United Kingdom alternative vote referendum
Encyclopedia
The United Kingdom
alternative vote referendum, as part of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement
drawn up after the 2010 general election, was a nationwide vote held on Thursday 5 May 2011 (the same date as local elections in many areas) to choose the method of electing MPs at subsequent general elections. The referendum
concerned whether to replace the present "first-past-the-post
" (simple plurality) system with the "alternative vote
" (AV) method. The proposal to introduce AV was rejected by the electorate.
This was only the second nationwide referendum to be held (the first being the EC referendum in 1975) and the first that was not merely consultative
; being 'post-legislative' and therefore committing the government to give effect to its decision. It was the first time ever that everyone within the United Kingdom
had been asked to vote on a domestic legislative matter which did not involve the affairs of the EC/European Union
.
All registered electors over 18 (British, Irish and Commonwealth
citizens living in the UK and enrolled British citizens living outside) – including Members of the House of Lords
(who cannot vote in UK general elections) – were entitled to take part.
The result [see box] was described as
"overwhelming". On a turnout of 42.2 percent, 68 percent voted 'No' and 32 percent voted 'Yes'. Ten of the 440 counting districts recorded 'Yes' votes above 50 percent; six in London, and those in Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh Central and Glasgow Kelvin in Scotland.
(PR-STV) for the House of Commons were debated in Parliament several times between 1917 and 1931 and came close to being adopted. Both the Liberals and Labour
were in support at various times of a change from non-transferable voting in one-, two- and three-member constituencies. PR-STV was adopted for the university seats
(which were abolished in 1949). Both AV and PR-STV involve voters rank ordering preferences. However, PR-STV is considered to be a form of proportional representation
, using multi-member constituencies, while AV is not.
In 1950 all constituencies became single-member and all votes non-transferable. From then until 2010, the Labour and Conservative
parties, the two parties who formed each government of the United Kingdom normally by virtue of an overall majority in the Commons, always voted down proposals for moving away from this uniform system for the Commons, which came to be known as ‘First Past the Post’ (FPTP). Other voting systems were introduced for various other British elections. PR-STV was re-introduced in Northern Ireland and list-PR introduced for European elections except in Northern Ireland.
While out of power, the Labour party set up a working group to examine electoral reform. The resulting Plant commission reported in 1993 and recommended the adoption of the supplementary vote, a system very similar to AV, for the Commons. Labour's 1997 manifesto committed the party to a referendum on the voting system for the Commons and to setting up an independent commission to recommend a proportional alternative to FPTP to be put in that referendum.
After winning the 1997 General Election, the new Labour government consequently set up the Jenkins Commission
into electoral reform, supported by the Liberal Democrats, the third party in British politics of recent years and long supporters of proportional representation. (The Commission chair, Roy Jenkins
, was a Liberal Democrat peer and former Labour minister.) The commission reported in September 1998 and proposed the novel alternative vote top-up or AV+ system
. Having been tasked to meet a "requirement for broad proportionality", the Commission rejected both FPTP, as the status quo, and AV as options. It pointed out (chapter 3, para 21) that "the single-member constituency is not an inherent part of the British parliamentary tradition. It was unusual until 1885...Until [then] most seats were two-member..." (the English system established in 1276). Jenkins rejected AV because "so far from doing much to relieve disproportionality, it is capable of substantially adding to it". AV was also described as "disturbingly unpredictable" and "unacceptably unfair", although this must be placed in the context of the recent 1997 general election, which had just delivered the Conservatives' worst defeat since 1832, and which several simulations suggested AV would have made even worse for the Conservatives while increasing the majority for Labour.
However, legislation for a referendum was not put forward. Proportional systems were introduced for the new Scottish Parliament
and Welsh and London Assemblies, and supplementary vote was introduced for mayoral elections. With House of Lords reform in 1999
, AV was introduced for elect replacements
for the remaining 92 hereditary peers who sit in the Lords
.
At the next General Election in 2001, the Labour manifesto now stated they would review the experience of the new systems (in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the Jenkins report, to assess the possibility of changes to the Commons, which would still be subjected to a referendum. Electoral reform in the Commons remained at a standstill, although in the Scottish Parliament, a coalition of Labour and the Liberal Democrats introduced STV for local elections in Scotland.
. A Liberal Democrat amendment to hold the referendum earlier, and on STV, was defeated by 476 votes to 69. There was insufficient time in the 2005–2010 Parliament for the Bill to be able to become law before Parliament was dissolved and, as such, the move was dismissed by several Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs as a political manoeuvre.
At the ensuing 2010 general election campaign, the Labour manifesto supported the introduction of AV via a referendum, to "ensure that every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents voting at each election". The Liberal Democrats argued for proportional representation, preferably single transferable vote, and the Conservatives argued for the retention of FPTP. Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats proposed reducing the number of MPs, while the Conservative Party argued for more equal sized constituencies.
, the first since 1974, leading to a period of negotiations. Honouring a pre-election pledge, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg
entered into negotiations with the Conservatives as the party who had registered most votes and seats. William Hague
offered the Liberal Democrats a referendum on the Alternative Vote as part of a "final offer" in the Conservatives' negotiations for a proposed "full and proper" coalition between the two parties. Labour also offered the Liberal Democrats the Alternative Vote without referendum, but these negotiations quickly ended. On 11 May 2010, Prime Minister Gordon Brown
stepped down, followed by the establishment of a full coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with Conservative leader David Cameron
becoming Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
The initial Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement
, dated 11 May 2010, detailed the issues which had been agreed between the two parties before they committed to entering into coalition. On the issue of an electoral reform referendum, it stated:
Following the agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with the new coalition government now formed, a commitment to the referendum was included in the coalition government's Queen's Speech on 25 May 2010 as the Parliamentary Reform Bill, although with no date set for the referendum.
