To what extent is the UK a two-party system?

by patrickctucker (student)

To what extent is the UK a two-party system? [25 Marks]

A two-party system is where two larger parties dominate voting in every level of government, which results in nearly all elected offices are held by these two main parties. In the UK’s case, in recent history, it has been the Conservative and Labour party dominating office—with no other party having a Prime Minister. Before this, it was the Conservatives and the Liberal party who were the two leading parties. This shows that despite the parties competing changed, the UK has always operated under a two-party system.

There is a historical context of a two-party system in UK politics, the Whigs and the Tory groups began this tradition—these semi-party-like groups were the two sets of people who would dominate the Commons and have Prime Ministers. This has continued in to today, with Labour and the Conservatives—the only two parties to have held majority governments in well over 50 years. This can be seen by the 2001 general election, in which Labour secured a 40.7% majority of the vote, the Conservatives 31.7% and the Liberal Democrats with only 18.3%—this shows the nature of the two-party system that is in the UK, with the Conservatives and Labour parties being the two parties near a majority.
However, this is not reflected in the two latest general elections in 2005 and 2010—with support for Labour falling to 29% and support for the Lib Dems rising to 23% by 2010. The 2010 general election also resulted in the need of a coalition with the third party, which shows that it is not only the two larger parties being involved in active government, as the Lib Dems now have a share in government. This shows the influx in in support for the third party, being only 6% behind one of the big two parties and gaining seats in the ruling government. Despite this, however, Labour still secured over 100 more seats than the Lib Dems—which, perhaps, shows that there is still a two-party system in place in the UK.

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Even the voting system that is in place for the general election favours the two-party system. The first-past-the-post system often brings back a strong majoritarian government, this is because of the wasted votes for parties in constituencies they failed to secure a majority in; this means that the smaller parties have a more difficult process of securing seats in parliaments because their support is more sporadically spread out across the state, as opposed to lots of areas leaning to one side (which is what usually happens with Labour and Conservatives, with areas leaning towards the left or the right). Traditionally, the north has been supporters of Labour and the south Conservatives (with certain exceptions)—this does not leave much room for a third party to break through.
However, devolved governments have shown it is possible for parties other than Labour and the Conservatives to be the ruling party in the UK. The Scottish National Party managed to secure 50% of the seats in the last election for the Scottish Parliament; they have done this despite the proportional representation system, which is designed to give more equal representation of all parties and usually does not encourage majority rulers. The SNP have managed to out-vote both Labour and the Conservatives in a system that promotes less of a two-party system. This shows that the two-party system is not apparent in all of the UK, as a party other than the big two ruling Westminster were not able to win the majority in the Scottish parliament—with Labour being the closest, a whole 32 seats less than the SNP.

Finally, the media’s portrayal of political events also promotes a two-party system—with newspapers often leaning to the left or the right, and generally affiliating themselves more with one party than the others; for example, the Daily Telegraph supports the Conservative party whereas the Independent is more likely to support Labour with their centre-left stance. Also, in the run up to the election, usually, the media will focus on the Labour and Conservative campaigns as opposed to equal attention to all parties—this means that people are mostly subject to the views of these two parties, making it more usual for people to affiliate themselves with these parties.
However, during the 2010 campaign, the Lib Dems were allowed to participate in the media covered debates—this gave them more of a platform to promote themselves as a party and to win support from a broader scope of voters; this could be seen as why they were able to secure a larger percentage of the vote than they had done in the past, and were able to secure a share in government. Media has also covered parties such as the BNP and UKIP because of their securing of seats in the European Parliament, showing the edge away from two parties dominating every level of government.

Ergo, despite the long lasting rule of majority governments from Labour and the Conservatives, with the FPTP system encouraging this majoritarian rule of recent history, it can be seen that the third party is rising to disturb the two-party system. It’s presence in the general elections is almost rivalling that of the two large parties in the popular vote—if this was controlled into more specific constituencies, the Lib Dem party would have a reasonable chance in securing a majority government.

The evidence, therefore, points toward the idea that the UK is moving away from the two-party system that has been implemented in its traditions. With the rise of support for the Lib Dem party in the general elections; dominance of the SNP in the Scottish Parliament; the media’s coverage of smaller parties; and the BNP and UKIP gaining seats in the European Parliament, it is apparent that more parties are beginning to gain an active role in UK politics. The Lib Dems being a part of the coalition government has the potential to change the system in the UK for the foreseeable future; even if their association with the Conservatives taints their reputation, they have now firmly placed themselves on the map—and it is likely that more people will vote for them in favour of voting for one of the two larger parties in the future.