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

Imagine four constituencies

1. Labour 51%, Reform 49%

2. Labour 51%, Reform 49%

3. Labour 51%, Reform 49%

4. Reform 99%, Labour 1%

Average vote share: Labour 38.5%, Reform 60.75%.

Labour win three seats, Reform win one.

An extreme example but that’s how it works. You can come a close second in every single seat and win nothing at all on the back of 10m votes.

Reform won in four of their seats but were nowhere near in hundreds, second in dozens.