Let’s turn something good into something great

The Government’s elections bill is finally out and it’s got a new name - the Representation of the People Bill.

Without building this up too much, we’ve been campaigning hard for years to make this bill count. 

The last government’s elections bill was a sad day for democracy - it took away the independence of the Electoral Commission and it introduced an unnecessary voter ID law that prevents 2 million people from voting in our elections. It expanded the use of First Past the Post voting and it did nothing to tackle disinformation and dark money that’s poisoning our elections.

It left our election law hopelessly outdated and vulnerable to threats foreign and domestic.

So let’s start with the good news - there’s no doubt that the Representation of the People Bill is a step in the right direction and thank goodness for that.
Let’s start with the positives and things we’ve been campaigning hard for including - 

• Votes for 16 and 17 year olds

• Automatic Voter Registration

• Measures to prevent foreign donors like Elon Musk from buying his way into our politics

• Strengthening the law to protect candidates and campaigners from harassment and intimidation

All these are really encouraging steps forward. With up to 8 million unregistered voters at the 2024 General Election, Automatic Voter Registration would be a huge step forward to make every voice count. The threat of a mega-donation from Elon Musk has been hanging over our politics for long enough - we’re glad that threat won’t be with us any more.

We congratulate the Government for including these and other measures in the Bill.

But we also can’t help but be disappointed at some of the things that aren’t the Bill.

First it is baffling how the government isn’t using it to restore the independence of the Electoral Commission, the elections’ regulator. The Electoral Commission was set up by a Labour Government in 2000. The responsible Minister, Jack Straw, said this at the time - “To undertake its key role at the heart of our electoral arrangements, the Commission must be as independent of the government of the day as our constitutional arrangements allow, and it must be answerable directly to Parliament and not to ministers.”

When the last Government gave itself the power to set the policy and strategy of the Electoral Commission, removing its independence, the Labour Shadow Minister said, “It is not for this government or any government, be they Labour or Conservative, to dictate the priorities of an independent watchdog, especially one that regulates our own elections.”

Angela Rayner, writing in The Guardian, 3rd September 2021: “Even the government watchdog, the Electoral Commission, which upholds electoral law and safeguards the integrity and transparency of political parties’ finances, has come under attack. The Elections Bill seeks to completely undermine the Commission’s role and end any semblance of independence”.

Now, when a new Labour Government has a chance to restore the Commission’s independence, it’s choosing not to!

Unlock Democracy will fight to change this in Parliament.

The second giant omission from the Representation of the People Bill is any restriction on what UK based donors can donate to political parties. Allowing unlimited donations from individuals, and potentially companies too, leaves our politics wide open for the very rich to buy influence. In a recent poll, just 13% of the public supported allowing unlimited donations.

How on earth does the Government expect to restore trust in politics if it's going to allow big money to keep pouring in? 

Again, Unlock Democracy will fight this in Parliament. 

The third omission is the lack of any move towards electoral reform. This is at its heart a bill about how elections work. The biggest problem with elections in our country is an electoral system that doesn’t give the voters what they vote for. 

Many in the Labour Party will have enjoyed the First Past the Post voting system in 2024 when it gave the party 2/3rds of the seats in Parliament on 1/3rd of the vote. That same system today, on current polling, could award Nigel Farage’s Reform UK a majority with just over a quarter of the vote.

The multi-party politics that arrived with a bang in the 2024 election has only grown since. One recent opinion poll had FIVE parties polling between 14% and 27%. It also had Plaid Cymru leading in Wales and the SNP in Scotland. That’s SEVEN parties all contending in a system that doesn’t work unless there’s just two parties.

The voters are showing little sign they want to return to voting for just two parties, which means that our electoral system needs to change. The Representation of the People Bill should be addressing this, but it doesn’t.

We don’t want to be negative, in fact there’s a lot to be positive about. 

Our challenge to the Government is this - you’ve given us a good bill, but with a few changes it could be a GREAT bill. Don’t you think that’s what the public deserve when it comes to our democracy?

We think there’s real appetite for a GREAT bill across the political spectrum, amongst the experts and amongst the public. At a moment when democracy faces its fiercest tests worldwide, we can’t afford to turn away from the challenges staring us in the face.

We can and must do better - that’s what we will be fighting for as this Bill goes through Parliament.