How to fix the 'worrying' general election turnout

Voter turnout is reported to have been the lowest since 2001 in last week’s UK general election, at just 59.9 per cent.

- ALICJA HAGOPIAN

At just 0.5 points above 2001’s low of 59.4 per cent, this year’s election risked falling to a new record and was among the lowest turnouts in a century.

From 1924 to the year 2000, turnout didn’t dip below 70 per cent. In fact, the highest turnout in the last 100 years was when 83.9 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots in 1950, when Clement Attlee’s Labour saw its majority shrink from 146 to 5. But since the turn of the millennium, Britons have not been showing up to vote in such high numbers, and this may just be the new normal.

Between 1997 and 2001, turnout dropped by 12 per cent as Tony Blair’s Labour won both elections. Since then, turnout has been gradually increasing, but only reached a peak of 68.8 per cent in 2019.

Dr Jess Garland, director of policy at the Electoral Reform Society, warns that this level of participation is “worrying” and that there were signs fewer voters would turn out before polling day on 4 July. “With turnout only slightly above the previous recorded low, this general election has been a worrying one for voter participation. The signs were there before polling day, with many of the conditions for low turnout,” she says.