The coalition agreement committed both parties in the government to "whip
" their Parliamentary parties in both the House of Commons and House of Lords
to support the bill, thereby ensuring that it could reasonably be expected to be passed into law due to the simple majority in the Commons of the combined Conservative – Liberal Democrat voting bloc, due to the fact that the Lords can only delay, rather than block, a Bill passed by the Commons.
reporting after the Queen's Speech, unnamed pro-referendum Cabinet members were believed to want the referendum to be held on 5 May 2011, to coincide with Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly and many English local council elections, with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's prior hope of a referendum as early as October 2010 being unrealistic due to the parliamentary programme announced in the speech.
On 5 July 2010, Clegg announced the detailed plans for the Parliamentary Reform Bill in a statement to the House of Commons, as part of the wider package of voting and election reforms set out in the coalition agreement, including setting the referendum date as 5 May 2011. In addition to a referendum on AV, the reform bill also included the other coalition measures of reducing and resizing the Westminster parliamentary constituencies, introducing fixed term parliaments and setting the date of the next general election
as 7 May 2015, changing the voting threshold for early dissolution of parliament to 55%, and providing for the recall
of MPs by their constituents.
The plans to hold the vote on 5 May faced criticism from some Conservative MPs for potentially causing a 'differential result' where turnout was predicted to be higher in those places where local elections are occurring, which would 'artificially inflate' turnout on an issue believed to be unimportant to the electorate. It also faced criticism from Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs for the effects it would have on their devolved elections on the same day, while Clegg himself faced further criticism from Labour, and implied lessening support from Liberal Democrat MPs, for backing down on earlier Liberal Democrat positions on proportional representation. Clegg defended the date, stating the referendum question was simple and that it would save £17m in costs. Over 45 MPs, mostly Conservatives, signed a motion calling for the date to be moved. In September 2010, Ian Davidson
MP, chairman of the Commons Scottish affairs select committee, stated after consultation with the Scottish Parliament that there was "unanimous" opposition among Members of the Scottish Parliament
(MSPs) to the referendum date, following the "chaos" of the combined 2007 Scottish parliament
and council
elections.
On 22 July 2010, the proposal for fixed term parliaments was put before parliament as the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill, while the proposals for the AV referendum, change in dissolution arrangements and equalising constituencies were put forward in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, which accordingly has three parts – Part 1 – Voting system for parliamentary elections, Part 2 – Parliamentary constituencies and Part 3 – Miscellaneous and general. The Bill contained the text of a proposed referendum question.
The question proposed was:
This wording was criticised by the Electoral Commission
, saying that "particularly those with lower levels of education or literacy, found the question hard work and did not understand it". The Electoral Commission recommended a changed wording to make the issue easier to understand, and the government subsequently amended the Bill to bring it into line with the Electoral Commission's recommendations.
The Bill passed an interim vote in the Commons on 7 September 2010 by 328 votes to 269
An amendment proposed by Lord Rooker
(Independent
) to require a minimum turn-out of 40% for the referendum to be valid was supported by Labour, a majority of cross-benchers and ten rebel Conservatives and passed in the House of Lords by one vote. Labour's 2010 AV referendum proposal had not included such a threshold and they were criticised for seeking to impose one for this referendum, while the 2011 Welsh referendum, held under a Bill passed by Labour, also had no threshold, (and would have failed if it had had one, as turnout in that referendum was only 35%). In the latter hours of debate, a "game" of parliamentary ping-pong
saw the Commons overturning the threshold amendment before being reimposed by the Lords, and being removed again.
After some compromises between the two Houses on amendments, the Bill was passed into law by 16 February 2011.
from Elizabeth II on 16 February 2011.
The Act has the following long title:
yes/no question as to whether to replace the current First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system used in general elections
with the Alternative Vote (AV) system.
The question posed by the referendum was:
In Wales
, the question on the ballot paper also appears in Welsh
:
, the 2011 Scottish Parliament election
, the 2011 Welsh Assembly election
and the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election. The deadline for voters in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
to register to vote in the referendum was midnight on Thursday 14 April 2011, whilst voters in Scotland
had until midnight on Friday 15 April 2011 to register. Anyone in the United Kingdom who qualified as an anonymous elector had until midnight on Tuesday 26 April 2011 to register. In the vote count, the referendum ballots in England, Scotland and Wales were counted after the various election ballots, from 4 pm on 6 May 2011. The referendum had no minimum threshold on the required turnout needed for the result to be valid.
Anyone on the Electoral Register
and eligible to vote in a general election was entitled to vote in the referendum. This includes British citizens living outside the UK who were registered as overseas electors. In addition, Members of the House of Lords, who are not eligible to vote in a general election, were entitled to vote in the referendum, provided they were entitled to vote in local elections.
Despite the Conservative Party's formal position, party members aligned to the Conservative Action for Electoral Reform, an internal party group
in favour of electoral reform, campaigned in favour, while a BBC News report described "some Tory MPs" as being "relaxed" about a yes result. Some Conservatives campaigned in favour of AV, e.g. Andrew Boff
AM; and Andrew Marshall, former head of the Conservative Group on Camden Council
. The Conservative party uses a system of successive ballots to elect its leader, which has similarities to AV (since the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated in each round) and has been described as a "form of AV".
government sought to introduce AV before the 2010 general election. Labour elected a new leader
after the general election and almost all of the leadership candidates supported AV, including winner Ed Miliband
; Andy Burnham was the sole leadership contender who was more critical of the referendum. The party has, however, voiced opposition to the bill currently providing for the referendum, on the grounds of the inclusion of boundary changes that are viewed as beneficial to the Conservative party.
