Britons ask: End of Two-Party System?

Mark O'Neill May 27, 2026 14:14

Since 1922, Britain has been governed by one of two major parties, Conservatives and Labour. It has avoided the coalition politics of many countries in continental Europe.

But British people are now asking: is that about to change? In council elections on May 7, the two major parties together polled just 34 per cent of the votes, losing more than 2,000 seats between them. The Labour defeat was so severe that Keir Starmer is likely to be replaced as leader and Prime Minister.

It was in the 1920s that Labour replaced the Liberal Party as the main opposition party to the Conservatives. This followed a law in 1918 that extended the vote to 5.2 million men and 8.5 women. The majority were poor and working class. They mainly would vote for Labour.

For the next century, Labour and Conservatives alternated as the ruling party. From 1940 to 1945, the two served together in a wartime coalition. In the general election of 1950, 90 per cent of people voted for one of the two parties.

Both are assisted by an electoral system that favours the two large parties. Britain’s House of Commons has 650 members. All are elected by a system called “first past the post”. The winner is the person who receives the largest number of votes in his constituency.

Often the winner obtains less than half of the votes cast and sometimes less than a third.

The general election of 2024 was the most unfair in history. It was the first in which four parties gained over ten percent of votes and five parties over five percent of votes. Labour and the Conservatives recorded their lowest combined vote share -- 57.4 per cent -- in the era of universal suffrage, with other parties and independents taking over 40 percent of the votes.

The Labour Party obtained 9.7 million votes, just 33.7 per cent of the national vote. But it won 411 of the 650 seats, about 63 per cent of the total. Two thirds of the British electorate did not vote for it.

Turnout was 59.7 per cent, the lowest at a general election since 2001. Turnout was 7.6 percentage points lower than in 2019. Taking this into account, scholars have calculated that less than one in five of those eligible to vote chose the Labour Party.

For decades, some in Britain have campaigned for the system of proportional representation (PR), widely used in European countries. One such group is the Electoral Reform Society. In an article published last September, it said:

“PR would align seats in Parliament more closely with the votes cast. A party winning 33.7 per cent of the vote would receive roughly the same share of seats, giving every voter a voice and ensuring majorities reflect genuine support. If democracy is to be representative and stable, it is time for proportional representation in the UK – a system that builds on rock, not sand,” it said.

The two ruling parties have always resisted this. They know that it would mean the end of their duopoly on power.

The decline of the two parties began in 2010. That year the Conservatives won the general election but without a majority in Parliament. So it formed a coalition government with the centre left Liberal Democrats.

The biggest blow came in June 2016, when 52 per cent of the population voted to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum. The leaders of the three largest parties backed Remain, but their voters split down the middle. From that time on, British politics began to fragment.

The big winner of Brexit was the UK Independence Party led by Nigel Farage. He is currently leader of Reform UK, the biggest winner in the May local elections. It won 1,454 council seats, up from the two it held before. It earned 3.6 million votes, 26 per cent of the total, with the Green Party second with 18 per cent.

The party called the outcome “a historic turning point for Britain and Reform UK”. It is populist, anti-immigration and in favour of tax cuts. It would remove Britain’s adherence to EU-aligned regulations and wants to carry out mass deportation of illegal immigrants.

If a general election were held today, Reform UK would win the most seats and Farage is likely to become Prime Minister.

Among the public, he arouses intense emotions for and against. Supporters say that, in power for so long. the two big parties have failed – in immigration, growing the economy, controlling the national debt and protecting the way of life of white British people.

Opponents say that he and his party are unfit for power, with no experience of government or economic management and with many of their policies impossible to implement.

The next general election is due to be held no later than June 2029. Under certain conditions, it could be held earlier. No-one can predict the outcome.

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.