Huhne confronts Cameron over AV

Cabinet row sees energy secretary asking prime minister if he will disown no campaign literature that criticises Nick Clegg The row about David Cameron’s endorsement of no campaign tactics in the referendum on the future of the voting system reached cabinet on Tuesday when Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, demanded to know if Cameron would disown the tactics. He demanded to know whether Cameron endorsed some of the claims being made by the no campaign, saying he believed some of its campaign literature smeared the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg. Huhne has already accused Cameron in public of trashing Clegg’s leadership by allowing the no campaign to send out leaflets accusing Clegg of breaking promises and sell-outs. Huhne directly raised the issue at the start of cabinet under parliamentary business with Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne. Both men replied that they were only responsible for the no campaign being run by the Conservative party. One source discounted claims that the chancellor countered that the issue was not appropriate for cabinet. They said the issue did not last that long. Tory sources were accused of leaking the row. Some cabinet sources then claimed Huhne had not been supported by his Liberal Democrat colleagues in cabinet, but one senior Liberal Democrat said he merely said in private to their faces what he has been saying in the papers. It is known that Huhne does have the support of many senior Liberal Democrats, although there is a division over the extent to which the yes campaign should be doing anything to divert from the positive case for AV. The anger boiling over for weeks has intensified by the way in which Cameron has continually disowned responsibility for the no campaign propaganda even though 80% of its declared donors are also Conservative party backers. Cameron said he was directly responsible only for the official Conservative party no campaign, but he stood by the no campaign’s claims that AV would make it “very likely” that electronic counting machines would have to be purchased. Huhne told the Guardian over the bank holiday weekend that some of the literature trashing Clegg is incredibly short-sighted since it undermines Clegg for making compromises sought by Cameron to put him into power, and to address the issue of Britain’s debt. The conflict turns on the fact that the no campaign attacks the concept of coalitions, even though Cameron is leading one. Asked to condemn posters suggesting babies’ and soldiers’ lives would be put at risk if AV was introduced, Cameron said: “I choose to support my own campaign, which has not made that argument but the fact is if you move to a new voting system it will cost money.” Cameron has yet to condemn the posters in public. One Liberal Democrat cabinet minister said: “This smacks of all the old tactics of the nasty party. It is juvenile and will end up damaging the more than us. It has all the hallmarks of George Osborne”. In a Guardian interview Clegg insisted he was not angry about the literature, but said he would not accept that he had broken promises. Clegg told the BBC that “perhaps naively” he had expected the referendum campaign not to feature politicians so prominently, and he and Cameron could take a more “standoffish” stance. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said he did not accept that the AV result was a “foregone conclusion” – amid opinion polls suggestions that the yes campaign is heading for defeat. The yes campaign is desperately trying to stoke an anti-Cameron mood to counter the anti-Clegg mood being fired by the no campaign. Miliband also defended his decision to refuse to share a yes campaign platform with Clegg due to his perceived unpopularity with voters: “There’s a reason the no campaign want to make Nick Clegg the poster child for their campaign,” he said. AV referendum Alternative vote Liberal-Conservative coalition Chris Huhne David Cameron Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk

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