The National Commission on Electoral Reform - In a Nutshell

On 1 September 2026, in his first statement to the Commons as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham was asked twice whether he would set up a National Commission. To Ed Davey he offered “a democracy taskforce working out of the Cabinet Office”. To Lisa Smart he said that changing the voting system “needs a mandate” and belongs in the next manifesto. He did not mention the commission.

The guide takes that position seriously. The Prime Minister is right that a change to the voting system needs a mandate. The question is what a mandate would actually be for. A manifesto line promising "proportional representation" names a family of systems, not a system: it does not tell voters whether their MP would represent a single constituency or a region, whether they would rank candidates or pick a party list, or how big a majority a government would need. Voters cannot give a mandate for a change nobody has described.

That is the job a commission does. It agrees the tests a voting system should meet, publishes the evidence, puts the options in front of a Voters' Forum of 100 ordinary citizens, and lays a specific proposal before Parliament. A manifesto that carries that proposal asks for a mandate the public can see and hold a government to. And the timing follows from the Prime Minister's own logic: to have the proposal ready for the manifestos written before the 2029 election, the work has to start in autumn 2026.

The guide also explains what the commission is not. It is not committed to any voting system. Its first job is to agree what a good system should do and its second is to ask whether First Past the Post does it. If the answer is yes, it says so. Nobody who backs the commission is signed up to an outcome, only to a fair process.

You can read the full report by clicking the pink button below.

If you think the Prime Minister should kick off the commission in his first 100 days, add your name to our petition - HERE.