The Labour party should not fear the Tories

It would seem unlikely that either of the parties which benefit from the first-past-the-post system would be willing to remove it but there are stronger arguments for Labour doing so than the Tories. It is assumed that the Tories are the party of the establishment and that any lack of democracy is in their favour since any vacuum of power due to a lack of proportionality will be filled by the establishment. It is also consistent to imagine that when the first-past-the-post system was first set up the lack of proportionality was due in part out of a desire to protect the establishment... so then fptp is historically favourable to the Conservatives. Labour are a less ancient party than the Tories and so then they cannot be held responsible for the two-party fptp system. Whilst they are now the beneficiaries of fptp (along with the Tories) Labour are not responsible for its implementation.

We can assume that the Tory party will never be willing to replace fptp with pr because there will always be a small number of individuals in the Tory party who think that the total democracy of pr would be unacceptable and since only a small number of people at the top of the party need to hold this view it can be assumed that nothing will change. On the other hand things are not so clear-cut for Labour... they do not think of themselves as the party of the establishment and a more liberal system is not inconsistent with their beliefs. Labour are a populist party by definition (since they are left of centre) so for them democracy is not a contradiction. Labour would be less comfortable in the knowledge that they are in receipt of 'tactical' votes whereas for the Tories this is less offensive (the Tories don't mind being disliked). The only real reason for the Labour party to reject pr is that they fear upsetting the Tories. First-past-the-post is a Tory system but the Labour party should not fear the Tories and should be willing to replace fptp with the pr system. Upsetting the Tories should not be enough of a reason for Labour to reject pr. It shouldn't matter to Labour that the Tories dislike pr.