A CROSS-PARTY bid to change the way we elect MPs to the House of Commons came to Worcester with local councillors among those lending a hand at a street stall.
Make Votes Matter Midlands made their voices heard in Angel Street for two-hours to promote the group’s goal of changing the electoral system in Westminster from its current system, First Past the Post in which the party which wins the most seats in the House of Commons form the Government.
Campaigners have long claimed the current First Past the Post system is leading to governments which are unrepresentative of the population – the current Conservative government was elected by 43 per cent of the vote in 2019.
As a group, Make Votes Matter feel governments should not be elected by a minority of the population and so held a stall to raise awareness about the issue.
Campaigners also sought to highlight what they called the ‘fairer’ Proportional Representation electoral system in which all votes would matter as MPs and Governments would only be elected after achieving a majority among voters.
More than a dozen volunteers helped out over the course of the event, including volunteers from all political parties in Worcester, such as Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party.
Green Party leader Coun Louis Stephen and party colleague Coun Majory Bisset joined the stall as did Labour’s former Nunnery councillor Tracey Biggs and current membership secretary Edward Kimberley.
Chair of Make Votes Matter Midlands Reed James said: “As a group, we handed out leaflets, asked passers-by to engage with a quiz we made and got many people to sign up to Make Votes Matters mailing list, by the end of the two hours we were almost out of leaflets and had three complete pages of sign-ups.”
Visit www.makevotesmatter.org.uk for more on the campaign.