Plaid Cymru
supported AV, but did not take an active role in the campaign, as it focused on separate Welsh votes on the same day. The Scottish National Party
, while maintaining its long standing support for PR-STV, also supported a Yes vote in the referendum. Both of these parties opposed the planned referendum date, as they did not want it held at the same time as the 2011 Welsh Assembly elections
and the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections
respectively.
Among the Northern Irish parties, the Alliance Party
and the Social Democratic and Labour Party
(SDLP) supported AV. The SDLP leader, Margaret Ritchie
, announced that her party would actively campaign in favour. Sinn Féin
also supported a Yes vote, but the Democratic Unionist Party
supported a No vote.
The Green Party of England and Wales
voted in favour of joining the campaign for AV in the referendum at its September 2010 party conference. Many leading figures in the party supported the change as a step towards their preferred system, proportional representation
. Previously, the party's leader and only MP, Caroline Lucas
, had called for a referendum that included a choice of proportional representation. But at their Conference, Deputy Leader Adrian Ramsay
argued that "If you vote No in this referendum, nobody would know whether you were rejecting AV because you wanted genuine reform, or were simply opposing any reform."
's National Executive Committee formally announced that it would be supporting Alternative Vote, although they would prefer a proportional system. An e-mail was sent to members informing them that they may vote against AV, but are not allowed to campaign.
The British National Party
supports proportional representation and has criticised AV as not being proportional. They supported a 'No' vote.
The Respect Party also supported proportional representation and campaigned against AV. Rob Hoveman, on behalf of Tower Hamlets Respect, wrote to the East London Advertiser
on 24 February 2011 urging a 'No' vote on the grounds that the AV system created an even greater imbalance between votes and seats, and urging a proportional system instead.
The Scottish Green Party
also supported AV, although it prefers the adoption of STV for all elections.
The Ulster Unionist Party
and Traditional Unionist Voice
supported a No vote. The Green Party in Northern Ireland
also opposed the change to AV, as they viewed it as a betrayal of proportional representation.
The English Democrats, Christian Peoples Alliance
and The Christian Party all support AV. Pirate Party UK
endorsed a Yes vote, with over 90% of members expressing support for AV.
The Liberal Party
agreed to support the 'yes' campaign, seeing AV as "a potential 'stepping stone' to further reform" and STV.
The Communist Party of Britain
opposed AV.
Mebyon Kernow
, the Cornish nationalist party, favoured proportional representation and was disappointed that the referendum did not give voters that option. However, leader Dick Cole announced on 1 April 2011 that Mebyon Kernow would be supporting the Yes campaign.
The United Kingdom Libertarian Party favoured AV as a slight improvement on first past the post.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain
adopted a neutral position, arguing "what matters more is what we use our votes for" in the context of class struggle.
The Socialist Party of England and Wales opposed AV, pointing out that it is not more proportional than First Past the Post.
The Alliance for Workers' Liberty
opposed AV, arguing that it did not offer progress on the party's main democratic demands.
of the Conservative Party and the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg
of the Liberal Democrats made speeches backing the 'No' and 'Yes' campaigns respectively on the same day, but were thereafter not expected to take much part in the campaigns, although both have been active since.
Former Labour foreign secretary Margaret Beckett
was president of the No to AV campaign.
Labour leader Ed Miliband
said he would take an active part in the 'Yes' campaign, while Wales's First Minister and Welsh Labour Leader Carwyn Jones
and Scottish Labour Leader Iain Gray
both also supported AV. Also supporting the Yes campaign were over 50 Labour MPs including Alan Johnson
, Peter Hain
, Hilary Benn
, John Denham, Liam Byrne
, Sadiq Khan
, Tessa Jowell
, Ben Bradshaw
, Douglas Alexander
, Alistair Darling
, Diane Abbott
and Debbie Abrahams
. Labour peers supporting the 'Yes' campaign include Lord Mandelson, Oona King
, Raymond Plant (chair of Labour's 1993 working group on electoral reform), Andrew Adonis, Prof. Anthony Giddens
, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock
, former deputy leader Roy Hattersley
and Glenys Kinnock
, while further Labour figures supporting AV include London Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone
, Michael Cashman
MEP, Tony Benn
, and former Labour council candidate and wife of the Speaker, Sally Bercow
.
The Liberal Democrats supported a Yes vote and many individual Liberal Democrat politicians were active in the Yes campaign. The SNP leader, Alex Salmond
, supported a Yes vote. UKIP are supporting a Yes vote and their principal spokesmen on the campaign will be William Dartmouth
MEP and party leader, Nigel Farage
MEP.
Supporting the no campaign
were both senior Conservative (William Hague
, Ken Clarke, George Osborne
, Theresa May
, Philip Hammond
, Steve Norris and Baroness Warsi) and Labour politicians (including John Prescott
, David Blunkett
, John Reid, Tony Lloyd
, John Healey
, Caroline Flint
, Hazel Blears
, Beverley Hughes
, Paul Boateng
, John Hutton
and Lord Falconer). The Conservative Party announced that seven MPs (Conor Burns
, George Eustice
, Sam Gyimah
, Kwasi Kwarteng
, Charlotte Leslie
, Priti Patel
, Chris Skidmore) and two former candidates (Chris Philp, Maggie Throup) would act as party spokesmen in the No campaign. Overall, most Labour MPs supported the No campaign rather than the Yes campaign, with other notable opponents of AV including Paul Goggins
, Ann Clwyd
, Sir Gerald Kaufman
, Austin Mitchell
, Margaret Hodge
, Lindsay Hoyle
, Jim Fitzpatrick
, Dennis Skinner
and Keith Vaz
. Also supporting a No vote were crossbencher and former SDP leader Lord Owen, who supported the No to AV But Yes to PR campaign.
