The Labour Party has been accused of “trying to stitch up” next year’s elections. It comes as Angela Rayner is set to change the voting system for mayors after Reform UK won in Lincolnshire and Hull in May.
The current system, which sees the candidate with the most votes win, will be replaced by a European-style system known as the Supplementary Vote. It is designed to make sure candidates have wider support, giving voters the ability to rank a first and optional second choice. Any candidate that receives over 50% of first-choice votes wins outright. However, if there is not a decisive winner then the ballots are re-checked for second preferences and the candidate with the highest total wins.
The Supplementary Vote system was used to elect London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan. However, Reform have deemed the move “deeply cynical” after their two victories earlier this year.
A Reform spokesman told The Telegraph: “Labour is trying to stitch up next year’s mayoral elections in a deeply cynical attempt to diminish the success of Reform. We are on track to replicate our successes this May in next year’s elections, so it’s no wonder they are doing this now.”
Reform UK, which has been declared by Sir Keir Starmer as his main opposition, won two mayoralties and 10 councils in May’s local elections. However, the mayoralty in Hull and East Yorkshire was won with just 35% of the vote while the Lincolnshire candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns won with 42%.
The new ranking preference system gives voters the chance to support smaller parties without it being a “wasted vote”. For example, someone could vote Green as their first choice but, if their candidate did not finish in the top two after the first round of voting, their vote would go to their second choice.
While Reform UK previously supported a more proportional voting system, the party’s growing popularity means it can benefit from the current first-past-the post system. Nigel Farage’s party is polling at 30% – enough to win a general election under the current system.
Labour has traditionally struggled under the first-past-the post system compared to the Conservatives. However, the Tories now face a split on the Right due to the rise of the Reform UK Party, making it potentially easier for Labour to win mayoraly elections.
Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, said: “We were elected on a promise of change, not just for a few areas cherrypicked by a Whitehall spreadsheet, but for the entire country. It was never going to be easy to deliver the growth our country desperately needed with the inheritance we were dumped with.
“But that’s why we are opting to devolve not dictate and delivering a bill that will rebalance decade-old divides and empower communities. We’re ushering in a new dawn of regional power and bringing decision-making to a local level so that no single street or household is left behind and every community thrives from our plan for change.”