What do we consider when we head to the polls? In an ideal world we vote for the candidate we want; in the imperfect world in which we find ourselves, we often vote against the party we don't.
Nowhere is that mantra clearer than in the results of last weekend’s French elections. The far-right National Rally had been hoping to win a number of large cities such as Marseilles, Nîmes, and Toulon. On each count, they failed. The French system offers voters a second chance to vote for their representatives; the field is usually narrowed to a two-horse race and voters get a clear choice between two candidates.
It is here, during this second-round run-off, the National Rally failed on Sunday - as it has throughout the last decade. Their leader Marine Le Pen suffered two crushing Presidential election defeats at this stage in 2017 and 2022. Similarly, their bid to control the National Assembly failed in 2024, only winning the third most seats despite the most votes, after the left and centre worked together to block them.
The system offers French voters an opportunity to tactically vote for who they want and, importantly, against who they don't. France, like Britain, has seen its centre collapse in favour of populist extremes. However, while the French system offers some protection against political excesses, Britain's does not.
When Brits went to the polls at the last general election, they were faced with a simpler choice than voters at the recent Gorton & Denton by-election. The choice many voters made in 2024 was simple: anyone but the Tories. Best for Britain's tactical voting campaign helped voters with this choice; 91 Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs won their seats due to voters uniting behind the best placed candidate to defeat the Conservatives.
We were able to give clear tactical voting advice to 5m people because British politics still behaved as a two-party system: Labour and the Conservatives combined won 58% of the vote. Voter concentration meant, typically, voters were faced with a Labour vs. Conservative or Liberal Democrat vs. Conservative decision.
Today, that choice is murkier than ever. Much of the campaigning from both the Greens and Labour during the Gorton & Denton by-election was centred on proclaiming they were the only option to stop Reform UK. In the end, the Greens were correct, but the demography of the seat - with a large student population and multicultural demographics - meant a Reform UK victory was always less likely than in other areas of the country.
Come the 2029 General Election, assuming the fragmented nature of British politics persists, voters will be faced with high-risk decisions on who is best placed to block Reform UK. The danger of the left-wing coalition splitting and allowing Reform UK to win through the middle is real. Voters deserve a system which allows them to make informed decisions on who is best placed to stop the governments they don't want, as much as to elect the governments they do.
A more proportional system would allow British voters greater control over their vote. Despite the advance of Reform UK and the shifting Overton window, the left-leaning coalition still commands 50% of public voting intention compared to just 42% on the right. The latest polls and the recent by-elections in Gorton & Denton and Caerphilly show a majority of the British public do not want Reform UK in power and are willing to change their vote to ensure it.
But whereas the French system empowers its citizens to vote tactically, ours risks splitting the progressive vote and enabling the radical right. When it comes to electoral politics, it might be time to crack open a textbook, and take some lessons in French.