Conservative politician Michael Gove
was initially mistakenly announced by the No to AV campaign as opposing AV, but his advisers stated that he had never been involved in the campaign and had not yet made up his mind. Over five Labour MPs announced as opposing AV were also found to have been wrongly included: for example, Alun Michael
is supporting a 'Yes' vote, while Meg Hillier
did not lend her name to either campaign.
Some Conservative politicians did support AV, including John Strafford, a former member of the Conservative party's national executive, who chaired the Conservative campaign in favour of a Yes vote.
was established to campaign against the change to the Alternative Vote and YES! To Fairer Votes
was established to campaign in favour.
, the Electoral Reform Society
, Make My Vote Count, and Unlock Democracy
all campaigned in favour of the change to AV.
opposes the change to AV. It provided "substantial" sums of money to the No campaign and marshalled its members to vote No.
supported the change to the AV and urged the Labour Party
to do so too. It prefers a switch to a more proportional system, but viewed AV as superior to FPTP. ResPublica
supported the change to AV and urged the Conservative Party
to do so too. Policy Exchange
opposed the change to AV. Ekklesia
supported the change to AV.
A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research
in January 2011 was very critical of FPTP's flaws, while a report in April 2011 came down in support of AV over FPTP. However, the IPPR also previously called for a wider choice in the referendum and favours Alternative Vote Plus over FPTP or AV.
Those in favour of AV included David Held (LSE), Patrick Dunleavy (LSE), and Helen Margetts (Oxford), Thom Brooks (Newcastle
), Alastair McMillan (Sheffield
), and Ben Saunders (Stirling
).
Dan Felsenthal (LSE) criticised AV as "deeply flawed", though he also described it as "a minor improvement on the current first-past-the-post system".
David S. Moon (Sheffield
) argued that AV would be worse than FPTP, though he regards both as flawed and supports a move to proportional representation
.
At a March 2011 Voting Power in Practice annual workshop, held at the London School of Economics
(LSE), 22 voting theory specialists voted to select the "best voting procedure" to elect a candidate from a selection of three or more. First past the post received no votes, compared to 10 for AV, although another system, Approval Voting
(not on offer in the referendum), received 15 votes.
On 11, 29 March historians, including Niall Ferguson
, Simon Sebag Montefiore
, Andrew Roberts
and David Starkey
, wrote to the Times expressing opposition to the adoption of the Alternative Vote.
and Friends of the Earth
support the Yes! To Fairer Votes campaign, as do the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, Operation Black Vote, the New Economics Foundation
, 38 Degrees
and bassac. Educational trust The Constitution Society
has also worked to increase public awareness of the issues involved in the debate.
, The Independent
, The Daily Mirror, and The Financial Times supported the change to AV. The Sun, the Daily Mail
, The Times
, the Daily Express
and the Daily Telegraph opposed AV. The Economist
supported a No vote, but does want to see reform of the current electoral system.
; broadcaster and Labour peer Melvyn Bragg
; campaigner and actress Joanna Lumley
; Labour supporter and broadcaster Tony Robinson
; designer and ethical fashion campaigner Amisha Ghadiali; Annette Lawson, chairwoman of the national alliance of women's organisations; and Simon Woolley, director and co-founder of Operation Black Vote. AV is also supported by Kevin Maguire
, associate editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper, and journalist Polly Toynbee
. Billy Hayes
, of the Communication Workers' Union
, also campaigned for a Yes vote.
Celebrities supporting a 'Yes' vote included comedian David Mitchell
, comedian and actor Eddie Izzard
, author Naomi Alderman
, playwright Bonnie Greer
, comedian Francesca Martinez
, actress Helena Bonham Carter
, Oscar award winning actor Colin Firth
, actor and Liberal Democrat supporter John Cleese
, comedian Stephen Fry
, actor Art Malik
, John O'Farrell
, actor Richard Wilson, editor and writer Rowan Davies, broadcaster Greg Dyke
, co-founder of the Ministry of Sound
James Palumbo
, actor and comedian David Schneider
, Kris Akabusi, Chris Addison
, Josie Long
, Benjamin Zephaniah
and Honor Blackman
. Comedian and actor Steve Coogan
also supported a Yes vote.
Supporting a 'No' vote were television presenter Esther Rantzen
, scientist and Labour peer Lord Winston
; nightclub impressario Peter Stringfellow
, cricketers David Gower
and Darren Gough
, Olympic rower James Cracknell
and F1 boss Sir Frank Williams. Actor and television presenter Ross Kemp
also backed the No vote.
; former Bishop of Woolwich, the Rt Rev Colin Buchanan; Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Rev Alan Smith; Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Rev John Packer; Bishop of Beverley, the Rt Rev Martyn Jarrett
; Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Rt Rev Nigel Stock; Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Rev Alan Wilson; Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Rev Michael Perham
; former Bishop of Derby, the Rt Rev Peter Dawes; and former Bishop of Thetford, the Rt Rev David Atkinson
.
Jonathan Bartley
(founder and co-director of the Ekklesia
religious thinktank) supported the referendum.
supported AV. A group of leading businesswomen and campaigners published a letter in The Guardian backing a Yes vote on 28 April 2011, with signatories including Alexandra Shulman
(editor of Vogue
), illustrator Daisy de Villenueve
, writer Gillian Slovo
, human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy, Hilary Wainwright
(editor of Red Pepper
), journalist Isabel Hilton
OBE, Professor Jacqueline Rose
, writer Jay Griffiths
, broadcaster Joan Bakewell, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, fashion designer Patsy Puttnam, journalist Polly Toynbee
, Professor Janet Todd
(President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge), Chair of Young Labour
Susan Nash, activist Tamsin Omond
, financial consultant Tessa Tennant, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood
, gynaecologist/campaigner Dr Wendy Savage
and journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
.
