First-past-the-post (abbreviated FPTP or FPP) voting refers to an election won by the candidate(s) with the most votes. The winning candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.

The first-past-the-post voting method, although similar in design, does not relate solely to plurality voting.^{[clarification needed]} The system is also known as the 'winner-take-all' system, in which the candidate with the most votes gets elected.

Confusion in terminology often exists between highest vote, majority vote and plurality voting systems. Both use a first-past-the-post voting method, but there are subtle differences in the method of execution.^{[citation needed]} First-past-the-post voting is also used in two-round systems and exhaustive ballots.

First-past-the-post voting methods can be used for single and multiple member elections. In a single member election the candidate with the highest number, not necessarily a majority, of votes is elected. The two-round ('runoff') voting system uses a first-past-the-post voting method in each of the two rounds. The first round determines which two candidates will progress to the second, final round ballot.

Michael David Wills, Baron Wills (born 20 May 1952) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Swindon North from 1997 to 2010. He was a Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, a position he held from 29 June 2007.

Wills was born in 1952 to Stephen Wills and his wife Elizabeth (nee McKeowen). He went to the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, Hertfordshire and studied at Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a double first in History (BA). Following that, he joined the diplomatic service, gaining the highest mark in the entrance exam.

He worked for HM Diplomatic Service from 1976-80. He became a researcher for London Weekend Television from 1980-84, being a colleague of Peter Mandelson. From 1984-97, he was a Director of Juniper Productions.

He was elected as the MP for Swindon North in 1997 and quickly joined the government, working in various capacities. He eventually left the government to campaign against the Common Agricultural Policy. This campaign appears to have subsided. He was re-elected as an MP in 2001 and 2005. He has worked as an advisor and speechwriter to Gordon Brown. It was announced he would be appointed to the Privy Council in October 2008.

Sir Peter James Bottomley (born 30 July 1944) is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Worthing West. A globalist, Bottomley has been Chairman of the All-Party United Nations Group.

Bottomley was born in Newport, Shropshire, the son of Sir James Bottomley, retired from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and of the late Barbara, née Vardon, a social worker. After seven school changes before the age of eleven, he was educated at a junior high school in Washington, D.C. and then Westminster School before reading economics at Trinity College, Cambridge, following his father, grandfather, father-in-law and father-in-law's father to the College. His supervisor was James Mirrlees, who later gained the Nobel prize for Economics. After university, he became a lorry driver and joined the Transport and General Workers Union before moving on to industrial sales and industrial relations. In the early 1970s he co-founded in South Lambeth the Neighbourhood Council, resulting in the creation of football pitches and other facilities at Larkhall Park. His last job before entering Parliament was putting lights outside theatres and cinemas in London's West End.

Peter Gerald Hain (born 16 February 1950) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Neath since 1991, and served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He was the Leader of the House of Commons from 2003 to 2005 and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007 under Blair, and as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales from 2007 to 2008 under Brown. In 2007, he ran for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party, coming fifth out of six candidates, although his failure to declare donations during this contest led to his resignation in 2008. He later returned to the Cabinet from 2009 to 2010 as Welsh Secretary, before becoming Shadow Welsh Secretary in Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet from 2010 until 2012, when he announced his retirement from front-line politics.

He came to the UK from South Africa as a teenager, and was a noted anti-apartheid campaigner in the 1970s. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the ill-fated Alternative Vote system campaign in May 2011, together with his close friend and fellow former Young Liberal Richard Burden.