Labour should support a “Yes” vote on AV

Left Foot Forward

With a date now set for a referendum on switching the electoral system to the Alternative Vote, a debate will no doubt rage inside both the Labour and Conservative parties as to how they should campaign.

With a date now set for a referendum on switching the electoral system to the Alternative Vote, a debate will no doubt rage inside both the Labour and Conservative parties as to how they should campaign. Labour MPs and activists, regardless of their views on proportional representation, should support a “Yes” vote for three simple reasons.

First, the Alternative Vote is an intrinsically fairer system that first-past-the-post. Under Britain’s current electoral system only 33 per cent of MPs were elected with a clear majority (50%+1) of support in their constituencies – the lowest ever proportion. AV ensures that every MP would have this legitimacy by reallocating second preferences. But the system only changes the way votes are cast and counted meaning that any concerns about how some electoral systems remove the constituency link are not relevant.

Second, the Alternative Vote is popular while first-past-the-post is unpopular. A recent poll by ComRes for the Independent showed that 78 per cent of voters believe the current electoral system should be replaced while 56 per cent would back a switch to the AV system.

Third, the Alternative Vote is likely to help Labour at the expense of the Conservatives. Post-election research by US pollster Stanley Greenberg showed that 37 per cent of Lib Dem voters wanted a Labour-Lib Dem coalition compared to 29 per cent who supported a Tory-Lib Dem coalition, a further 21 per cent wanted a Unity government. Since the election, the Lib Dem vote has collapsed to 16 per cent – twice as many of these switchers have turned to Labour compared to the Tories. A projection by the Electoral Reform Society of the 2010 election outcome under the Alternative Vote showed the Tories on 281 (-26), Labour on 262 (+4), and Lib Dems (+22).

One final reason is that the Labour party already uses AV for the selection of its own leader. If it’s good enough for the party, it should be good enough for the country.

UPDATE 12.06:

Ed Miliband has put out the following statement:

“I strongly support the case for introducing the Alternative Vote, to ensure greater fairness for voters and greater legitimacy for our MPs in Westminster. Whenever the referendum takes place, I will campaign with other supporters across the political spectrum for this important change.”

Earlier today, David Miliband told Today listeners:

“I think that it’s important that we move to a system where every Member of Parliament has at least 50 per cent of the vote of their constituents.”

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33 Responses to “Labour should support a “Yes” vote on AV”

  1. Ving Faction

    Labour should support a “Yes” vote on AV http://j.mp/adHX6E

  2. William Summers

    RT @ving_faction Labour should support a “Yes” vote on AV http://j.mp/adHX6E

  3. cim

    While I agree with all the other reasons you give for why Labour should support AV, this one – as well as, as others have pointed out, being deeply cynical – is not necessarily true.

    “the Alternative Vote is likely to help Labour at the expense of the Conservatives.”

    This is only true so far as the Lib Dem voters are more likely to second-preference Labour rather than the Conservatives. I ran various speculative scenarios here, and essentially the difference between AV and FPTP depends on who the Lib Dem voters see themselves as closer to. If the left of the Lib Dems deserts the party to join a renewed Labour party, it would actually be the Conservatives who benefited most from AV.

  4. Ben Craig

    RT @leftfootfwd: Labour should support a "Yes" vote on AV http://bit.ly/bofIw1

  5. Mr. Sensible

    Will, as I have said before I do not support this.

    Changing the voting system could result in perminant coalition government, and after what has happened with the Con Dem Nation I think that is to be avoided.

    After all, when we got this Hung Parliament, everyone thought the Lib Dems would not want anything to do with the Tories. In the event, they didn’t just do a ‘confidence and supply’ agreement; they went in to a full-blown coalition, and have now detinated the ‘VAT bombshell’ they campaigned against.

    Second, as others have said, I think the argument that it will help Labour may be misleading. Because as others have said, it will come at the same time as a proposed redrawing of constituency boundries, otherwise known as gerrymandering.

    I notice that in yesterday’s Guardian, some people, including my former mP, who supported it are now less certain.

    But I think that by all means we should have the debate.

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