The Yes campaign revealed that they had raised £2 million (as of 15 February 2011), with 95% coming from two donors, the Electoral Reform Society
and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. The Yes campaign also received five-figures sums from Alan Parker
, who is close to both Gordon Brown
and David Cameron
, and Paul Marhsall, a donor to the Liberal Democrats.
The No campaign initially refused to publish details of their donors, but subsequently said on 18 February 2011 they would do so before the referendum date. However, they had not done so by 28 March 2011 when the Yes campaign published an updated list of all donors of over £7,500 and launched a petition calling on the No campaign to do the same.
The No campaign released a list of donors on 9 April 2011, which included several major donors to the Conservative Party, including Lord (John) Sainsbury
, Michael Farmer, Lord Harris
, Lord Fink and Lord Edmiston. In total, the No campaign had raised by that date £1.8m in donations of over the declarable limit of £7,500 from 41 donors, with the largest being from philanthropist Peter Cruddas, founder of the CMC spread betting firm, who gave £400,000.
The Guardian newspaper identified 42 of the 53 named donors to the No campaign as donors to the Conservative party, while one, the GMB union, is a donor to the Labour party, and nine were not identified in official donor records. The remaining donor is official funding from the electoral commission. The donors include seven Conservative peers. They quote Margaret Beckett, a leading Labour No campaigner, as saying this situation is a "necessary evil".
While the Yes campaign has released figures of all donations over the declarable limit since it was set up, the No campaign has not declared any donations prior to the referendum bill receiving Royal Assent
, as they are not required to do under the relevant regulations. David Blunkett, a No campaigner, has called on the No campaign to do so.
, and to present the referendum as an opportunity to punish Clegg at the polls. They also claimed that Clegg described AV as "a miserable little compromise" before the 2010 general election. The fuller quote says "I am not going to settle for a miserable little compromise thrashed out by the Labour party" and Clegg later explained he was talking about negotiations between the two parties. However, the Conservatives rejected the possibility of introducing PR in coalition negotiations, leading to a referendum in which the choice was between FPTP and AV.
While officially supporting a No vote, the Conservative Party leadership reportedly initially held back on campaigning and advised major Conservative Party donors not to donate to the No campaign. However, this position changed in January 2011 and the leadership became more involved, with requests to donors to fund the No campaign and staff and party headquarters becoming directly involved in campaigning.
In mid-February, the prime minister, David Cameron
, and the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg
, made opposing speeches advocating a 'No' and 'Yes' result respectively. Clegg argued that AV would mean "fairer votes" and that FPTP produced more safe seats, and linked these to the MPs' expenses scandal. He said that AV would encourage politicians to work to appeal to more of the electorate rather than just their core supporters. He stated that "I think this [AV] is a natural evolution which reflects the fact that politics is no longer now, as it was 50 years ago when everybody was very happy to plump for the blue corner or the red corner, people want more choice now."
Cameron, in contrast, argued that FPTP delivers more accountability and claimed it reduces the number of "hung" parliament
s. He insisted that "when it comes to our democracy, Britain shouldn't have to settle for anyone's second choice. He also made the claim, on the 3 May 2011 BBC Radio4 Today Programme, that AV would undermine the fundamental principle of "one person, one vote", although to be true this requires an unusual definition of one person one vote (since at any point in time one person has no more than one vote). Despite the coalition parties being on different sides in the campaign, Cameron insisted that "whatever the result", the coalition would continue.
Caroline Lucas
, head of the Green Party of England and Wales
said in support of AV that "they can vote for what they believe in and I think that will be very liberating for a lot of people".
Labour MP Douglas Alexander
described the figure claimed as a "lie". A Channel 4 News Fact Check concluded that the specific claim that AV would require electronic counting machines, the main component of the £250 million figure, was "fiction". Dr Alan Renwick likewise dismissed the suggestion that voting machines would be required, saying "The No camp [...] say that AV would require expensive voting machines. [...] that is just plain false."
The Treasury stated that the adoption of AV would not lead to any spending cuts. Danny Alexander
, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury
and a supporter of AV himself, stated in a leaked letter that, "The Government has no plans to reopen departmental spending review settlements as a consequence of a Yes vote in the referendum on AV." He also told the Independent on Sunday newspaper that, "I don't expect to see any increase in the cost of holding a general election if the British people vote yes. There's no good reason to believe that even under a new voting system an election would need to be more expensive."
The No campaign launched a series of advertisements in regional newspapers based on the £250 million figure. The Yes campaign described these as "shameful", a "smear" and "lies", and complained to the Electoral Commission
and Advertising Standards Authority
, both of whom stated that they did not have powers to regulate individual adverts in the campaign.
On 5 May, David Blunkett, one of the Labour Party former-government ministers who had supported the No Campaign, admitted that the £250 million figure used by the No Campaign had been fabricated, and that the No campaign had knowingly lied about the figure and other claims during the campaign.
, issued in 1998, stated that "There is not the slightest reason to think that AV would reduce the stability of government; it might indeed lead to larger parliamentary majorities."
