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Dear Friend,

It's been quite a week. Just as support for electoral reform is building in the Labour party in advance of their party conference, the Government surprised everyone by sneaking a late amendment to the Elections Bill to impose First Past the Post on elections for Mayors, and Police and Crime Commissioners.

This is a backwards step for our elections, one that would take away power from voters and make it easier for unpopular candidates to get into office. We’ve been leading the fight against the Elections Bill and we’ll be keeping up the pressure against this latest attack on our democracy.

All the best,
The Electoral Reform Society team

First Past the Post will make it easier for unpopular or extreme candidates to slip into town halls

Ministers just sneaked out a serious, undemocratic change to our voting system in England and Wales

The government is trying to sneakily force through plans to impose First Past the Post for Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections – a move which would cast the views of voters on the scrapheap.

Read the article →

Nearly half of all constituency Labour Parties have backed motions in support of the change

Calls for Labour to back reform grow as members back PR in record numbers

With Labour’s conference set to begin next week the debate on electoral reform looks set to be one of the big issues on conference floor this year.

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22 Welsh organisations warn voter ID plans could leave vulnerable voters locked out

At a time when we should be thinking about how to remove the barriers to our democracy, the UK Government is instead introducing a policy that could leave millions shut out.

Read the article →

In the news...

Labour List - More CLPs call for PR backing than any other issue in recent conference history
New Statesman - The return of pork barrel politics
Nation.Cymru - Why are Labour and Plaid doing a deal? A bigger Senedd could be on the way
Evening Standard - Impact of voter ID on turnout unknowable, says minister
iNews - Keir Starmer under pressure from Labour grassroots to back voting reform ahead of conference
Politics.co.uk - Local parties pressure Starmer over PR ahead of conference
The Guardian - Tory whips accused of threatening rebels with loss of local funding
Labour List - We disagree on much about Labour, but we agree the party should back PR
Nation.Cymru - Westminster accused of undermining democracy with PCC voting changes

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