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UK Democracy Bulletin, October 2026

UK Democracy Bulletin, October 2026
Prime Minister Andy Burnham announces National Commission on Electoral Reform (Photo credit: Labour Party)

Issue #85 — October 2026

Monthly news, jobs, grants and gossip from across the democracy sector, brought to you by the UK Democracy Network. We read everyone’s newsletters & research so you don’t have to. If you want us to cover yours, let us know: hello@democracynetwork.org.uk

How you can get involved right now! Do these things 👇

  1. Join the Democracy Network
  2. See the latest democracy jobs & add your own
  3. Check available democracy funding
  4. Explore the Democracy Map
  5. Subscribe to the UK Democracy Announcements Mailing List

Thanks to our contributors

Thanks to everyone who wrote to us with their updates or added their news to this month’s Democracy Check-In. We heard from Miriam Levin at Demos, Oli Whittington at Our House, David Murray at Autonomy, Martyn Harris at Cheshire and Warrington Combined Authority, Emma Geraghty at Just For Kids Law, Kelly McBride at Involve, Katy Rubin at The People Act, Florence Emlyn at The Politics Project, Silkie Carlo at Big Brother Watch, Sabrina Franklin at The Traveller Movement, Mohammed Afridi at Civic Power Fund, Sophie Frear at I Have A Voice and Simon Carroll at My Lever.

Highlights

  • Andy Burnham announces commitment to electoral reform
  • UK Government to restore independence of Electoral Commission
  • UK Government expected to bring forward new democracy legislation
  • Democracy Network welcomes Kitty von Bertele as Director
  • The Politics Project launch UK’s first Democratic Education Framework
  • DCMS to end public funding for UK Youth Parliament
  • Churchill Fellowship launch new civic and democratic engagement fellowship

Democracy Jobs

Featured Job Listings across the Democracy Sector. View the full database of upcoming job listings here. There are currently 48 open democracy sector jobs at the time of publication — have we missed any? Add them via this form.

Rolling deadlines

Featured upcoming roles

Calls to Action

Consultations to respond to, open letters to sign, convening to follow and collaborators wanted

Working in Wales? Join Democracy Group Cymru

Democracy Group Cymru is an information sharing network among organisations working in Wales, convened by Democracy Classroom and the Electoral Reform Society Cymru. So if you’re working on democracy in Wales, don’t miss out on opportunities to share your work, connect with others and collaborate — Join now.

Working on the Representation of the People Bill? Join the Elections Bill Hub

Kyle Taylor, Fleur Boya and the team at Fair Vote UK, together with a range of organisations, are working together to coordinate around the RotPB bill. If you’re working on the bill, contact Fleur Boya to get involved.

Events & Convenings

What’s coming up: summits, festivals, training, coworking and gatherings worth turning up to

Rose Whiffen speaking at last year’s TICTeC summit (Photo credit: mySociety)

Traveller Movement Annual Conference coming up, November 26th 2026

This year’s Traveller Movement Annual Conference, Power, Place and Participation, will bring together Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish, Scottish and Welsh Traveller community leaders, together with activists, policymakers, elected representatives, academics, practitioners and allies to explore what the changing landscape of local power means for GRT communities across the UK. Book your place now.

Digital Democracy Edinburgh, coming March 11 & 12th 2027

Produced by team behind TICTeC, this new international summit is a collaboration between mySociety, the Scottish Government, the University of Edinburgh Futures Institute and the AI for Collective Intelligence (AI4CI) Hub. The upcoming march conference will focus on the question: How can we practically use technology to improve democratic decision-making and resilience? Tickets are likely to sell fast given previous years events — book now or apply to present and speak at the conference.

Newspeak House Christmas Party, December 5th

Christmas comes earlier every year, as they say — first ASDA, then Tescos, and now Newspeak House, are preparing their mince pies. Join Newspeak House for their upcoming annual festive bash bringing together the UK political and civic technology community over a glass of mulled wine — RSVP now.

Join UCL Constitution Unit for a webinar on assessing voting systems

Professor Alan Renwick, Director of the UCL Constitution Unit, Jess Garland, Director of Research and Policy at the Electoral Reform Society, and Sir Robert Buckland, discuss how we should assess different options for the voting system. The webinar on October 20th forms part of a new Constitution Unit project following the Prime Minister’s recent announcement on electoral reform — Register now.

