UKIP being 'cheated' by voting system

UKIP won 3.8 million votes at May's election but just one seat

UKIP was "cheated" by the voting system at May's election, a leading campaigner for electoral reform has claimed.

Katie Ghose, the Labour activist who heads the Electoral Reform Society, told the UKIP conference that the party could have gained up to 80 MPs under a "fairer" proportional system of voting.

UKIP has only one MP, Douglas Carswell, despite winning nearly four million votes and 12% of the total vote.

Mr Carswell said the era of "cartel politics" and "safe seats" must end.

UKIP members will vote at their annual conference later on whether to ditch the existing first-past-the-post system for electing MPs and to formally adopt a new voting system as their official policy.

Voters decided to retain first-past-the-post, where the candidates with the largest number of votes are elected in 650 constituencies around the country, in a 2011 referendum.

But campaigners say the alternative option offered at the time, Alternative Vote, was not proportional and the issue needs to be revisited again, given that the Conservatives and Labour won 85% of the seats in May despite getting only 67% of the combined vote.

'National scandal'

Ms Ghose said there had been a "surge" in support for electoral reform within UKIP since the general election and she was delighted that the party was now co-operating with political rivals, including the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru and the SNP, towards a "common goal" of championing a different system.

"The general election was a national scandal," she said. "UKIP and other smaller parties were cheated by first-past-the-post."

If the general election was held under the single transferable system used for local elections in Scotland, the campaign group's preferred model where voters get to rank candidates in order of preference and those votes are then transferred in the event of candidates dropping out, UKIP would have emerged with 50 seats.

"That is 49 MPs denied to UKIP by a voting system that is not fit for purpose."

'Victorian invention'

Ms Ghose said other systems could have given UKIP as many as 80 MPs.

Addressing a session on electoral and political reform, Mr Carswell said first-past-the-post was not a "longstanding British tradition" but a "late Victorian invention" prior to which two MPs had always been elected in every constituency - providing more choice.

He said the make-up of the Commons was testament to the unfairness of the current system.

"We got three times as many votes as the SNP but they got more than 50 MPs and we have only one UKIP MP. How can that possibly be fair?"

"Politics is a cartel. The rules have been rigged to remove the threat of choice and competition from the Westminster insiders."

Former Conservative MP Mark Reckless, now UKIP's head of policy, said single transferrable vote had many merits but the party should remain open-minded to other options.

Mr Reckless also criticised the government's plans to give MPs representing English constituencies a decisive say over legislation only applying directly to England, a response to further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament.

The Conservatives, he claimed "only pretended to believe in English votes for English laws" and their proposals - which are currently being considered by Parliament - were not "fair" as legislation would still require the approval of Scottish MPs before becoming law.

"Scotland can vote on things for themselves," he said. "It is only right that other nations of the UK should have that privilege".

Mr Reckless said UKIP was yet to be convinced of the need for a separate English Parliament, saying the democratic deficit should be tackled through other ways rather than creating a "multiplicity of politicians and institutions".