What voting system is used to elect members of Parliament (MPs)?

Okay, so when we talk about electing Members of Parliament, or MPs, in the UK, it's all about a system called "First past the post." Think of it like this: the UK is divided into smaller areas called constituencies, and each constituency gets to elect one MP to represent them in Parliament. Now, in each of these constituencies, all the candidates from different political parties (or independent candidates) run against each other. On election day, people in that area vote for their preferred candidate. The candidate who gets the most votes in that constituency wins, regardless of whether they get more than 50% of the vote. That's the "first past the post" part – whoever gets to the "post" of having the most votes first, wins! It's a simple system, but it can sometimes lead to situations where a party wins a majority in Parliament even if they didn't win the majority of votes nationally. Other systems like proportional representation aim to make the number of seats a party gets in Parliament more closely match the number of votes they received across the country, but that's not how it works for electing MPs in the UK.