How does the UK manage to have an (albeit shitty) multiparty system with first past the post voting when the US has never been able to break out of the two party system?
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The idea that the UK’s system is a multiparty system is…basically just an illusion. All of the parties always coalesce into two coalitions after every single election;
1) Labour always lead a mix of LibDems, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein, Greens, and SNP, all of which largely vote the same way, but all of which compete against each other for votes.
2) Tories typically don’t need to form a coalition, but even without the need they typically end up alongside DUP and other right-leaning parties (e.g. Reform, formerly UKIP).
On the Left, the primary difference is just between Labour and the three devolved national parties, and that’s just about local sovereignty in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
On the Right, the Tories have typically maintained a larger group that hasn’t needed coalitions, and as a result they historically have had a tendency to win elections in part *because* they don’t have to worry about vote splitters on their half of British politics.
Put a different way; the British Left would likely be a hell of a lot more successful at a national level if they were one party instead of several, and a major aspect of why they’ve won in *this* election is because so much of the conservative vote ended up being split.
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