The Review of Voting Systems in the United Kingdom calculates that had the last general election been run under a more proportional system, the main beneficiaries would have been the Liberal Democrats and the biggest losers would have been Labour. The Conservatives would have been affected marginally by most systems.

In 2005 Labour won 356 seats, or 55.1 per cent, with 35.2 per cent of the vote. The Conservatives won 198 seats (30.5 per cent) with 32.3 per cent of the votes. The Liberal Democrats won 62 seats (9.6 per cent) with 22 per cent of the votes.

If the election had been run with the “alternative vote plus” system, Labour would have won 307 seats in the Commons, the Conservatives 199 and the Lib Dems 74.

Under the “single transferable vote”, Labour would have won 263 seats, the Conservatives 200 and Liberal Democrats 147.

Smaller parties, such as the Greens, UKIP and the BNP would be unlikely to have benefited from the alternative vote or single transferrable vote systems, which have been the subject of serious consideration in recent years.

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