Elections (proportional representation): Ten Minute Rule Motion

On 3 December 2024, the House of Commons voted by 138 ayes to 136 noes to grant leave for a Liberal Democrat bill to be introduced that would replace the first-past-the-post voting system with proportional representation for UK parliamentary elections and English local government elections. The margin was just two votes. The bill's sponsor is Sarah Olney MP, and the specific system proposed is the single transferable vote, under which voters rank candidates in order of preference. The vote did not approve proportional representation as policy. A Ten Minute Rule Motion grants leave to introduce a bill for a First Reading; it tests opinion in the House but does not advance legislation in any substantive way, and such bills very rarely become law. The practical significance lies in the signal it sends: a majority of MPs who voted were willing to allow the argument to be made formally, at a moment when the 2024 general election produced Labour's two-thirds seat majority on roughly one-third of votes cast, the most disproportionate result in British electoral history by that measure. The Liberal Democrats voted unanimously in favour, joined by all four Green MPs, all four Plaid Cymru MPs, and 59 Labour MPs. Every Conservative who voted opposed the motion, as did 50 Labour MPs and the Democratic Unionist Party. The government took no official position, and the large number of Labour MPs with no vote recorded, 294, reflects the scale of absence rather than a party whip. Three Reform UK MPs voted in favour and one against. The result highlights a cross-cutting divide on electoral reform that runs through Labour rather than simply between government and opposition.