Is First Past the Post the best electoral system for general elections to the UK Parliament?

Electoral systems can produce significantly different results to each other, and the chosen system prioritizes certain aspects of governance over others. Majoritarian systems (such as FPP or AV) often produce rigid two-party systems, with elected representatives maintaining strong links to their specific constituencies. As a result, individual representative local accountability is high; MPs caught up in the expenses scandal for example were de-selected by their local parties, or not voted in by their constituencies. Proportional systems prioritize the country-wide representation of votes to seats, resulting in fewer wasted votes and the inclusion of a larger number of parties. Whilst widely regarded as 'fairer' and encouraging compromise, proportional systems can lead to unstable goverments and result in a greater distance between representatives and their electorate. Mixed systems combine the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Given recent partisan dealignment, a rise in issue voting, and examples where smaller parties received millions of votes but only single seats, like the Greens and UKIP at the 2015 General Election, it may be time to move from FPP to a more proportional system. However, it must be understood that no system is perfect and trying to fix representativeness could lead to governmental instability and gridlock.