“First-past-the-post, combined with the whip system, takes the votes of millions, and turns them into inordinate power for a small Whitehall elite.”

Andy Burnham wrote those words in The Guardian in 2022. It was not the first time he voiced such views. Nor was it the last.

Last week, at his first conference as Labour leader and Prime Minister, Burnham announced a national commission on electoral reform. Words I have longed to hear.

It is long past time that we changed our voting system. Our country has never been more divided. Two-thirds of voters believe the political system is broken and no mainstream party knows how to fix it.

Underpinning this is the view that no matter who you vote for, nothing changes. The public feel disenfranchised, cut adrift from a political class who appear more obsessed with Westminster machinations than the struggles of the average person.

Flashy policies might alleviate public anger in the short-term, but the problem isn’t legislative; it’s structural. We are running a modern, multi-party Britain on a 19th century electoral system first introduced when 100% of women and 40% of men didn’t have the right to vote.

First-past-the-post routinely produces majority governments on minority votes, wasting millions of ballots and producing safe seats which fuel cynicism, weaken political legitimacy, and create large groups of permanently unrepresented

voters. Elections are won on a handful of swing seats – most rarely if ever change hands. Is it any wonder their voters feel disenfranchised? The South Devon Primary in 2024 was the only example I know of where a community said 100+ years of one party was enough and they wanted something different – and then made it happen.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The 2024 election produced the most unfair result in our history – with Labour taking 411 seats on 33.7% of the vote.

But in New Zealand their 2023 election was the tenth using a version of proportional representation. Up until 1996, they had used a variation of our first-past-the-post system. Since making the switch, turnout has never dipped below 74%.

Compare that to the UK. None of our many general elections in the same timeframe have seen turnout reach those levels. And our trend is heading in the opposite direction. In 2024, turnout stood at just 59.7%.

Research consistently shows proportional systems deliver higher turnout and greater political engagement. That latter point is crucial. The debate over which voting system we use is not about embedding any party advantage. It’s about protecting our democracy.

Disenfranchisement is fertile ground for resentment, anger and extremism, and it’s no surprise public apathy is reaching unprecedented highs at the same time as voters drift toward the easy answers of Reform.

Our electoral system is deepening divides in society and dilutes the value of every vote. It does a disservice to all who fought for the democratic systems we have today.

That has been apparent for a long time. Successive Prime Ministers have ducked action. This time must be different.

Burnham talks of problem-solving, not point-scoring. This, in my opinion, would be a very good problem to start with, so let's get to work and fix our system.