Andy Street has urged the Conservatives to embrace electoral reform, arguing that a proportional system would encourage the party to be a “broad church”.
The former West Midlands mayor made the case for the single transferable vote (STV), saying it would push the party towards a wider policy offer.
“It will encourage us to think about that broad policy platform, be that broad church – the lesson of history is that has always won through for us in the past”, he said.
“The system would enable and encourage that to come about again.”
Street, who served as mayor of the West Midlands from 2017 to 2024, is co-chair of the Prosper UK group, which describes itself as a “forward-looking centre-right movement”.
Proportional representation describes a category of electoral systems where the share of seats won by each political party closely reflects its share of the total votes cast. Polling conducted by YouGov after the 2024 general election showed that 49% of the public would support a switch to a more proportional system, with 26% opposed (favouring retention of the existing first past the post system).
The Conservative Party is a longstanding proponent of the FPTP system. In its 2024 manifesto, the party stated: “We remain committed to the first past the post system for elections, maintaining the direct link with the local voter.”
STV is a proportional and preferential system which uses multi-member constituencies. It is used in elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, and local government elections in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In the Northern Ireland Assembly, a total of 90 MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) represent 18 constituencies. Under the system, voters rank candidates in order of preference (1, 2, 3, etc). To be elected, a candidate must reach a “quota” – a specific threshold of votes calculated by the Droop Quota formula. This is calculated by dividing the total number of valid voting papers cast by the number of seats to be filled plus one, and adding one.
Once a candidate reaches this quota, their surplus votes (i.e. those above the quota) are transferred to the voters’ next preferences.
If any seats then still need to be filled, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their next preferences are redistributed to the remaining candidates.
This process continues until all seats in the constituency are filled.
STV is also used in the Australian Senate, the Tasmanian House of Assembly, and the upper house of India’s federal Parliament.
UK rejects electoral reform as AV referendum ends in landslide ‘No’ vote
In comments reported by Times journalist Aubrey Allegretti, Street said parties under STV need to offer “something that actually provides people real answers and solutions – and actually is not narrow in its appeal.”
He pointed to his own campaign at the 2024 West Midlands mayoral election, which he lost.
“In the last election in 2024, I lost, so you might say ‘no use’”, Street said. “But we managed through that approach to squeeze our opponents. The Liberal Democrats vote was down to just 1%. If you’ve got a moderate, inclusive Conservative you don’t need to vote Lib Dem.”
He added: “By its very nature, it involves the big tent, the inclusivity.”
Street urged his party to be “brave” on the issue.
Andy Street makes a pitch for electoral reform – arguing it will help the Conservatives offer a “broad church”.
He makes a specific point about the benefits of STV – but there’s definitely an undercurrent point about the Tories’ direction:
“You have to think in your policy…
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) October 4, 2026
The comments come after Andy Burnham announced a national commission on electoral reform in his speech to Labour conference, and committed Labour to a manifesto pledge to change the electoral system.
Burnham invited “all the political parties” to be part of the commission’s work. The prime minister said Westminster “prizes point scoring over problem solving”, and that this was why “so many things have gone unfixed for so long”. He said changing Britain required politicians to “change ourselves”.
Burnham has avoided pre-empting the commission by setting out a preferred model of electoral reform.
Andy Burnham announces national commission on electoral reform
