The referendum on changes to the voting system for Westminster elections takes place next month AV voting campaigns step up gear
The referendum on changes to the voting system for Westminster elections takes place next month Campaigning on changes to the UK voting system will step up a gear later when senior politicians go head-to-head.
Prime Minister David Cameron and former Labour cabinet minister John Reid will share a platform to argue the case for the current first-past-the-post system.
Labour leader Ed Miliband and Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable will urge a switch to the alternative vote.
The cases will be made at separate events in London less than three weeks before the referendum on the vote.
BBC political correspondent Gary O’Donoghue says the campaign has thrown up some strange alliances – none more so than the prospect of Mr Cameron getting on first name terms with one of Labour’s most ferocious anti-Conservative attack dogs of recent times, Dr Reid.
The prime minister will acknowledge that he and Dr Reid agree on almost nothing, except that changing to the alternative vote (AV) system would be bad for the country.
Mr Cameron will also argue that politics should not be some mind-bending exercise but more about what you feel in your gut – and he feels that AV is wrong.
The referendum choice
At the moment MPs are elected by the first-past-the-post system, where the candidate getting the most votes in a constituency is elected.
On 5 May all registered UK voters will be able to vote Yes or No on whether to change the way MPs are elected to the Alternative Vote system.
Under the Alternative Vote system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.
Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.
If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining.
This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.
Q&A: Alternative vote referendum AV referendum: Where parties stand
Meanwhile, the “yes” campaign will see Mr Miliband rub shoulders with Vince Cable, who has found himself at odds with his Conservative coalition colleagues in recent days over immigration policy.
Mr Miliband will say that while AV is not a panacea, he believes it will improve politics.
As well as Mr Cable, he will share a stage with comedian Eddie Izzard, the Green Party’s Darren Johnson and Billy Hayes of the Communication Workers’ Union.
Mr Cameron has said that the campaign will not break the coalition – he and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg are in opposite camps when it comes to the issue of the voting system.
Both party leaders put opposing cases in television interviews on Sunday, ahead of the 5 May referendum.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are coalition partners but are on opposite sides of the campaign on changing the voting system for Westminster elections from first-past-the-post to the AV.
The Conservatives agreed to the referendum as part of the coalition deal, which also allows both parties to campaign on opposing sides.
Labour is split over AV – Mr Miliband is campaigning to change the system but other senior Labour figures, including former deputy PM Lord Prescott, want to keep first-past-the-post.
Labour MP and former minister Pat McFadden said he would be voting against AV, but he has not been impressed by either campaign.
“I don’t think the ‘yes’ campaign or the ‘no’ campaign have done a great job,” he told the BBC.
UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage said his party was backing a change to AV.
He told BBC Radio 4: “We’ll vote for it because first-past-the-post is broken, it’s hopelessly outdated in modern politics.
“From UKIP’s own perspective, I think AV will help us enormously because the wasted vote argument in general elections will be gone”.
Under the first-past-the-post system voters put a cross next to their preferred candidate while with AV voters rank candidates in order of preference.
These preferences could be used to decide the outcome in places where no candidate wins more than 50%.
A ComRes survey for the Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror – weighted to reflect those certain to vote – found 37% backed AV with 43% against, compared with a 36% to 30% split the other way in January.
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