WHEN we vote in a General Election, we are in fact just voting directly for our one local representative in Parliament.

In Warrington South, Faisal Rashid of the Labour Party won in 2017 with 29,994 votes and 48.4 per cent of the vote. The Conservative candidate David Mowat gained 27,445 votes and 44.3 per cent of the vote.

The consequence of our first past the post electoral system in Warrington South is not only that Mr Rashid was elected with less than 50 per cent of the constituency vote, but also that only 27,445 Labour votes, plus one, were the only votes which contributed towards electing the local MP.

This is just 44.3 per cent of the 61,995 people who voted.

While the Labour Party regularly win the neighbouring constituency of Warrington North comfortably, and often with more than 50 per cent of the vote, the point needs to be reinforced that constituents here are only voting for one representative in Parliament also.

In the 2017 General Election, only 17,775 Labour votes (36.6 per cent) of a 48,517 turnout contributed towards the formality of Helen Jones’ re-election.

The other 9,581 Labour votes were wasted along with the 21,161 votes for other parties.

There are also similar stories of wasted votes in constituencies which elect Conservative MPs and MPs from other parties.

Furthermore, the broken electoral process also results in many people who don’t bother to vote at all because they know their vote simply does not count.

The electoral turnout for the Warrington North Constituency in 2017 was just 67.4 per cent. For Warrington South, the turnout was 72.4 per cent. With the south constituency a marginal seat, it does go some way to explaining why this constituency consistently gets a higher turnout than the safe Labour North constituency.

Nationally, Britain has not yet had one General Election with a turnout above 70 per cent in the 21st century.

This state of affairs with so many wasted votes and so many nonparticipant voters simply is not sustainable. If you want to do something about it, then why not join Make Votes Matter, the crossparty movement for proportional representation?

It does not matter who you vote for or if you don’t consider yourself to be a supporter of any party.

My colleague Kevin Murphy and I will be in Warrington town centre on Saturday, September 1 from 11am onwards. We will be meeting at the top end of Bridge Street near Sankey Street.

If anyone wishes to contact Kevin or myself ahead of the event, we can be contacted on Twitter. Kevin’s twitter account is @kevin4topcop.

Mine is @AndyWatson75.

ANDY WATSON Bewsey