However on the other hand smaller parties have won increasing proportions of the vote in recent elections. Along with the fact that some small parties to well in certain areas, e.g. Plaid Cymru in Wales and the SNP’s in Scotland. Local elections are often contested by three or more parties and these parties get a considerable number of votes but due to the ‘first past the post’ voting system in the UK they get a very low number of seats.
The argument for the UK having a three party system relies on the fact that they are the third largest party in the country and since February 1974, either alone or together with the Social Democrats, they have contested all or nearly all constituencies nation-wide and regularly polled very highly. The Liberal Democrats do particularly well in by-elections and local elections and is the main opposition to the Conservatives in 145 constituencies. However the Liberal Democrats have not held power alone as a party since 1915, because of this in parliamentary terms they are a minor party. Nevertheless this would not be the case, the liberal Democrats would be stronger, if we had a proportional representation voting system instead of ‘first past the post’.
The next sort of system the UK could have is a dominant party. The argument for a dominant party system relies upon the fact that between 1918 and 1997, the Conservatives were in government for 58 years, which is 73% of the time. During that time it enjoyed several lengthy uninterrupted spells in power. Although these figures look persuasive the Conservatives never have got a very large percentage share of the vote but still managed to get into power thanks to the ‘first past the post’ electoral process. People are now thinking that Labour might be the new dominant party, it is not possible to say for sure at the moment. But in 1997 despite Labour’s huge margin of victory in terms of seats it still only got 43.2% of the vote, this is comparable to the Conservative share during their 18 years in power between 1979 and 1992.
The final system to discuss is a multi-party one. In the 1997 General Election the combined vote of the two major parties, Conservative and Labour, was around 74%. The minor parties vote had risen to around 24%, compared to 3.2% in 1951. This shows a huge jump in the number of people voting for the smaller parties, especially the Liberal Democrats. In the 2001 General Election the combined vote of the Conservative and Labour parties was 72.4% leaving the minor parties with 27.6% of the vote, another increase on the previous election. The UK has many political parties but their strongholds are very localised, for example the SNP is popular in Scotland as it is a party which deals purely with Scotland, it has its say in the Scottish Parliament, and Plaid Cymru is popular in Wales, in the Welsh assembly. These parties are also represented in the main UK Parliament in Westminster. There is also parties such as the Greens, UK Independence party and the BNP, however these are not so popular as they are generally ‘single issue’ parties.
In conclusion I believe there maybe an argument for England having a two or three party system however I don’t believe that the UK as a whole is one. I am convinced that as a whole the UK has a multi-party system as many parties have influence in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.