Tory backbencher Brendan Clarke-Smith has received a resounding thumbs-down on social media after pitching his new idea to reform voting.
Days after his party endured significant losses at the local elections, the MP for Bassetlaw suggested in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that “it’s time to scrap” postal voting.
For context, 21% of all valid votes across the UK at the 2019 general election were postal votes.
Turnout among postal voters at the last general election was also higher than the overall voter turnout, according to data from the Electoral Commission.
The Conservatives have already reformed the voting process several times recently.
The government announced that photo ID would be mandatory for people to cast their votes in elections – a rule which threatened to disenfranchise many last week, including ex-PM Boris Johnson who forgot to bring his ID to the ballot box.
There’s also fears this new rule will stop young voters and historically marginalised groups from having their say.
But, the government has insisted on imposing it, claiming it will prevent electoral fraud.
The Tories also introduced the first-past-the-post system for the London mayoral race for the first time this year, meaning those in the capital could no longer declare a second choice for the top job.
Labour’s Sadiq Khan still won the mayoral race by a healthy margin, one of many victories for the Conservatives’ opponents last week.
So, plenty of people on social media were not exactly happy with Clarke-Smith’s idea....