Simon Hughes and John Reid on AV vote’s strange coalitions
AV war of words set to escalate
The No to AV campaign is to hit back at comments by Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne, who accused the Conservatives of trashing his party.
In a speech to a No campaign rally on Tuesday, former Labour minister Lord Boateng will dub Mr Huhne a “wannabe”.
And he will say that if the climate change secretary dislikes the Tories he should quit the coalition government.
Mr Huhne has urged Labour voters to back a new electoral system on Thursday to keep the Tories out of power.
He has expressed anger in recent days over the way the No lobby – a cross-party group which shares some financial backers with the Conservatives – has conducted its campaign.
He told the Guardian: “David Cameron has had the power to stop these No campaign leaflets saying Nick Clegg has broken promises and told lies. He has done nothing about it.
“To attack your political colleagues in a coalition, and Nick Clegg in particular, for accepting the compromises necessary to allow the Conservatives to implement some of its policies is absurdly short-sighted and outrageous.
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.
In depth: AV referendum Q&A: alternative vote referendum AV poll: Where parties stand
“Our two parties came together in the national interest in order to deal with our country’s economic problems.
“The Conservative party is now completely trashing us and Nick Clegg’s leadership for doing something they asked us to do in the national interest.”
Mr Huhne has urged voters to vote Yes to pave the way for a “progressive alliance” between Labour and the Liberal Democrats – to keep the Conservatives out of power.
But former Labour cabinet minister Lord Boateng is set to hit back at his claims at a No campaign rally in London on Tuesday.
He will say: “For the last three weeks Chris Huhne and his Lib Dem colleagues have been telling Labour supporters to vote Yes in order to block the Conservatives. The irony is overwhelming.
“A cabinet minister propping-up a Conservative government implementing Conservative policies is trying to unite the left.
“If Chris Huhne finds the Tories so distasteful, you have to ask why is he in government with them?”
He accused Mr Huhne of “making a crude bid for Labour support – and, perhaps, highlighting his own political ambitions” – and if he wanted to undermine David Cameron he should “resign from the coalition, taking enough of his Liberal colleagues with him”.
“Then we could see if the Lib Dems really want to form a progressive coalition,” added the Labour peer.
Echoing Lord Reid, who claimed on BBC Two’s Daily Politics that the “majority” of Labour supporters wanted to keep the current first-past-the-post system, Lord Boateng said: “I believe Labour voters won’t be fooled into backing this Lib Dem project.”
Lord Reid also urged voters to ignore the coalition “circus” and vote on the issues – saying he agreed with Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes, who urged voters to ignore headlines about splits.
Mr Hughes told the Daily Politics the AV referendum was “an issue that transcends this Parliament and this coalition”.
Explaining what he thought Mr Huhne had meant by urging a progressive alliance, he said “historically” Lib Dem voters “might well put a Labour vote second” and vice versa.
The Yes campaign is trailing in the opinion polls, with a survey by The Sunday Times/YouGov putting them 10 points behind – a narrowing of the poll before that, which put them 18 points behind.
But campaigners for changing the electoral system insist it is still all to play for, with turnout in different parts of the country likely to prove crucial.
The rival campaigns are due to hold rallies on Tuesday in a final push to mobilise their supporters.
Prime Minister David Cameron has stressed that he is not responsible for material produced by the No campaign – and both he and Nick Clegg have said they will continue to work together in the national interest whatever Thursday’s outcome.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.