A report into electoral reform in Britain has recommended changes in the way that governments are elected.

The report, by an independent commission, says that Britain should move away from its first-past-the-post system, where candidates need only get one more vote than their opponents to win, to a more proportional electoral system.

The report recommends that up to twenty percent of candidates are elected according to the proportion of votes their political parties receive.

The reforms will have to be passed in a nationwide referendum and the BBC political correspondent says that as the ruling Labour Party is split on whether to change the electoral system, it may be some time before a referendum is held.