Key Facts

• The amendment seeks to provide for the use of the simple majority voting system in elections for the Mayor of London, elected mayors of local authorities in England, mayors of combined authority areas, and police and crime commissioners.
• In Tamworth constituency, 77% of electors voted for first past the post in the 2011 referendum.
• The Home Secretary announced on March 16th that the Government intends to introduce legislation to change voting systems as soon as parliamentary time allows.
• The Conservative party’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Cleveland was sacked for theft from a Safeway supermarket.
• The supplementary vote system has been used for electing the Mayor of London since 2000.
• The 2017 Conservative manifesto stated they would extend the first past the post voting system to PCC elections but this was not in the 2019 manifesto.
• The government is proposing to introduce first past the post for mayoral and police commissioner elections.
• This proposal was quietly published on the day of the reshuffle.
• Every new representative body since 1997 has been elected using an electoral system other than first past the post.
• Ministers have been questioned on the clauses of the Bill by PACAC.
• The Tories lost 11 of 13 mayoral elections under the supplementary vote system.
• The Government wants to change these elections to first past the post without normal scrutiny.
• The motion aims to make a technical change to the Elections Bill Committee.
• The government claims there are sufficient opportunities for Members to bring forward amendments during Committee stage, Report stage, and Third Reading.
• In 2011, 67% of voters chose first-past-the-post electoral system.