THE Green Party’s economic spokesman and MEP for the South West Molly Scott Cato has called for urgent changes to our ‘archaic’ first-past-the-post voting system.

Ms Cato, who lives in Stroud, blamed a “bankrupt” electoral system for her party’s lack of a parliamentary breakthrough and called for change to a system proportional representation.

She blamed an outdated system for the lack of representation of smaller parties in Westminster: “Our democratic rights have been traduced by a ruling class who have distorted the political system to serve their interests".

Highlighting that the Conservatives won a majority with just 37 per cent of the vote, she said: “Under our current system it is not how you vote that matters but where you vote.

“We must mobilise to change our outrageous electoral system for one that effectively represents our views rather than enabling the creation of undemocratic majorities.”

Stroud News and Journal:

Ms Cato, who was the first Green MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar, pointed to the fact that despite achieving their best ever result of more than 1.1 million votes, the Greens still just one MP.

Sarah Lunnon of the Green Party and Ukip’s Caroline Stephens both echoed the need for electoral reform.

Mrs Lunnon, who came fourth in Thursday’s election with 2,779 votes said: “I think this election perfectly demonstrates the need for change.”

She blamed the first-past-the-post system for encouraging tactical voting in Stroud.

“If we had a system of proportional representation in place people would use their vote very differently.

“Instead of voting tactically for something they don’t really believe in, people would choose policies of hope, policies they actually supported.

“In the pluralistic political climate we live in now the first-past the post system is simply not fit for purpose.”

Ukip’s ambitions nationally suffered the same fate as the Greens, winning only one seat despite coming third in the vote share with 3.8 million across the UK.

Caroline Stephens, Ukip’s candidate for Stroud, came third with 4,848 votes, an increase of 5.7 per cent since 2010.

Despite her success, Mrs Stephens said her party had the same issues as the Greens, suffering from a lack of representation in spite of big surges in support in the last five years.

“The public need to regain confidence in our democratic system,” she said.

“How can it be in the interests of democracy that Ukip can gain just one MP with 3,881,129 votes, and yet the SNP gain 56 MPs with 1,154,562 votes?

“We need to see a change in the system to reaffirm people’s trust in fair democracy.”