Hansard Society to run practical online workshop on navigating parliamentary papers and resources

Parliament publishes a wealth of information, in the upcoming workshop on October 27th Hansard Society will help you know where to look and how to interpret what you find, so you can spend less time searching and more time using the information that matters.

Katy Rubin announces free Legislative Theatre in Action learning series this October

Launching 16th October for four monthly online sessions, the new The People Act series covers funding participatory democracy, games for policy research, participatory process mashups and accountability mechanisms in creative participative methods — RSVP now for the sessions.

Active Inquiry running new legislative theatre training in Edinburgh
Don’t miss — Gavin Crichton and the team at Active Inquiry are running a two day workshop introduction to legislative theatre practice in late October — book now.

Research, Reports & Tools

Fresh thinking, new evidence and practical resources to put to use

APPG for Fair Elections launches new Russian interference report (Photo credit: APPG for Fair Elections)

The Politics Project launch UK’s first Democratic Education Framework

In collaboration with the Electoral Commission, Florence Emlyn Jones and team at The Politics Project have developed the UK’s first framework for democratic education. A new and practical tool for teachers and youth practitioners to help reflect on their organisation’s democratic education provision, the tool helps to recognise what is working well and identify opportunities to strengthen their practice. The Framework is launching in a pilot phase for the next six months, and The Politics Project is inviting teachers and youth practitioners in England and Northern Ireland to be part of it. The pilot will run until January 2027, and by signing up before October half-term, participants will be entered into a £500 prize draw to be used for school resources. To find out more and take part, click here.

Electoral Commission publish their reports on the 2026 elections

The Electoral Commission report looks at how the May 2026 elections were run, how voters and campaigners found taking part and what lessons can be learned for the future. See here for the English, Welsh and Scottish election reports. Across the three sets of elections, the Electoral Commission judged the elections were well run, despite the system remaining under sustained pressure — voters remain concerned with misinformation and deepfakes, abuse and intimidation of candidates remains a serious issue and Disabled voters continue to face significant barriers to exercising their democratic rights.

Chris Owen launches Zette — a new local democracy journalism tool

Chris Owen, Fellow of Newspeak House — London College of Political Technology, has launched Zette in partnership with progressive campaign tech unit Campaign Lab. Zette builds on a vast array of publicly available scraped council data made available through Council Gateway, another powerful tool developed by Campaign Lab and Poteris. Zette produces high quality LLM-generated audio, social media, podcast and newsletter assets, produced directly from published council agendas, committee reports and minutes. See Hammersmith and Fulham for an example of Zette in action.

APPG for Fair Elections hosts new report on Russian interference in elections

UK’s Russian Lesson: Building Deterrence against Foreign Political Interference, published by The Citizens and Democratys, is a joint report prepared by 12 expert witnesses including Dominic Grieve, Marina Litvinenko, Susan Hawley and Carole Cadwalladr. Launched at the APPG for Fair Elections by APPG Chair Alex Sobel MP, APPG member Lord Wallace and Sergei Cristo, the report details how the Russian state has actively interfered and continues to interfere in UK politics. The report highlights a failure by the UK Government in not recognising the threat posed by the Russian state, a failure of intelligence and security services to detect and disrupt the threat, a continuing failure to deter — and importantly they argue, a failure to regulate and enforce. Lord Wallace and others at the APPG expressed the hope that the Representation of the People Bill and the democracy task-and-finish group may yet be able to strengthen the UK’s defences against ongoing threats from Russia.

Prime Radiant launch Forest — a new AI powered data visualisation studio

Developed by Jon Nash and Jethro Reeve at Prime Radiant. Forest combines high-frequency national MRP polling, large amounts of socio-economic data, and AI analysis features to model public sentiment down to street level and answer questions, generate charts, and find needles in haystacks. View screenshots of the tool and Book a demo now.

Mile End Institute launch new electoral reform simulator

Dr Eoghan Kelly at the Mile End Institute has launched a new electoral reform simulator, mimicking a range of proportional representation systems. The simulator allows users to pick an election, from the Scottish Parliament to Westminster, pick the voting system you wish to simulate, and vote share or results scenarios. Simulated results run right through to regions and constituency level data and allow the simulation of possible coalition scenarios. Well worth a look — try the electoral reform simulator.

