The Supplementary Vote is coming back for all elections for Mayor in the English devolution bill – at last the Starmer government has a sensible constitutional reform in play https://t.co/0p7ywTMFgK

— Patrick Dunleavy (@PJDunleavy) July 11, 2025

A few weeks ago I said there could be value in backing Reform to win the 2028 London mayoral race because at the time the election was set to be held under the flawed first past the post system where I could see a party winning the election on say 20% of the vote.

Labour have reversed the the mandateless change the Tories inflicted on the mayoral voting systems so I expect in London this is good news for the centre left parties but in other parts of the country it might favour the right.

It is very disappointing that Sir Keir Starmer didn’t go for a more equitable voting system such as the single transferable vote or the alternative vote system which is used to elect Labour leaders like him, the Tories couldn’t object given the Tories use the exhaustive ballot system to elect their leader which can be called quasi-AV. If it is good enough for Starmer and Badenoch then it is good enough for the country.

As for betting on the next London mayoral election a lot will depend if Sir Sadiq Khan decides to run for a fourth term, right now he feels like a lay, rather than Labour.

TSE