if Reform had nearly 5million votes why do they only have 4 seats

Question

Lib Dem got 3.5mil votes and have 71 seats, Sinn Fein have 210,000 and seven seats

In: Other

Answer 1

I think it’s been explained really well, but I think for me the key is it’s working as designed.

Comparing seats with national votes gives the impression that a party should have more or less seats.

That would be incorrect as first past the post didn’t aim to deliver a proportional number of seats to votes, so it’s not a flaw of FPTP.

It’s the focus on vote share that is the mistake.

The role of an MP in the current system is to represent their constituency and so the most popular candidate from that vote is selected. That sounds pretty sensible.