Reform UK voter 'disparity' sparks fury and 'urgent' change to UK voting system: 'It's appalling!'

Reform UK voter 'disparity' sparks fury and 'urgent' change to UK voting system: 'It's appalling!'

WATCH NOW: Emma Woolf calls out the 'disparity' of the number of votes cast in the General Election

GB News
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 06/07/2024

- 18:19

Updated: 06/07/2024

- 18:22

Reform UK won five seats in Parliament after securing over four million votes on election night

Reform UK winning just five seats despite being the political party with the third most votes at this year's General Election is "appalling", it has been claimed.

Nigel Farage's party gathered over four million votes in the battle for Downing Street, as Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives were wiped out by Labour after 14 years.


In a sorrowful night for the Tories, Reform UK gained Great Yarmouth, Boston and Skegness, and South Basildon and East Thurrock from the party, while former Conservative MP Lee Anderson retained Ashfield in Nottinghamshire.

Reform UK candidates also came second in almost 100 other constituencies, despite only being on the campaign trail for a matter of weeks.

Keir Starmer, Emma Woolf, Nigel Farage

Emma Woolf says the first-past-the-post voting system has been 'appalling' in this year's General Election

PA / GB News

Reacting to the election result, Commentator Emma Woolf said the events of July 4 were a "story of Tory collapse, not a story of a huge overwhelming enthusiasm or love for Labour".

In criticism of the breakdown of the election results, Woolf highlighted that the "biggest issue" of the election is the current UK voting system.

Woolf told GB News: "The real issue here is the disparity between the number of votes cast and the representation.

"The disparity between the number of votes, I think that needs to be addressed urgently."

Sir Ed Davey

Sir Ed Davey won 71 seats in Parliament despite garnering less votes than Reform UK

PA

Woolf was outraged as she reminded the GB News panel of the election result figures from Thursday night.

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Woolf revealed: "Reform UK got 4.1 million votes and got five seats. Lib Dems got 3.5 million votes and 71 seats. Green got 1.9 million votes and got four seats.

"Reform UK got more than double of what the Greens got, and they're on four and five seats. I just think this is appalling."

Calling for a change to a voting system of proportional representation rather than first-past-the-post, Woolf stated: "This is in a democratic country. Every vote should somehow count.

"I know it's never going to be an exact science, but to look at these figures and to realise that over four million people's votes are represented by five Reform UK MPs in the House of Parliament, I think is appalling."

Emma Woolf

Woolf told GB News that 'everyone's vote should count' in a 'democratic country'

GB News

Weighing in on the discussion, Deputy Leader of Reform UK Ben Habib agreed that criticism of the figures makes "perfect sense", but praised the "seismic event" of Reform UK gaining five seats despite being projected to "have none at the start of the campaign".

Habib told the panel: "The real story is that under first-past-the-post, Reform UK, which three months ago was forecast not to get any seats, got five seats.

"This is a seismic political event - this will have a number of impacts. The first is it will allow Reform UK to build real networks within those five constituencies. And we will be able to build now for the next five years, a campaign across the country.

"We came second in 98 seats against Labour. And we will be targeting those seats in particular. Labour is sitting on a lot of very thin majorities - there will be by-elections and you will see more seats coming to Reform UK over this Parliament."

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