New report from Open Britain on money in politics

Published by Open Britain last month, Money in Politics: In a Nutshell unpacks who pays for British politics, what the donation rules do and do not prevent, and argues pushing a universal cap on donations into the long grass isn’t a credible long term plan — Read the report.

New Institute for Government report explores how the public understands the role of government

The new report, How does the public understand government?, produced with More in Common and the University of York and published by the Institute for Government, explores the perception gap between the experience of government and trust among voters in England.

Geoff Mulgan and Alex Fischer explore democracy in the age of AI in new Demos paper

Work in Progress: How to Upgrade Democracy in the Age of AI is a new report written by former founding director of Demos, Geoff Mulgan, and Dr Alex Fischer of the Australian Resilient Democracy Network. The report argues democracy has not failed as an idea, but that many ways in which it is practiced remain rooted firmly in the 19th century. Instead, the authors understand and argue for democracy as an interconnected series of functions — from elections to public services, scrutiny, knowledge and citizen participation.

Fairness Foundation calls for compulsory voting to reduce turnout inequality in new paper

The Missing Half, a new paper published by the Fairness Foundation in partnership with the Campaign for Compulsory Voting, argues that high levels of turnout inequality justify compulsory voting in UK national elections. The report recommends the new National Commission on Electoral Reform consider compulsory voting to reduce turnout inequality.

David Murray launches new Autonomy

The new Sheffield-based social network Autonomy, run by Autonomy Civic Network CIC, aims to provide a structured information service for charities, trusts and community groups. They are looking to run pilots across Sheffield and South Yorkshire with organisations already rooted in their communities.

Simon Carroll launches Lever — a new platform for citizen action

Lever, built by Simon Carroll, is a new non-profit initiative, developed in partnership with Easol.io. The platform works to support people to map, visualise and engage in civic action, creating a persistent record of civic activity. Simon is keen to hear from organisations interested in collaborating on trials and integrations. Contact Simon for more information.

Democracy Sector

The latest moves, hires, partnerships and organisational news from across the democracy sector

Newspeak House Fellows sign their co-designed governance charter (Photo credit: Newspeak House)

The Democracy Network welcomes new Director Kitty von Bertele

The UK Democracy Network is delighted to welcome Kitty von Bertele as its new Director. Kitty draws on extensive experience in her new role, from working on open government at the Cabinet Office, to supporting changemakers across Europe as co-founder of Multitudes Foundation. Kitty joins as we begin the process of reengaging the network and developing a new programme of support for UK democracy organisations. If you spot Kitty at a sector event, please do say hello or get in touch here.

Our House welcomes Klina Jordan as Alliance Building Lead

Klina Jordan has joined Our House, the new Chartists campaign for a People’s Charter, as their new Alliance Building Lead. Klina brings with her a wealth of experience from her time leading alliance building efforts at Make Votes Matter. But that’s not all — Our House are currently interviewing for 6 new organiser roles across the four nations this week — an exciting boost in capacity for the UK Chartist movement.

Churchill Fellowship launch new civic and democratic engagement programme

The Churchill Fellowship is launching a new civic and democratic engagement programme, funding individuals to spend 4–8 weeks learning from leading practitioners worldwide, in person or online, then apply that learning to strengthen democratic engagement in the UK. So whether you’re working inside institutions trying to open them up, or in communities pressing for change from the outside, this programme is for you. Applications close 20 October — apply now.

Big Brother Watch hiring new roles to support scrutinising AI and facial recognition adoption

Silkie Carlo, Director at Big Brother Watch, is recruiting for two new exciting roles supporting their work scrutinising the rollout of AI and facial recognition technologies in the UK. These include a Senior Advocacy Officer and Operations Manager — Apply now.

Just For Kids Law hiring new Youth Participation and Campaign Worker

Just For Kids Law works to ensure the legal rights of young people and children are respected and promoted. The new role will work within their Policy and Campaigns Team and support the delivery of a new five year youth-led campaign working with and empowering young people to use their voices to change how the police interact with children — Apply for the role.

