“Evaluate the view that the only political parties that matter in our
political system are labour and conservatives’ parties.”
The FPTP system favours a two-party system therefore the UK is a two-party system in terms of seats
giving labour and conservatives political dominance. However, I disagree with the statement that the
only political parties that matter in our political system are labour and conservatives because whilst
other minor parties may not win as much seats they certainly impact the two dominant party in
terms of the number of votes they take away and the pressure they exert on these parties to modify
their policies to prevent their support moving to smaller parties.
Conservatives and Labour aren’t the only party that matter, and this can be seen in the coalition
government of 2010-15. Liberal democrats formed a coalition government with the conservatives,
though they were a minor party they had a lot of influence in legislation and chairing the cabinet.
Cameron was forced to appoint 5 liberal democrats to the cabinet. The Lib dems were behind the
university fees and campaigned for civil marriage which they eventually did achieve. This shows that
beyond Labour and conservatives there are other parties that matter and during a hung parliament
can exert large influence. However, a reverse argument could be that coalition government are rare
because throughout British history there has only been 6 coalition governments. The closest we have
gotten to a coalition government in recent times is May’s confidence and supply agreement with the
DUP whereby the DUP had influence over the nature of Brexit negotiations. On balance, the
strongest argument is that though a coalition government is rare it still shows that in a parliament
that has minority government, smaller parties can have great influence.
Parties other than conservatives and labour are important in devolved nations. For example, the SNP
is a minority party that dominates the Scottish parliament winning 48 out of the 59 seats in Scotland
therefore controlling 4/5 of the Scottish seats. Their strength can be seen through their ability to
persuade David Cameron to allow a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 and give greater
levels of devolved responsibility in the Scotland act of 2016. Whilst the motion was defeated this
shows that minor parties at least have the power to persuade the more established party such as
conservatives to give them a referendum. However not all devolved assemblies have a minor party in
power for example Labour have a one-party rule in Wales rather than Plaid Cymru. As well as this the
SNP’s influence in Scotland is declining. Whilst Scotland had a strong vote to remain in the EU the UK
still left this shows that in major issues minor parties have less authority and the two parties that
have the final say is either conservatives or Labour. Overall, the strongest argument is that devolved
assemblies show conservatives and labour aren’t the only parties that matter. Whilst not all devolved
assemblies have a minor party in power, the SNP in Scotland is a clear example of other parties
exerting influence. Although they have received a full independence, they were able to gain more
power through the Scotland act of 2016 and set policies on their own accordance such as the
abolition of university fees. Therefore, conservatives and labour aren’t the only parties that matter
because minor parties in devolved assemblies are examples of parties which could make policies and
exert pressure on the England government.
Minor parties’ matter in the sense that they serve as a pressure group. Whilst the FPTP system
ensures that one of the two parties win, minor parties are aware of this and are therefore created to
serve as a pressure group. UKIP is an example of a party created for the sole purpose of being a
pressure group to bring about a referendum to leave the EU and then later the Brexit party had a
large influence in the Brexit deals. UKIP was successful in persuading Cameron to hold a referendum
after their gain in public support which was evident through their 12.6% of votes in the 2015 general
election. Likewise the green party though only hold 1 seat in the parliament were able to promote
their policies and get the larger parties to adopt similar policies in order to appeal to the electorates.
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