The proposed date of next year’s referendum is a source of contention Plans for a referendum on the way MPs are elected will take centre stage on Monday as the House of Commons resumes business after the summer recess.
MPs will debate a bill paving the way for a referendum on 5 May 2011 on whether to change the current system.
There is unease in Tory ranks and among nationalist parties about the date as it coincides with devolved elections.
Although it backs the poll Labour has threatened to vote against the bill due to plans to change constituency sizes.
The commitment to hold a referendum on replacing the current first-past-the-post electoral system with an alternative vote system – where voters rank constituency candidates in order of preference – was a key part of the coalition deal signed by the Conservatives and Lib Dems in May.
Most Conservative MPs, including David Cameron, are opposed to the change, but the party conceded the referendum as part of the power-sharing deal.
The Lib Dems have long argued the current system is unfair and needs reform.
Monday’s session will be the first debate on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill – which must be approved in the next couple of months to enable a May poll to be held.
However, opposition to the poll date among Tory MPs could cause problems for the coalition.
More than 45 MPs – most of them Conservative – have signed a motion calling for it to be moved to another day, arguing that holding it concurrently with elections to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly, as well as local council elections in some parts of England, could distort the result.
By holding it then, they say it could lead to different levels of turnout across the UK – favouring one side over the other – as well as “clouding” the arguments involved.
Deputy Prime Minister and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said it is “insulting” to voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to say they cannot deal with multiple votes on the same day and a 5 May poll will save money.
In an article for the Sunday Telegraph ahead of the new Parliamentary term, Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron said the need for a referendum reflected “genuine concerns” about the current system.
Under the existing arrangement, Labour was re-elected in 2005 with just 35% of the total vote.
“We emphatically agree that the decision is not, in any case, for government alone. It should be taken by the people themselves,” they wrote.
The bill’s passage is likely to be further complicated by the fact that Labour has threatened to vote against it because of separate proposals to conduct boundary reviews to make constituency sizes more uniform.
The coalition says it is unfair that some MPs need almost twice as many votes to get elected as others as their constituencies are much larger in terms of registered voters.
Labour say the proposals to “equalise” constituency sizes – as well as cutting their number by 650 to 600 – will disproportionately hurt Labour-supporting areas and is equivalent to “gerrymandering”.
The coalition has accused Labour of “opposition for opposition’ s sake”.
Electoral reform campaigners have urged the parties to put “partisan” differences aside over the issue to ensure the referendum takes place next year.
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