AV referendum is not to ‘kick Clegg’

Labour leader urges people not to punish deputy PM by saying no to electoral reform because referendum is chance to change political system for better The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has urged voters not to use the AV referendum to “kick Nick Clegg”, as the latest poll showed opinion against changing the electoral system is hardening. Miliband, who supports replacing first past the post with the alternative vote – under which voters would rank candidates in order of preference – said the referendum presented a “once in a generation opportunity” to change Britain’s political system for the better. Speaking on the eve of the polls, which will see the referendum conducted alongside local elections and devolved elections in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, the Labour leader appealed to voters to send a message to the coalition about their concerns over cuts, university tuition fees and the proposed shake-up of the NHS. But he urged them not to vote against AV in order to punish the deputy prime minister for breaking Liberal Democrat election promises. The referendum was the key concession Clegg gained from David Cameron in last year’s coalition negotiations. Miliband made his last-minute appeal amid polling which suggests the no campaign will romp to victory in the referendum. A ComRes poll for the Independent showed a resounding 32-point lead for the no campaign among people who have made up their minds and say they are sure to vote. It put the no vote on 66% compared with 34% for the yes campaign – a 12-point widening of the gap since last week, when the margin was 60% to 40%. Miliband refused to be drawn on the referendum result, but admitted it was unlikely that the country would be “coming back to this very quickly” if voters say no on Thursday. He defended his refusal to share a platform with Clegg throughout the campaign, despite lauding AV as a system more likely to encourage parties to “reach out to each other”. The Labour leader said he had feared throughout the campaign that the poll would become a referendum on a political individual, whether this was Clegg, Cameron or himself. He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “I think there was always a danger that it did become that, and that was my reason [for refusing to share a platform with Clegg].” Pointing out that he had been willing to share a platform with Vince Cable, the business secretary, Miliband said the difference with Clegg was that people – including many in his own party – had been “shocked” by his willingness to “pose as somebody from the centre-left” and then go into a Tory-led coalition to pursue policies for which the government had no mandate. Many of those policies – such as raising tuition fees and the pace of spending cuts – had previously been opposed by Clegg. The Labour leader said Clegg had presented himself as “the poster child” for new politics before the last general election before entering into coalition and breaking promises in line with “old politics”. “I hope people vote Labour tomorrow on those issues [at the local and devolved elections] because I think they do need to send a message to this government without a mandate, but I hope people do not use the referendum to kick Nick Clegg,” he said. Miliband conceded that Labour should have introduced AV during its 13 years in power, but had been deterred by its heavy majority under first past the post. He also dismissed the claim, made by David Cameron on air on Tuesday, that AV would mean some votes counted more than others. “Votes count equally,” he said. The campaign for or against voting reform for Westminster elections has seen tensions mount among the coalition partners. Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, directly confronted Cameron at the weekly cabinet meeting at Downing Street over alleged “lies” by the no camp. Clegg admitted “feelings are rising high” ahead of the referendum, but dismissed the idea that the alternative vote poll would destroy the coalition. He declined to comment directly on Huhne’s intervention in cabinet, which was criticised by the yes campaign as unhelpful. The Liberal Democrat leader told BBC’s 5 live Breakfast: “This government will move on whether the vote tomorrow is yes or no.” Clegg also denied that he had given up on a yes result, saying many people would not put their minds to how to vote until polling day arrived. “I wouldn’t immediately start deciding how people are going to vote until they’ve had the chance to vote tomorrow,” he added. “It’s a very simple choice – obviously the temperature is rising, feelings are rising high as you’d expect at this stage in the referendum campaign, but at the end of the day it isn’t about what politicians think or feel or even say to each other – it’s about what people want and do people want the current system. “Gallons of ink is going to be spilled in the nation’s newspapers providing a post mortem one way or another. Actually, the choice before people is not whether this was said in the referendum campaign or that was said in the referendum campaign but what this is all about.” AV referendum Alternative vote Electoral reform Ed Miliband Nick Clegg Elections 2011 Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 4, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.