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Former director general of BBC says politicians should work harder to win support as celebrities launch Yes to AV campaign MPs would be denied “jobs for life” through holding safe seats if Britain switched to the alternative vote system in next month’s referendum on the electoral system, Greg Dyke, the former director general of the BBC, said. Dyke and a host of celebrities, including comedian Eddie Izzard and gold medal winner Kriss Akabusi, today helped launch the Yes to AV campaign in London, just five weeks before the referendum. Dyke argued that the voting changes will make MPs work harder by needing to win 50% of their constituency’s support. “In constituency after constituency, what matters is not getting the electorate to support you but getting the party to nominate you,” said Dyke, who resigned from the BBC in 2004 and is now chair of the British Film Institute. He said: “Once nominated you’ve got a job for life in seat after seat, which is why we’ve got rather average politicians. AV will begin to change that.” “Politicians are going to have to work harder to get our support and work harder to keep it. You don’t get jobs for life in anywhere else in Britain today, so why should you in politics?” He was speaking on an intentionally politician-free platform with Izzard, writer Rowan Davis, Akabusi, war correspondent and former MP Martin Bell and ethical fashion designer Amisha Ghadiali. The yes campaign is working hard to generate a trend towards younger people supporting the campaign against a political establishment led by right-wingers. Organisers said over 100 campaign events had been arranged across the country with banner drops in 60 cities. Dyke said those opposing the campaign were “old hack politicians” and had become “complacent” about their jobs. Citing opposition to the proposed changes from Conservative and Labour MPs, he said: “It’s time for the politicians to keep quiet. This is not about them – it’s about us. They are our servants, it’s not the other way round.” Izzard, a Labour supporter, said the Yes to AV campaign is “pushing for civilisation”. The proposed system, to be voted on in a referendum on 5 May, would see voters rank candidates in order of preference. Candidates who get fewer votes have their votes distributed to others, until one candidate has 50%. The electoral commission will this weekend send out a massive mailshot to the electorate in an attempt to explain the alternative vote. Izzard said the model is “as simple as one-two-three” and would end tactical voting. “People do want more choice. Politics is not black and white and grey. It’s multicoloured. This is the first time we’ve been given the chance to choose. If we don’t take this chance on 5 May we won’t get another chance for 100 years,” he said. Bell, who ousted Conservative MP Neil Hamilton as an independent candidate in 1997 on a “sleaze-busting” platform, said the campaign was a “movement against the political classes”, adding: “We cannot have our MPs being elected by a minority of their constituents and then still try preaching about democracy to the rest of the world. Let’s first put our own house in order.” David Cameron continued yesterday to make his claim that AV is un-British, undemocratic and likely to favour extremists. He said: “It is a system so undemocratic that your vote for a mainstream party counts once, while someone can support a fringe party like the BNP and get their vote counted several times. “It’s a system so obscure that it is only used by three countries in the whole world: Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. I’m not making it up, three countries in the whole world. Our system is used by half of the world.” Akabusi, a Conservative voter and former Olympic sprinter, said “never in a month of Sundays would the BNP get in”. But he added: “If in a fair and democratic election, 50% of the people voted for the BNP, I’d be proud to be in that country. Because democracy also has to have unpalatables. You can’t just have it the way you want it.” AV – the alternative vote Greg Dyke Electoral reform Eddie Izzard David Batty guardian.co.uk