The Traveller Movement hiring Senior Women’s Development and Outreach Worker

The new role at The Traveller Movement will lead the development and coordination of sensitive, trauma informed programmes and advocacy initiatives focused on empowering women and girls, championing women’s rights and building trusted relationships across GRT communities. Find out more and apply for the role.

Kelly McBride celebrates new role as Involve’s new Head of Scotland

In the new Involve role as Head of Scotland, Kelly will focus on building networks, advocacy and opportunities for participatory and deliberative democracy across Scotland. Kelly McBride joins Rebekah McCabe, Involve’s Head of Northern Ireland, as national leads in developing and leading efforts to embed participatory and deliberative democracy at the heart of government, communities and civil society.

I Have A Voice looking for new Youth Voice Network members

Partnering with the Electoral Commission, Sophie Frear, Digital Communications Lead at I Have A Voice, is excited to share that they are once again recruiting new members for the Youth Voice Network for England. The Youth Voice Network is a group of young people aged 11–18 tasked with shaping how young people across England learn about and engage with democracy. Members could help shape campaigns and educational resources, share their views directly with decision-makers, take part in workshops and events, develop new skills, and meet other young people from across England. Apply now and share this opportunity among your networks.

Newspeak House welcomes a new cohort of fellows for 2026–2027

Newspeak House, the London College of Political Technology, welcomes a cohort of mid-career civic and political technologists from across the globe to study, experiment and found groundbreaking new projects, as part of its one-year programme, Introduction to Political Technology, running since 2015. This year’s cohort have just released their first issue of their weekly newsletter tracking the development of their Governance Laboratory — check it out now and subscribe.

Nesta launches Small Ideas initiative

Founded and chaired by Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert and run by Nesta’s Centre for Collective Intelligence and Involve, the initiative calls on the public to suggest practical ways to improve the UK. The deadline to submit ideas is 12 November, after which a cross-party panel of politicians and policy experts chaired by Lewis will select the final ideas to take to government, councils and regulators.

UCL Policy Lab welcomes a new cohort to the Emerging Leaders Fellowship

Earlier this week, Daisy Harmer and the team at the UCL Policy Lab welcomed their second cohort of fellows to this year’s Emerging Leaders Fellowship. The Fellowship forms part of Policy Lab’s Ecosystem Project, a new programme to support policymakers, community leaders, researchers and philanthropists to build trust, skills and drive social impact. So far the programme has included members from a range of democracy organisations, including Demos, Involve, Small Axe, Just For Kids Law, Democracy Network, Public Interest News Foundation. Marc Stears, Director of UCL Policy Lab recently took up position as Andy Burnham’s new Special Advisor to the Prime Minister. To find out more information about the Fellowship contact Daisy Harmer.

UK in a Changing Europe to cease operating

After 12 years, Director Anand Menon has announced plans to wind down the UK in a Changing Europe, which will close at the end of 2026. The organisation has worked as an academic think tank working to provide impartial, research-based analysis of the UK’s relationship with the EU and the many issues, democracy among them, that affect and are affected by it, as part of the Policy Institute at King’s College London.

Upcoming Legislation

Bills, amendments and parliamentary activity from Westminster, Holyrood, Stormont and the Senedd

Government expected to bring forward new democracy legislation

Louise Haigh MP, First Secretary of State, remarked that whilst the government would consider amendments to the Representation of the People Bill currently in the House of Lords stages, she said ministers would return with a ‘much bigger piece of legislation’ before the next general election. Haigh gave the remarks in response to questions of how the government will respond to the Reform Party’s £72m donations.

Representation of the People Bill Lords Stage updates

There are currently 26 amendments proposed to the Representation of the People Bill (RotPB) currently at the House of Lords Committee Stage. Sponsoring organisations include UK Democracy Fund, Fair Vote UK, Shout Out UK, Jo Cox Foundation, Online Safety Network, Centenary Action, Transparency International UK, Spotlight on Corruption, Unlock Democracy and the Electoral Reform Society. For more information on the details of the amendments and access to the RotPB Lords Stage Amendment Tracker, please contact Fleur Boya at Fair Vote UK.

