Mr Cameron said he and Nick Clegg were “committed” to a five-year coalition PM: AV vote won’t end coalition
Mr Cameron said he and Nick Clegg were “committed” to a five-year coalition The referendum on changing the UK voting system will not break the coalition, David Cameron has said.
The PM, who backs first-past-the-post, said he and his deputy Nick Clegg, who wants to replace it with AV, were both committed to a five-year government.
Whatever the result on 5 May the losing side would have to “pick themselves up” and get on with governing, he said.
Earlier, ex-Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown accused Chancellor George Osborne and other foes of AV of “throwing mud”.
The latest exchanges come as a survey suggests public opinion has hardened against a switch.
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 Alternative Vote (AV).
The Conservatives agreed to the referendum on 5 May as part of the coalition deal, which also allows both parties to campaign on opposing sides.
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 Ashdown attacks Osborne over AV
There have been suggestions that a “no” vote could spell the end for the coalition – amid some Liberal Democrat unease over coalition policies on university tuition fees and spending cuts.
But Mr Cameron told Sky’s Murnaghan programme: “Whatever the result on May 5, this is a five-year Government, Nick and I are absolutely committed to taking the government and its programme forward.”
“Whoever is on the losing side as it were will just have to pick themselves up and say: well, it was a fair argument, a fair fight, a fair referendum, the country has decided and now we have got to get on with all the things that really matter so much.”
Under the first-past-the-post system, voters put a cross next to their preferred candidate, while under 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%.
Mr Cameron told Sky first-past-the-post was a system “that is effective, that is simple, that is fair, that works, that is used by half the world”.
He added: “We shouldn’t swap it for a system that is unfair and used by just a handful of countries and that is much more complicated.”
Last week Chancellor George Osborne said it “stinks” that the main backer of the pro-AV camp was the Electoral Reform Society – whose commercial arm Electoral Reform Services Ltd (ERSL) runs election services.
“It won’t be an easy moment for the Liberal Democrats – but we’ve been through this before”
Lord Ashdown Former Lib Dem leader
He claimed that ERSL stood to benefit financially from a switch. The firm has denied the accusation, saying a switch would have “absolutely no impact” on its revenue.
Writing in the Observer, Lord Ashdown said the no camp’s strategy was clear: “Throw as much mud as you can, don’t let the issue be discussed openly and frighten the public over the next three weeks into voting to preserve the power the present First-Past-the-Post system gives them.”
He said Mr Osborne’s “slurs” were “desperate” and criticised another Tory cabinet minister – Baroness Warsi – for suggesting AV would benefit extremists.
But he told the BBC later that Mr Cameron had been “responsible” in putting forward his arguments against AV – but argued he was wrong to argue the current system was fair and more simple.
“It’s not fair; more than 60% of MPs in this country are elected with more people voting against them than for them – that’s not fair to the electorate, it’s not even a fair democracy,” he said.
And while it was counted differently, AV was “just as simple” for voters, he said.
But he criticised “ridiculous scare tactics” by the no camp – including suggestions that it would benefit the BNP: “Excuse me, the BNP are voting against this because they know it diminishes their chances of getting in.”
Asked if a no vote would cause problems for the Lib Dems, Lord Ashdown said: “Am I going to be happy about that? No. Am I going to throw my toys out of the pram when a British political party that has democracy in its name – the Liberal Democrats – puts a proposition to the British people and the British people in a democratic vote, vote against? Hardly.”
But he acknowledged: “It won’t be an easy moment for the Liberal Democrats – but we’ve been through this before.”
Asked if it would end Nick Clegg’s leadership, Lord Ashdown replied “certainly not”.
Mr Cameron told Sky there “should be a reasonable argument on both sides” but said Mr Osborne’s point about the Electoral Reform Society was “a fact”.
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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