Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was left covered in glitter on Tuesday when a protestor disrupted his speech at the Labour Party conference.
As Sir Kir started to address the crowd in Liverpool, the 28-year-old demonstrator campaigning for fairer elections stormed the stage and shouted “true democracy is citizen-led” before showering the Labour leader with glitter.
The Labour leader appeared unphased by the incident, brushing the glitter off his hair and clothes while saying: “Protest or power - that is why we changed our party conference. That’s why we changed our party.”
The protestor, who was taken off stage and later arrested, has been identified as being part of the People Demand Democracy group.
So what exactly is People Demand Democracy and what is it trying to achieve?
What is People Demand Democracy?
As its name suggests, People Demand Democracy is a group of people calling for changes to the UK’s political systems.
According to their website, they are a group of people from all walks of life in Britain who want to make changes and have their voices heard.
Frustrated by the general direction of the country, the group want to bring about real change and introduce better representation through voting systems.
“After years of battling over Brexit, lockdown parties, abuse claims, crumbling public services and crashing living standards, people are sick to the back teeth of politicians,” their website claims.
They’re trying to raise awareness for this publicly through civil disobedience and said they would take “proportionate action to get our message across” to our political leaders.
What does People Demand Democracy want?
People Demand Democracy believe the UK’s democratic procedures are “broken”. Simply put, their demands are:
- Change existing voting systems to a proportional voting system for Westminister elections.
- Introduce a House of Citizens, where people from all over the country can represent the voices of the general public.
On the People Demand Democracy website, they explain: “Our democracies are incomplete, undermined and broken. Those that have wealth and power have done that to prevent us, the people, from actually being in charge. If we want to deal with any of the crises we face, we will have to upgrade our democracy.”
People Demand Democracy also wrote a letter to Sir Keir and current PM Rishi Sunak outlining their suggestions. “We need action, not words,” they said on social media. “We need genuine, courageous leadership. But we also need a voice. We invite the Labour Party to engage on this question of democratic reform and show the historic leadership people deserve.”
However, it appears that the calls have fallen on deaf ears. A spokesperson told The Independent earlier this year that Sir Keir has a “longstanding view against proportional representation”.
People Demand Democracy suggested that they would continue to disrupt both parties going forward.
We are People Demand Democracy.
— People Demand Democracy (@peopledemanddem) October 10, 2023
We demand a fair proportional voting system and a permanent legally-binding national House of Citizens, selected by democratic lottery to tackle the major crises facing the UK: inequality, corrupt politics, climate and so on.#LabourConference23 pic.twitter.com/HPO4gQgAJa
What kind of voting system does the UK currently have?
The UK is currently dominated by two parties that usually assume leadership in our elections. However, there are different types of voting methods, some of which would influence the outcome of an election.
The UK currently works with a ‘First Past The Post’ (FPTP) system, meaning a constituent will vote for their desired candidate and whoever has the most votes wins. This winner-takes-all approach also means that the candidates don’t need to have a majority to win, as long as they get more votes than the others.
Issues have been raised with FPTP voting as it allows for minority rule when a group that wasn’t voted for by the majority of the country holds all the power.
This is what People Demand Democracy want to change.
According to Make Votes Matter, since 1934, the UK has been ruled by a single-party ‘majority’ government 90% of the time even though none of these had the majority of votes.
What is proportional representation?
Unlike FPTP, proportional representation (PR) essentially distributes elected seats based on the proportion of votes each party receives. For instance, if a party had 40% of the vote, they’d get 40% of the seats.
This is argued as being more representational, allowing more people to have their voices heard. It would also give minority parties more of a chance of having a say.
A report published in 2022 found that more than half of Britain would support a change to voting practices in the UK. The study found that 61% of Labour party members want to elect their MP with proportional voting.
The counterargument, however, is that PR could fragment the government and allow for more extremist views to influence UK politics.