Process & Representation

Electoral reform, electoral law, candidate selection and party reform, Westminster, devolved parliaments and local authorities

Member of the UK Youth Parliament Aman Fatima argues against plans to cut the Youth Parliament (Photo credit: BBC)

PM Andy Burnham announces National Commission on Electoral Reform in landmark speech

In his speech to the Labour Party conference, Andy Burnham announced a new National Commission on Electoral Reform, through which communities, trade unions, businesses and faith groups will have the chance to participate in the UK Government’s plans for a new voting system. A long running supporter of electoral reform, Andy Burnham’s intervention marks a major policy shift and builds on a huge amount of work undertaken by groups such as Labour For A New Democracy, Make Votes Matter, Fair Vote UK and many more.

Government to restore independence of the Electoral Commission

During the second reading of the Representation of the People Bill, the government announced it would ‘repeal in full the power for Government to impose a strategy and policy statement on the Electoral Commission’, reversing the highly controversial reform introduced by the Elections Act 2022. See the House of Commons Library paper on the Electoral Commission strategy and policy statement, written by Neil Johnston.

APPG for Fair Elections publish terms of reference for proposed National Commission on Electoral Reform

The APPG on Fair Elections has published proposed terms of reference setting out the scope of an independent review into how Britain elects its representatives — review the proposed terms of reference.

Prof. Alan Renwick states rules Burnham must follow to secure legitimacy for electoral reform

Director of the UCL Constitution Unit, Professor Alan Renwick, writing in The Conversation, details the means by which PM Andy Burnham must secure the legitimacy required to enact lasting electoral reform, lest it be turned into political football by successive governments, he states — read the piece here.

Migrant Democracy Project calls on new National Commission to also review who can vote

When Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced he wanted to see a change in the voting system ‘so that everyone’s vote counts and everyone’s voice is heard’, Executive Director Lara Parizotto and the team at Migrant Democracy Project took note — and are now calling on the PM to stand by his words. MDP are calling on the government to review both how votes are counted, but also who can vote — arguing for full democratic rights to all those resident within the United Kingdom. The3million are backing Migrant Democracy Project’s campaign.

Joe Sousek applauds Prime Minister for committing to electoral reform

Writing in Labour List, Joe Sousek, National Coordinator at Labour For A New Democracy (L4ND), hails the Prime Minister’s recent commitment to delivering electoral reform. ‘It’s hugely encouraging that a National Commission, originally proposed by the APPG for Fair Elections, chaired by Labour’s Alex Sobel MP, has gone from inception to Government policy in less than two years’, Joe said — Read more here.

Plans for major council shakeup shelved

Angela Rayner has announced plans for a major shake-up of local government are on hold, after the government launched a review in light of new legal advice. Proposals to merge smaller local councils in Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk and have now been withdrawn, whilst plans in 14 other areas will be reviewed and paused. Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner MP acknowledged her announcement was ‘disappointing’. Sean Matthews of the County Councils Network welcomed the move, remarking the original plans as ‘financially unsustainable’. A spokesperson for the Local Government Association said that ‘there is no excuse for the government’s mishandling of this process’.

Scottish Government proposes reform of local governance

Noting that the current model of local government has not been reviewed since devolution and the restoration of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the Scottish Government proposes that current local authorities be replaced with a smaller number of regional authorities focused on strategic decision making, with a larger number of community authorities focused on local decision making. They state their aim is to have greater subsidiarity with more local decision making but supported by the efficiency of delivery by regional structures, they argue.

Government announces new National Centre for Information Defence

In his speech to the United Nations, PM Andy Burnham announced a new National Centre for Information Defence to tackle misinformation and deepfakes from hostile states such as Russia. Reform leader Nigel Farage MP called the announcement ‘an attack on free speech’.

Unlock Democracy pen letter to Democracy Minister on donation cap

Earlier last month Unlock Democracy wrote to supporters asking they add their name to a new letter to Democracy Minister Florence Eshalomi MP. The letter requests detailed information on the composition of the promised new cross-government taskforce to tackle political megadonors.

