What's happening?

Britain's Labour partyThe main left-wing political party in the UK. is holding its annual meeting. There is good news for its leaders - they are ahead in the polls. Today, nearly half of Britons say they plan to vote for Labour. Only a third say they will vote for the ConservativesA traditionally right-wing or centre right political party in the UK. Members are sometimes called Tories. , who are in charge now.  

Labour leaders think they have a real chance of winning the next vote. It would be rare - the party has existed for 122 years and only ruled for 33. 

Many think this is due to Britain's voting system. It is called First Past the PostA voting system in which the winner is simply whoever comes first in each area. As such, the winning party almost never has a majority of the vote, and sometimes might even win a smaller share of the vote than its opponent.. This means in each area, called a constituencyAn area whose voters elect a person to represent them. , the person with the most votes wins. 

This means that if a party's voters are spread across the whole country, they will win more areas and are more likely to win power.

This helps the Conservatives, because their voters are spread across Britain. But Labour's voters mostly live in cities. 

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Now, Labour members want to change to a system called proportional representationA voting system in which the winning party gets a proportion of parliamentary seats equal to its proportion of the vote.. It means that if Labour got 45% of the vote, they would get 45% of the seats for MPsMembers of Parliament. MPs are elected to represent people in 650 different geographical areas. . It would not matter where their voters were. 

Is it time to change how we vote?

Yes! It is not fair that some parties get more power with less of the vote. In a new system, each person's vote would be worth the same amount. 

No! The system is fine as it is. In a new system, no party would ever have enough of the vote to lead on their own.