GROUCHO Marx famously said “I would never join any club that would have the likes of me as a member”.

I am not, and never have been, a member of any political party. I prefer to think for myself. I do not vote for a party. I vote for a policy. Many of the policies on offer at this election left a lot to be desired. So did the result.

Keir Starmer is wrong to claim Labour received a huge mandate for government. It didn’t. An analysis of all votes cast reveals it got only 34per cent of the ballot. That means 66 per cent of voters preferred someone other than Labour to run the country. When those who didn’t cast a vote for anyone are included, only 20 per cent of the electorate actually voted Labour.

It is the peculiarity of our first past the post system that rewarded Labour 64 per cent of parliamentary seats with only 34 per cent of votes cast.

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Another manifestation of unfairness was that Liberal Democrats received a total 3,487,568 votes which gave them 71 seats in the House of Commons; but Reform got only five seats after receiving 4,072,947 votes. So despite receiving 585,379 more votes than the LibDems, which was 14 per cent of the overall poll, the Reform Party got only a handful of seats.

This cannot be right. There is clearly a case for some form of proportional representation in our parliamentary electoral system.

Matthew Laverack,

Lord Mayors Walk,

York