Kingston is one of the "most undemocratic" boroughs in London,  according to a campaign group.

Data from Supervote's Autumn 2025 'Rotten Boroughs' survey, which measures the percentage of seats parties win in relation to their vote share, put Kingston second behind only Lewisham.

The Supervote Project founder, David Green, warns that Kingston could see a similar outcome in the upcoming local elections on 7 May.

Currently the council is controlled by the Liberal Democrats, who hold more than 90% of seats despite securing less than 44% of the vote - a disparity of almost 48%.

This equates to a total of 44 out of 48 seats being won on less than half the vote, with the Conservatives taking just three seats despite sealing almost a quarter of the vote.

A survey by Supervote found Kingston to be the second least 'democratic' borough in London (Credit: James Bools)

Labour and the Green Party, meanwhile, failed to secure any seats at all despite vote shares of 13% and 10% respectively. Unsurprisingly, such results will strengthen calls in some quarters for reform of the controversial First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system, which Kingston uses.

Unlike many proportional representation (PR) structures in Europe, FPTP has the advantage of producing clear victors, thanks to a 'winner takes all' approach where the candidate with the most total votes takes the seat.

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However, the system has been criticised for failing to ensure fair representation.

According to Supervote, "First-Past-the-Post can over-represent support for dominant political parties across a council, while suppressing representation of other parties to the point of eliminating it altogether."

The organisation also claims FPTP was responsible for low turnout in Kingston, while suppressing representation of other parties to the point of eliminating it altogether."

The organisation also claims FPTP was responsible for low turnout in Kingston, with just 48% of those eligible to vote in 2022 choosing to do so. They claim that such apathy doesn't bode well for this May's local elections and could "spell disaster for our democracy unless something is done."

Kingston's south-west London neighbours Richmond also performed poorly, with the Liberal Democrats once again dominating by winning almost nine out of 10 seats on just over half the vote share.

The party won 48 out of 54 seats, or nearly 89%, on just 51.1% of the vote in 2022, with the Conservatives taking just 1.8% of seats from nearly 23% of votes cast.

Labour, meanwhile, once again walked away with nothing despite managing 10% of the ballot.

Although the Green Party's tally largely matched their vote share, taking 9.3% from 12.8% of ballots, SuperVote notes that without a pact with the Lib Dems "the monopolistic situation in Richmond would've been even worse."

At a time when British politics is more fractious than ever, such results are likely to raise fears in certain circles that FPTP will fuel further division.

Nub News has contacted Kingston Council for comment.