During the referendum campaign a BBC Newsnight special on the referendum suggested that AV would lead to a small increase in the number of hung results and Dr Alan Renwick, author of A Citizen's Guide To Electoral Reform, wrote in Total Politics magazine that "AV makes election results more volatile, exaggerating landslides on the one hand and making coalitions more common on the other." However, Professor Dennis Leech of Warwick University has argued that coalitions will not be any more likely under AV. Professor Vernon Bogdanor
stated that:
Channel 4 News FactCheck summarised the position as follows:
The FullFact site similarly criticised No campaigners, saying, "some of these claims have trod a fine line between accuracy and error." Professor Vernon Bogdanor
, a political scientist at King's College London
, has stated that "the no campaign's claim that AV gives some voters two votes" is "absurd". He continues, "if I ask you to buy me a Mars but a Mars is not available and I suggest you buy a Twix instead, I will not receive two bars of chocolate. A transferred vote is not a multiple vote." Dr Alan Renwick, an electoral systems specialist at Reading University, made similar comments:
Channel Four News Factcheck states:
The argument that the alternative vote is contrary to the principle of "one person, one vote" was addressed and rejected by a Michigan court in 1975. In Stephenson v. the Ann Arbor Board of City Canvassers, the court held "majority preferential voting" (another name for AV) to be in compliance with the Michigan and United States constitutions, writing:
think-tank, which supported a Yes vote, published modelling showing that with the introduction of AV the number of very marginal seats would have increased from 81 to 125, and the number of very safe seats would decrease from 331 to 271, although there would also have been an increase in the number of quite safe seats. The Foundation found that, with FPTP, the average number of seats changing hands per election was 13% and this could rise to 16% under AV, modestly increasing voter power overall, but concluded "that neither system is very good at translating votes into electoral power."
(more than 50% of the voters). In its Guide to AV, Mori-Ipsos states "this is not really true, but maybe it’s a defensible simplification". AV ensures that a candidate is elected with the support of 50% of voters who have expressed a preference between the final two candidates in the contest. If some voters have indicated that they are indifferent between the final two, by not ranking either of them on the ballot paper, then the winner may be elected with the support of less than 50% of all votes cast.
Professors Rawlings and Thrasher state that "the claims that AV will guarantee local majority support can only be validated if every voter is compelled or chooses to cast a full range of preferences. There seems little prospect of that happening in a general election conducted under AV in the UK." Channel Four FactCheck states that it "is right that candidates will have to aim for 50% of votes, though it is true that some candidates will end up being elected on fewer than 50% of all the votes cast."
In the most recent general election roughly two-thirds of MPs were elected with less than an overall majority. Rawlings and Thrasher predict that 'more than four out of ten' MPs will still not have majority support under AV. Ipsos Mori state "It is certainly true that in many constituencies ..MPs elected under AV will have the support of a higher proportion of voters than they did under FPTP".
, Papua New Guinea
and Fiji. However, AV is also used internationally for many other forms of election.
AV is used for Irish presidential elections and for by-elections in the Republic of Ireland, and in some local elections in New Zealand. In the United Kingdom, AV is used by MPs to elect the chairs of select committees, the Speaker of the House of Lords and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. AV is also used in by-elections to select hereditary peers for the House of Lords
. A variant of AV called the supplementary vote
is used to elect the Mayor of London
and of other UK cities. A related system called the exhaustive ballot
is used to elect the Speaker of the House of Commons. AV is used for various elections in the United states (see AV in the United States).
AV is used by many private organisations in the UK, for example in the leadership elections of the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats, while the leadership elections for the Conservative party use the related exhaustive ballot. AV is also used by the Royal British Legion, and in certain trade unions and student unions
. In the US, AV is now used to decide the winner of the Oscar for Best Picture
.
A method similar to AV, called the two round system, is widely used internationally. For example it is used to elect the National Assembly of France and the Presidents of eighty nations. It is also used to elect governors and mayors in many US states. The United States also uses primaries
, followed by a second round, for the President, House of Representatives and the Senate.
PR-STV
is another related system. It uses a preferential ballot like AV but is used for elections in multi-seat constituencies. It is used for national elections in the Republic of Ireland, Australia and Malta, and for other purposes in many other nations.
The No campaign stressed that FPTP is used in over fifty countries, with a combined population of approximately 2.4 billion people. FPTP is used for legislature elections in the United States, India and Canada, as well as other non-G20 nations. It is used for presidential elections in twenty countries, and for various forms of election in 45 others (35 of these are Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations or British Overseas Territories
).
means that a voter supports a candidate other than his or her sincere preference, in order to get a better outcome. No meaningful voting systems can eliminate tactical voting (under the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem) and situations in which AV is susceptible to tactical voting can be demonstrated. The Yes to AV campaign argues that under AV such scenarios are rare or theoretical. The independent market research group Ipsos MORI has published a guide to AV. This states that the scenario in which tactical voting might influence the outcome of an AV election "is very easy to demonstrate in the case of AV and is unlikely to be especially rare", but "it is true that tactical voting will probably be less under AV."
AV is more resistant to tactical voting than "first past the post" (FPTP), partly because it meets the independence of clones
and mutual majority
criteria; FPTP does not meet these criteria. The use of preferences under AV has been described as "tactical voting" in itself; AV supporters argue that the ranked ballot is a desirable feature of the system, and point out that a sincere ranking of preferences cannot be tactical voting by definition.
(BNP) supported a No vote in the referendum. Nonetheless, the No campaign argued that AV would benefit far-right parties like the BNP and National Front. For example, Conservative politician and No supporter Baroness Warsi described AV as "a system which rewards extremism and gives oxygen to extremist groups". In response, the Yes campaign launched advertising with the slogan, "Say No to the BNP, Say Yes on 5th May" pointing out the BNP's opposition to AV. The Channel 4 News
FactCheck concluded the Yes campaign were correct, saying:
They go on to quote the BNP deputy chairman Simon Darby
, who said: "AV is a retrograde step – it's worse than what we've got now[.] We are never going to get our feet under the table under the AV system." The No2AV-Yes2PR campaign website countered that "AV does confer a subtle benefit on extremists like the BNP: increased legitimacy. AV enables people to cast ‘free’ protest vote safe in the knowledge that they can they cast a second preference for the party they actually want."
