Referendum to be held on voting reform

MPs have moved closer to sanctioning a referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV), backing the proposal, a key plank to the Con-Lib coalition, at the opening of the new session of Parliament on 6 September.

The referendum passed with 328 votes to 269. It proposes a public vote on changing from the first past the post system to the AV system under which voters rank constituency candidates in order of preference.

Deputy Prime Minister and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said the referendum would restore people’s faith in the political system. He said: "This Bill is only one part of a much, much wider programme of political reform, including giving people the power of recall to clean up party funding, to produce proposals finally to reform the House of Lords. Political reform doesn't begin or end with this one single Bill.”

The referendum is viewed as source of cohesion for the continuation of the coalition, despite opposition from a number of Conservative backbenchers.

Conservative MP Eleanor Laing said Tory support for the Bill was a "matter of honour" passed in order to fulfil the coalition agreement and commented that it was “a high price we have to pay" for a stable coalition government.

The provisional date of next year’s referendum, 5 May 2011, is a source of contention with some 45 MPs have signing a motion calling for a change of the date. They fear that holding it on the same date as elections to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly could effect results.

Mr Clegg has said that Westminster elections should not be held on the same day as elections to Holyrood, leading the Scottish National Party to call for a similar approach being taken with the referendum. SNP MSP Pete Wishart said:

“While it is welcome that Nick Clegg has seen sense over the issue of fixed term dates, the Coalition Government must now recognise that combining the date of an AV referendum with the devolved elections next May is similarly unsustainable."

There have been suggestions that the outcome of the referendum could effect the future stability of the coalition. A vote on constitutional reform was seen as one of the key concessions to the Lib Dems during coalition negotiations and was a central aspect of their 2010 manifesto. Failure to deliver such change, some activists have said, would damage support in the party for working with the Conservatives, though Clegg has said he will continue to work with his Conservative colleagues even if the bill fails. 

As The Journal went to press, MPs were debating a second reading of the bill, which is expected to pass through the House of Commons.