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Thursday 22 May 2014

16 councils are set to become virtual One Party States

One Party States, defined as councils at least 75% dominated by one party, are bad for voters because they are almost never based on popular mandate in line with the amount of power the ruling party enjoys. In Lewisham, for instance, the ERS expects over 90% of the council seats to be taken by Labour, but barely half of the electorate actually to vote for them. One Party States also tend to lead to bad governance, as a council dominated by a single party lacks the scrutiny provided by an effective opposition.

The 16 new One Party States (projections)
Council
Current % of Council held by one party
Likely % after 2014 elections
Islington
72.9
93.4
Lewisham
72.2
92.3
Nuneaton and Bedworth
73.5
84.8
Lambeth
69.8
84.1
Lincoln
72.7
81.8
Hastings
71.9
81.3
Sheffield
70.2
80.9
Bury
70.6
80.4
Rochdale
70
80
Ipswich
66.7
79.2
Warrington
71.9
78.9
Wolverhampton
73.3
78.3
Oldham
72.9
78
Bassetlaw
70.1
77.1
Blackburn with Darwen
70.3
75
Rossendale
66.7
75
The potential new One Party States are all Labour-controlled councils owing to the electoral cycle favouring Labour in 2014. These 16 councils will join 99 already existing One Party States, 63 of which are Conservative, 3 of which are Liberal Democrat and 33 of which are Labour. That means another 3.2 million people will join the existing 16.2 million living under One Party States.

Darren Hughes, Deputy Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: “This week’s local elections should be a celebration of democracy, participation and choice. Instead, over three million more people will find themselves coming under the control of local authorities utterly dominated by one political party. If this dominance were a reflection of the votes cast on Thursday, then there wouldn’t be any problem. But the sad truth is that One Party States are almost never based on a popular mandate equal to the dominance of the party.

Continuing Darren Hughes commented: “Often One Party States become complacent owing to the lack of effective opposition. This can lead to poor government, which is ultimately bad for voters as it undermines the council’s ability to provide a good service for the community. We need to introduce a fairer voting system for local elections – one which gives voters the chance to be represented by candidates for whom they have actually voted. Local electoral reform would be good for voters, in that it would give them real choice. And it would be good for the quality of local democracy itself, making councils better scrutinised, more transparent and therefore more effective.

Concluding Darren Hughes said: “In Scotland, the local electoral system was changed to the Single Transferable Vote in 2007. Since then, One Party States have become a thing of the past. We need to do the same in England and Wales, so that voters get the politicians they want, and the democracy they deserve.”