Professor Dennis Leech of Warwick University has argued that extremists like the BNP are more likely to win under FPTP, but he has also argued against the notion that AV automatically favours centrists:
threatened legal action over "untruths" that he claimed were told by Conservative Chancellor George Osborne
that new voting machines would be required by AV, despite these not being used in Australian elections under AV and no plans to introduce them. The No campaign countered, quoting a senior returning officer (Anthony Mayer), that voting machines would be essential with AV if results are desired as quickly as today, rather than counting over the weekend after a general election. See the Row over possible costs section for a fuller discussion.
Huhne was reported to have strongly criticised Conservative colleagues at a Cabinet meeting in early May 2011 for the No campaign's material. However, one of the key No campaign leaflets he targeted, showing a newborn baby with the slogan "She needs a maternity unit, not an alternative voting system", was developed by Dan Hodges, a Labour Party campaigner working for NO2AV.
Leading members of the Labour Party on different sides of the campaign also stepped up to campaign for the votes of Labour supporters, including a major newspaper interview with Peter Mandelson
in which he called for a Yes vote and a major advertising campaign by the Labour Yes to Fairer Votes group, both arguing that Labour voters should vote Yes because of Conservative support for a No result. However, the No campaign responded by pointing out that a majority of Labour MPs oppose AV (130 out of 255 opposing AV, 86 in support). In the last week a grassroots campaign featuring Reform Cat in the YouTube video "Is your Cat confused about the referendum on the voting system on the 5th May?" which was released on 27 April 2011, gained more views than either official campaign videos.
system proposed in the referendum, voters would still be electing just one candidate associated with one geographic constituency. Instead of simply voting for one candidate on the ballot paper (with an 'X'), the voter would instead be asked to rank one or more of the candidates in order of preference. If after first preferences have been counted, no one candidate has a majority of the votes cast, then the bottom candidate will be eliminated and votes for that candidate are transferred to each voter's next available preference. The process continues repeatedly until one candidate reaches a majority and wins. The system proposed was a form of "optional preferential voting
", in that voters would not be obliged to rank every candidate in order of preference in order to cast a valid vote.
, so that the instructions to the voter displayed in ballot boxes would be changed from an instruction to vote for only one candidate, to read:
, the results from these local counts were relayed to twelve regional counting areas to be officially announced by the Regional Counting Officers. Scotland
and Wales
were each classed as one regional counting area, so votes in those areas were counted and declared locally within Scottish Parliamentary and Welsh Assembly constituency boundaries before the results were declared nationally. Northern Ireland was also classed as a single regional counting area but its votes were counted and declared nationally as one unit. In England, the votes were counted and declared locally at district council level, and those results were carried over to the nine remaining regional counting areas. The national result for the whole United Kingdom was announced at the Platinum Suite at the Exhibition Centre London (ExCel) by The Chief Counting Officer (CCO), Jenny Watson, at 1 am on Saturday 7 May 2011 after all the counting regions had declared their results.
Ahead of the last results from Northern Ireland, the result was confirmed as a "No" as it was mathematically impossible for the "Yes" voters to outnumber them.
The Coalition Government continued and sought to present a united front after the fractious campaign. Former Conservative Cabinet minister Michael Portillo
criticised Cameron, saying he "forgot the importance of courtesy" towards Clegg and the Liberal Democrats and, thus, the survival of the Coalition, when he joined what Portillo called "the disgraceful No campaign".
On 8 July 2011, the Alternative Vote Provisions were repealed, bringing the statutory process that had initiated the referendum to an end.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
alternative vote referendum, as part of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement
Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement
The Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement was a policy document drawn up following the 2010 general election in the United Kingdom...
drawn up after the 2010 general election, was a nationwide vote held on Thursday 5 May 2011 (the same date as local elections in many areas) to choose the method of electing MPs at subsequent general elections. The referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
concerned whether to replace the present "first-past-the-post
Plurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
" (simple plurality) system with the "alternative vote
Instant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting , also known as preferential voting, the alternative vote and ranked choice voting, is a voting system used to elect one winner. Voters rank candidates in order of preference, and their ballots are counted as one vote for their first choice candidate. If a candidate secures a...
" (AV) method. The proposal to introduce AV was rejected by the electorate.
This was only the second nationwide referendum to be held (the first being the EC referendum in 1975) and the first that was not merely consultative
Public consultation
Public consultation, or simply consultation, is a regulatory process by which the public's input on matters affecting them is sought. Its main goals are in improving the efficiency, transparency and public involvement in large-scale projects or laws and policies...
; being 'post-legislative' and therefore committing the government to give effect to its decision. It was the first time ever that everyone within the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
had been asked to vote on a domestic legislative matter which did not involve the affairs of the EC/European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
.
All registered electors over 18 (British, Irish and Commonwealth
Commonwealth citizen
A Commonwealth citizen, which replaces the former category of British subject, is generally a person who is a national of any country within the Commonwealth of Nations....
citizens living in the UK and enrolled British citizens living outside) – including Members of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
(who cannot vote in UK general elections) – were entitled to take part.
The result [see box] was described as
"overwhelming". On a turnout of 42.2 percent, 68 percent voted 'No' and 32 percent voted 'Yes'. Ten of the 440 counting districts recorded 'Yes' votes above 50 percent; six in London, and those in Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh Central and Glasgow Kelvin in Scotland.
