Simulations of Total Representation (TR) in the UK General Election, Dec 2019

First-past-the-post (FPTP) fails to provide proper representation in Parliament for all the people.  Proportional Representation (PR) removes the link to the constituency and leads to factional fragmented politics.  Total Representation (TR) fuses the best of both systems together whilst maintaining the same simple method of voting as now: one cross on one ballot not long lists, preference votes or complicated formulas.

The following simulations use the actual votes cast in the last general election and use the existing number of constituencies as the starting point albeit the number of constituencies would in practice be reduced, most likely along the lines of the boundary commission currently under review.

So the number of Constituency MPs (CMPs) used is 650. The “successful” votes cast for the CMPs are then removed leaving the “unsuccessful” votes cast in each constituency, ie. those votes cast for candidates who did not win a seat. These unsuccessful votes are then used to allocate proportionally the example figures of 50 or 75 Party MPs (PMPs) which are then added to the CMPs to arrive at the total MP figure and percentage split for each party.

What these simulations cannot model though are two additional benefits of TR: an increase in voter turnout and a reduction in the need for tactical voting. In constituencies with large majorities – “safe seats” - many people see no point in voting for their preferred candidates when their party has no chance of winning. So some will attempt to vote tactically or often they won’t vote at all. That is why even in this recent febrile election, turnout of registered voters was still only 67.3% (32,014,850 voted out of a total registered voters of 47,562,702). But with TR, it is always worth voting whether the preferred candidate can win a constituency seat or not because unsuccessful votes still go towards the election of a PMP.

Finally an extra table is included to illustrate what the present House of Commons might look like had the election been held under TR. To do so, the number of CMPs is prorated down from 650 to 585 seats so that with 65 PMPs, the total MPs becomes 650. This represents a ratio of 90:10 CMPs:PMPs.

Banner image "Polling Station Belsize Park" by Matt Brown is licensed under CC BY 2.0