LABOUR LEADER Ed Miliband has urged UK voters not to oppose efforts to replace the first-past-the-post voting system because of the unpopularity of Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, the plan’s strongest supporter.
Yesterday Mr Miliband shared a platform with Liberal Democrat MP Charles Kennedy to back the Yes campaign to replace the first-past-the-post system with the Alternative Vote (AV).
Up to now, the Labour leader, who faces opposition from within his own ranks to AV, had refused to campaign alongside Mr Clegg, saying he would “be a liability” for the Yes campaign.
“People have talked about the implications of a Yes vote for David Cameron or a No vote for Nick Clegg. I urge people to look beyond particular individuals, and vote in the national interest,” said Mr Miliband.
The AV system, where MPs in most cases would require the support of 50 per cent of all voters in their constituencies, would enable “progressive” left-leaning parties to come together to defeat the Conservatives, he said.
Saying that AV would help such parties to “build bridges not barriers”, Mr Miliband went on: “The tragedy for progressive politics in Britain has been that division on the centre and left has handed a united right victory after victory.
“For most of the last 80 years, there has been one Conservative Party but several competing for progressive votes. No wonder the Tories back the current system,” he said, speaking alongside Mr Kennedy and Green Party leader Caroline Lucas.
The issue will be decided on May 5th, at the same time as the elections for the Scottish and Welsh devolved parliaments and local elections for half of all councils.
Questioned about fears that the legitimacy of the referendum result will be tarnished by a low turnout, Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron said he was absolutely sure the Conservatives would honour their agreement to legislate for its introduction.
Meanwhile, Conservative foreign secretary William Hague was joined by four of his predecessors in the foreign office to campaign for a No vote. He said it would be a “grave error” to abandon first-past-the-post, which had been copied “around the world”.
“Those of us who have represented Britain internationally know that one of the many reasons why we have always punched above our weight is our simple and straightforward voting system, a system that everyone can understand, because it gives one person one vote,” the four said.
In a letter to the London Times, the four – Mr Hague, Douglas Hurd, Geoffrey Howe, Malcolm Rifkind and Labour’s Margaret Beckett, said: “Democracies all across the world have been founded on the example of our voting system.”
Meanwhile, the director of the No2AV campaign, Matthew Elliott, said AV would boost the electoral profile of the British National Party: “Candidates would have to worry about the unpleasant views of people voting BNP in order to try to pick up their second preferences. Mr Farron rejected the claim, saying the BNP was actually campaigning for a No vote.
