Is Britain a Multi Party System?

On one side, Britain can arguably never exhibit multi party politics because of the voting system used during the elections. The FPTP system can be seen as the culprit because it favours the big parties and sidelines the smaller parties where there is little representation spread thinly over the constituencies. FPTP also tends to produce a disproportionate election outcome wherein the 2 favoured parties receive a greater proportion of seats than the vote merits. For example, in the 2005 election the Labor and Tory vote was 65% but the number of seats allocated to both parties was 82%. This system fuels a two party system leving little room for multi party politics since the smaller parties do not receive sufficient votes; not placing them on a platform where they could possibly initiate a coalition with one of the 2 big parties.

On the other hand, as mentioned above, the formation of a coalition government between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives suggest that two partyism has given way to a multiple party system which operates in different ways at different levels. This reflects a long-term decline in the combined support for the Conservative and Labour parties. In 1974 there were just 38 MPs from parties other than the big two parties whereas in 2010 this figure rose to 85. A sizeable 12% of the electorate voted for the smaller parties and this essentially questions FPTPs ability in favouring the 2 party system. The hung coalition suggests that we need to rethink blaming FPTP for a two party dominance and slowly start accepting that probably there is a shift in voting behavior amongst the electorate.

Lastly, apart from the Westminster parliament, there is evidence that multipartyism operates in other areas of British politics. For example, until 2007, the Scottish Parliament was controlled by a Labour , Lib Dem coalition whereas the during 2007-2011, a minority Scottish National Party administration was in power. This demonstrates a shift in power from previously governing parties to other smaller parties. Even in the Welsh Assembly, no party has ben single handedly governing the place without a change in government. The Assembly has had 4 different types of government, a majority Labour Administration, Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition and another one between Plaid Cymru and Labour. This supports the idea that no single party enjoys the adequate parliamentary strength needed to have a realistic prospect of winning government power alone. In such cases, multi party politics has emerged in Britain which implies that the distinction between major and minor parties are irrelevant.