More than 30,000 votes could go to waste in Carlisle in the upcoming general election according to an electoral reform group.

Voters in the Carlisle constituency can expect to see 30,143 of their votes go to waste in the upcoming general election, according to, Make Votes Matter.

67.2 per cent per cent of Carlisle constituency’s votes are set to make no difference to the outcome, either because they went to a losing candidate or because they were surplus votes for Labour say the group.

Labour are favourites to take Carlisle from the Conservatives with online analyst, Election Maps UK project that they will take more than 46 per cent of the vote.

Across the country, 27.4 per cent of an expected 30.3 million votes look set to have any impact on the result, with over half of voters projected to be left with an MP they did not support.

At the 2019 election, the Electoral Reform Society identified seven seats in which more than 90 per cent of votes were wasted.3 This new analysis suggests that in the upcoming election, that number may increase to 25, with a remarkable 145 seats where more than 80 per cent of votes go to waste.

The First Past the Post system also means that votes for certain parties effectively count for more than votes for other parties.

Make Votes Matter’s analysis of the current MRP polling data suggests Labour would receive just over 13.5 million votes nationally to elect 485 MPs, meaning on average, it would take around 28,000 votes to elect each Labour MP.

By contrast, the Green Party are projected to receive over 1.25 million votes but have just two MPs, meaning they would need 628,000 votes per MP. Conservative MPs, meanwhile, would each be worth 117,000 votes.

Reform UK fared worst of all parties, with the seat level data suggesting they would receive over 2.5 million votes but not a single MP.

READ MORE: Newsquest to hold political debate with Carlisle candidates

Danny Smith, a spokesperson for Carlisle’s local Make Votes Matter group, said: “In the last year our boundaries in Cumbria have been changed significantly.

“For us, this means that, for the most part, our votes are actually more important due to our new seats being more competitive.

“For us, this is a good thing. But we believe that just because someone has drawn some different/random lines on a map, it shouldn't mean our votes matter more.

“Everyone's vote should count, and matter as much as anyone else's.”