UK elections often see plenty of terminology thrown around, and one you might have heard of before is tactical voting.

It is a term that is often brought up around major UK elections, in part due to the current voting system that is in place.

Here is all you need to know about tactical voting and how it actually works.

What is tactical voting?

Simply put, tactical voting is when an individual votes for a candidate they believe is most likely to defeat another party’s candidate, even if they are not that person's first choice.

The Guardian states: "Under tactical voting, people who do not want the incumbent or leading party to win, may vote for the opponent most likely to unseat them, rather than their preferred choice.

"In practice, this almost always means Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green, Scottish National party or Plaid Cymru supporters voting for the most likely candidate to beat the Conservatives".

The term became popularised during the 1997 General Election, such as when Conservative MP Michael Portillo lost his safe seat of Enfield Southgate after many Liberal Democrat supporters decided to use their vote for the Labour challenger Stephen Twigg instead.

Why is tactical voting used?

A big reason for the existence of tactical voting is because of the first past the post (FPTP) system that is used in the UK.

Under this system, people vote for a single candidate as MP in their constituency, with the person getting the most votes winning.

Sky News adds: "The party with the most MPs wins, rather than the party with the most votes overall. A party could therefore lose an election even if more people voted for them overall."

In this system, a lot of votes are theoretically wasted so if someone didn't like the current person or party in charge they would vote for the person/party most likely to defeat them.

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Tactical voting has been shown to work, as with the 1997 General Election example above, but is more often noticeable in by-elections.

By-elections are held when a seat in Parliament becomes vacant between General Elections and can often be used to get a message across.

For example, in the 2021 North Shropshire by-election the Liberal Democrats overturned a 23,000 Conservative majority as Labour voters decided to go for their candidate.