CAER was founded in 1974, after an election in which the Conservatives won more votes than Labour but fewer seats. Many Conservatives came to appreciate the unfairness of the present first-past-the-post system and the need for electoral reform.

The debates around electoral reform has returned; the question now is who should take the lead.

“the fragmentation of the old party system makes some form of change inevitable, sooner or later. The question is whether we want to be involved in that process or whether – as with Scottish devolution or Lords reform – we end up leaving it to the Left to design the new system.”

Lord Dan Hannan