plans for electoral reform in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-786334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}