It's not impossible to win a general election.

Matt Hudson

Matt Hudson is the political advocate for The United Party

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An interesting premise, pertaining to the possibility of a brand new political party winning a general election, but one that seldom garners much attention by the general media, if indeed from other political parties; which begs a simple question, why not?

The answer could unlock the deadlock in our political and parliamentary system, why has it been a two horse race all this time? Why haven't we seen a Green Party government, or a Lib Dem government? It can't be taken away that these two parties have finally started making big gains in the last few elections, but neither are a leading opposition party. That position is still held by the Tories, and while they took huge losses it still beggars belief that none of the other parties apart from Labour overtook them.

Here's a fact that is often dismissed out of hand and conveniently overlooked. At the last General Election in 2024; despite the result often pegged as a landslide victory for Labour, it was actually a landslide loss for the Conservatives, with turnout lower than the previous election. 28 million people may have voted, but 19 million registered voters didn't vote, but worse yet a further 8 million who were eligible to register, didn't register to vote. An eye watering total of over 27 million people, didn't participate in the democratic process, even though they could have done. The sad state of affairs is that these people didn't feel represented by any of the existing parties on the ballot.

It should be acknowledged that turnout wasn't great; not just in the UK as a whole, but across most constituencies. Those with grave concerns will highlight the gains made by Reform however those were merely from the Conservative carve-up, either disappointed Tories or those seeking to go further right. These concerns continue to take away from huge gains made by the Lib Dems or the Green Party, albeit with less votes, but they made those votes count where needed to achieve their totals of seats. The Tory / Reform battles may have achieved larger numbers of votes, but at a constituency level, meant casualties as they dropped into 2nd or 3rd place, eyes not really on the prize so to speak, as Reform only took 5 Conservative seats.

Are parties on the current ballot actually listening?

Crucially though the results highlighted a problem that all the parties share; they are not connecting with the electorate. If we add 8 million that were eligible could have registered to vote to the potential voting electorate, that's 56 million possible voters, and yet the General Election was won by a party that secured only 9.7 million votes, that not even a quarter, a mere 17%. Even if we take out the 8 million that didn't register, so the actual turnout, the election was still only won on 20%, still not even a quarter and that's the biggest winning party to say nothing of the other parties.

Here's the thing, it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility for other parties, like Lib Dems, The Green Party, Independents, or even Labour for that matter to secure a lot more votes than they actually got, but the turnout tells a story of nearly 40% or more of the possible voting electorate not finding a voice with any party on the ballot. It's clear that every party either has a communication issue or one of connection, maybe they're not effectively communicating their manifestos, pledges, principles or is it simply so many people have been disenfranchised by a tired system that still hasn't tackled the problem of poverty, or parties that don't seem to be offering a concrete solution, and therefore showing no believable and invested foresight to a better world. Poverty and the empathy we have for those in poverty, versus 20 years since we last saw a fall in poverty is probably at the heart of the problem.

This is one of the greatest challenges we face and yet, come a general election, the argument shifts to who is polling where amongst political parties, party members, some of the 28 million that did vote, campaigners, commentators pundits, and the media; an obsession of those that did vote (in decreasing numbers) and where they will vote next, or the next generation of voters who become old enough to vote. No one is talking about those 27 million not voting. Often as election campaigns gather steam there is urgent and heightened talk about Proportional Representation, Tactical Voting and disparaging words of 'Don't split the vote', but none of this is actually useful, it only concentrates on the shrinking voter base, and still doesn't speak for the other half not voting.

The pros and cons for Proportional Representation (PR)

Perhaps Proportional Representation is holding some non voters back, until it is implemented, maybe then they will vote, but until the current Labour government speak on the matter it's a loose argument; there are pros and cons to PR, despite it being a fairer system, it makes it a possibility for the hard right to make huge gains. If we had PR last year and if we still only had 28 million deciding the outcome, Reform could have gained 100 seats.

For comparison this is what the result would have looked like if we had PR last year -

• 228 Seats - Labour

• 139 Seats - Conservatives

• 100 Seats - Reform

• 73 Seats - Liberal Democrats

• 71 Seats - The Green Party

• 18 Seats - For parties representing Northern Ireland

• 16 Seats - SNP

• 4 Seat - Plaid Cymru

Crucially neither party here is in a position to form a majority government falling short of target of 326, and thus the leaves our democratic system open to chaos of coalition. So again, unless the issue of non-voters is resolved, as in parties need to start listening and speaking for this section of unrepresented society, whether it's First Past the Post (FPTP) or Proportional Representation (PR); irrespective of fairness, it doesn't address the fundamental problem.

The United Party

This is where we come in. Now in order to have an impact, like other political parties, we need to be in position where we can field candidates across the United Kingdom, in every constituency, but here's where we do something different. Instead of campaigning for or arguing over the swing voters like most parties do, we're going to appeal to both voters and non-voters, in particular non-voters who have been growing steadily in numbers.

Our campaign is simple; listen, be transparent, demonstrate good governance by actually taking onboard what people are saying and acting on it, the condition of what MPs are elected on. Through a campaign founded on mutual co-operation, democracy, human rights, good governance, mutual respect, individual liberty, egalitarianism, and multilateralism as means of tackling poverty first and foremost, only then do we have a basis to grow; we will have strong foundations to then turn our attention to developing the economy.

If 1 in 5 people of your population are living in poverty too many people are being left behind; it doesn't matter what you build, introduce or change elsewhere if poverty continues to grow, this is why for us, it's our first priority through the door. If everyone has a fair chance in life, it makes it easier to implement new changes because now can then benefit everyone. A harsh but factual example is greener housing or transportation, if one fifth of your population is in poverty, more than half of that number will either be in deep or very deep poverty, and therefore unable to afford or partake in its benefit. For all the advantages of going green, or any other development for the country for that matter, no one should be left out, which is why it's critical to lift everyone out of any level of poverty or homelessness.

Of course the campaign is half the battle, getting the votes and connecting with people at the constituency level and in the polling station, translating words to votes will still be the biggest challenge. To give you a different point of perspective, Labour attained 9.7 million votes last year; imagine that result is pretty much the same in 2029 if not a little less, and if Reform pull more votes from the Tories, these two parties could be neck and neck at a hypothetical 9 million votes each. Now, imagine a new party that starts listening to some of those 27 million non registered voters and non voters, even if half of them are re-enfranchised to vote, that's a 13.5 million starting base, that takes us back to winning numbers seen previously in the 1997 General Election result, or (apologies for the reference) the 2019 General Election result.

Now I'll grant you that's a very optimistic hypothetical, so that let's set a lower estimate. Perhaps a third of that 27 million, and 2 million swing voters, that would still achieve 11 million or more, and if turnout still decreases; albeit marginally, it still puts a new party in reach of crossing the threshold, if those 11 million votes can translate into wins from one constituency to the next. It's a chance to stop Reform or the Tories making a comeback or coalition, and gives voters another option that might finally speak for them and address the growing problem of poverty and inequality.