Young people and sector organisations call on government to protect the UK Youth Parliament

Votes at 16 cannot mean ‘job done’ say Open Britain, who are calling on their supporters to back an open letter calling on the Burnham Government to protect the UK Youth Parliament as a ‘high quality, non-partisan way for young people to participate in democracy’. The UK Youth Parliament’s future is uncertain, with no government funding confirmed beyond March 2027. Teenagers and members of the UKYP have spoken out against the announced cut. Aman Fatima, Member of the UK Youth Parliament, said ‘programmes aimed at boosting young people’s interest in politics should not be axed just because money is tight’. The programme received £453,000 in taxpayer funding last year, with £2.4m in public funding between 2017 and 2024.

Power & Structure

Where power sits and who gets a seat at the table

Member of the public speaking with Good Moaning Britain (Photo credit: Liberty)

Liberty launch new free speech campaign — Britain, Keep Complaining!

Britain, Keep Complaining!, is a new campaign from Liberty aiming to provide a new, everyday and funny way to communicate the importance of free speech and why it matters. Akiko Hart, Director of Liberty, remarks ‘it’s a campaign that uses humour and optimism to speak to our shared values: our freedom to speak up, which is fundamental to our democracy and our way of life’. Watch the new campaign film ‘Good Moaning Britain’.

Democracy for Sale find Labour spads courted by lobbyists and businesses 700 times in two years

An investigation by Democracy for Sale found lobbyists and businesses hosted Labour special advisers more than 700 times in two years, revealing the scale of hospitality and how little the public is allowed to know about it. The findings, which Democracy for Sale say broadly mirror previous analysis during the last Conservative government, have been met with calls for greater transparency. Luke Taylor, a Lib Dem MP who sits on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, says ‘spads should definitely be brought under the same lobbying rules as Ministers and Permanent Secretaries if we are to rebuild public trust in politics.’ Kamila Kingstone, senior campaign lead at Spotlight on Corruption, argues spads should make comprehensive declarations of gifts, hospitality and meetings.

Police launch criminal investigation into Reform UK donations

Whilst Reform’s own internal inquiry says the party did not break the law over Channel 4’s undercover donations sting this summer, the Police have now launched a criminal investigation into Reform UK’s donations. New analysis of data published by Byline Time finds 87% of Reform UK’s donations declared in Q2 of 2026 came from donors linked to offshore or overseas jurisdictions, totalling more than £5.4m.

Journalists barred from party conferences

Josiah Mortimer, Chief Reporter at the Byline Times, was refused accreditation to the Conservative Party conference prompting a formal response from the National Union of Journalists. The Conservative Party had previously criticised Reform UK for barring journalists from their conference, whilst also having barred Byline Times journalists in the past. The Labour Party also banned journalists from their conference this year, prompting NUJ response.

Ethics and Integrity Commission publish first annual letter to PM

The Ethics and Integrity Commission’s (EIC) first annual letter to the Prime Minister is out and provides an annual health check up on the UK’s standards framework. Dr Susan Hawley and Kamila Kingstone of Spotlight on Corruption praise the positive steps established under the current government towards bolstering integrity standards, but highlights that ‘progress is at risk of stalling’ — read on to explore their four urgent calls for action.

Capacity & Engagement

Building and strengthening a healthy democratic culture

The Commons, Scotland — a new collective for community power and peoples assemblies

Ruth Glasgow and the team at The Commons, Scotland have established a new collective for those in Scotland to come together and explore ideas, challenges and opportunities related to community power and democracy. See their upcoming events and get involved.

Government issues letter to ministers to use more participatory policymaking

A joint open letter to all ministers from the Chancellor, First Secretary of State and Attorney General sets out the Government’s move from a consultation culture towards participatory and deliberative policy design — read the official government letter.

And now for something completely different …

A glance beyond the UK sector

Major sponsors pull out of Disinfo 2026 following US pressure (Photo credit: Matt Stempeck)

Disinfo 2026 sponsors back out following US diplomatic pressure

Matt Stempeck, Founder of the Civic Tech Field Guide and Director of Technology & Democracy at the Evens Foundation, took this photo while visiting Disinfo 2026 last week, the leading European conference on disinformation. The Canadian and Lithuanian governments and the EU External Action Service pulled their sponsorship at the last minute of Disinfo 2026 following diplomatic pressure from the Trump Administration. The US Government was displeased at having been named as a foreign interference disinformation actor. Read on for Matt’s take on this year’s Disinfo event.

That’s all for now,

James, Kitty and the Democracy Network team