Campaigners from West Lancs and Sefton are joining forces to form a new local group dedicated to campaigning for Proportional Representation.

The group is part of Make Votes Matter, a national cross-party campaign advocating Proportional Representation for House of Commons elections.

The new group called Make Votes Matter Sefton and West Lancs is the brainchild of friends Ken Lamden from Ormskirk and Nick Senior and Stephen Hesketh of Southport.

Ken said: “We are all fed up with the First Past the Post system. It’s simply not fair and has to change. At the last election the Conservatives got one seat for every 38,264 votes, it took 50,837 votes to elect a Labour MP, for Lib Dems it was much more at 336,038, even more for the Green MP at 866,435 and for the SNP only 25,883 votes per MP. What’s more many people’s votes are wasted, for example in safe seats where they simply don’t count towards the result.

"This is a scandal and not acceptable in a modern democracy”.

Stephen added: “We believe everybody’s vote should count equally, so if a party gets 20% of the vote it should get 20% of the seats. The voting system should be about what people vote for – not party advantage as at present.”

Nick added “Sefton and West Lancs have many historic links and together we can build a local campaign as part of the national movement to change our outdated voting system.

"We want to end the need for tactical voting; where people have to vote for their least-worst option rather than voting with their heart, which is common in the Southport constituency and is also a factor in West Lancs. The first past the post system also results in ultra-safe seats such as Bootle”.