Historical context
AV and the single transferable voteSingle transferable vote
The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...
(PR-STV) for the House of Commons were debated in Parliament several times between 1917 and 1931 and came close to being adopted. Both the Liberals and Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
were in support at various times of a change from non-transferable voting in one-, two- and three-member constituencies. PR-STV was adopted for the university seats
University constituency
A university constituency is a constituency, used in elections to a legislature, that represents a university rather than a geographical area. University constituencies may involve plural voting, in which eligible voters are permitted to vote in both a university constituency and a geographical...
(which were abolished in 1949). Both AV and PR-STV involve voters rank ordering preferences. However, PR-STV is considered to be a form of proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
, using multi-member constituencies, while AV is not.
In 1950 all constituencies became single-member and all votes non-transferable. From then until 2010, the Labour and Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
parties, the two parties who formed each government of the United Kingdom normally by virtue of an overall majority in the Commons, always voted down proposals for moving away from this uniform system for the Commons, which came to be known as ‘First Past the Post’ (FPTP). Other voting systems were introduced for various other British elections. PR-STV was re-introduced in Northern Ireland and list-PR introduced for European elections except in Northern Ireland.
While out of power, the Labour party set up a working group to examine electoral reform. The resulting Plant commission reported in 1993 and recommended the adoption of the supplementary vote, a system very similar to AV, for the Commons. Labour's 1997 manifesto committed the party to a referendum on the voting system for the Commons and to setting up an independent commission to recommend a proportional alternative to FPTP to be put in that referendum.
After winning the 1997 General Election, the new Labour government consequently set up the Jenkins Commission
Jenkins Commission (UK)
The Independent Commission on the Voting System, popularly known as the Jenkins Commission after its chairman Roy Jenkins, was a commission into possible reform of the United Kingdom electoral system.-The commission:...
into electoral reform, supported by the Liberal Democrats, the third party in British politics of recent years and long supporters of proportional representation. (The Commission chair, Roy Jenkins
Roy Jenkins
Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...
, was a Liberal Democrat peer and former Labour minister.) The commission reported in September 1998 and proposed the novel alternative vote top-up or AV+ system
Alternative Vote Top-up
The Alternative Vote Plus , or Alternative Vote Top-up, is a semi-proportional voting system. AV+ was invented by the 1998 Jenkins Commission which first proposed the idea as a system that could be used for elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.As the name suggests, AV+ is an additional...
. Having been tasked to meet a "requirement for broad proportionality", the Commission rejected both FPTP, as the status quo, and AV as options. It pointed out (chapter 3, para 21) that "the single-member constituency is not an inherent part of the British parliamentary tradition. It was unusual until 1885...Until [then] most seats were two-member..." (the English system established in 1276). Jenkins rejected AV because "so far from doing much to relieve disproportionality, it is capable of substantially adding to it". AV was also described as "disturbingly unpredictable" and "unacceptably unfair", although this must be placed in the context of the recent 1997 general election, which had just delivered the Conservatives' worst defeat since 1832, and which several simulations suggested AV would have made even worse for the Conservatives while increasing the majority for Labour.
However, legislation for a referendum was not put forward. Proportional systems were introduced for the new Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
and Welsh and London Assemblies, and supplementary vote was introduced for mayoral elections. With House of Lords reform in 1999
House of Lords Act 1999
The House of Lords Act 1999 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. The Act reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. For centuries, the House of Lords had included several hundred members who inherited their seats;...
, AV was introduced for elect replacements
By elections to the House of Lords
Following passing of the House of Lords Act 1999 the number of hereditary peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords was reduced to ninety-two. The first ninety-two were elected by all hereditary peers before the passing of the reform...
for the remaining 92 hereditary peers who sit in the Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
.
At the next General Election in 2001, the Labour manifesto now stated they would review the experience of the new systems (in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the Jenkins report, to assess the possibility of changes to the Commons, which would still be subjected to a referendum. Electoral reform in the Commons remained at a standstill, although in the Scottish Parliament, a coalition of Labour and the Liberal Democrats introduced STV for local elections in Scotland.
Pre-election
In February 2010, the Labour Government, who had been in power since 1997, used their majority to pass an amendment to their Constitutional Reform Bill to include a referendum on the introduction of AV to be held in the next Parliament, citing a desire to restore trust in Parliament in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandalUnited Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal
The United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal was a major political scandal triggered by the leak and subsequent publication by the Telegraph Group in 2009 of expense claims made by members of the United Kingdom Parliament over several years...
. A Liberal Democrat amendment to hold the referendum earlier, and on STV, was defeated by 476 votes to 69. There was insufficient time in the 2005–2010 Parliament for the Bill to be able to become law before Parliament was dissolved and, as such, the move was dismissed by several Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs as a political manoeuvre.
At the ensuing 2010 general election campaign, the Labour manifesto supported the introduction of AV via a referendum, to "ensure that every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents voting at each election". The Liberal Democrats argued for proportional representation, preferably single transferable vote, and the Conservatives argued for the retention of FPTP. Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats proposed reducing the number of MPs, while the Conservative Party argued for more equal sized constituencies.
Election outcome to Queen's Speech
The 2010 General Election held on 6 May resulted in a hung parliamentHung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...
, the first since 1974, leading to a period of negotiations. Honouring a pre-election pledge, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg
Nick Clegg
Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister...
entered into negotiations with the Conservatives as the party who had registered most votes and seats. William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
offered the Liberal Democrats a referendum on the Alternative Vote as part of a "final offer" in the Conservatives' negotiations for a proposed "full and proper" coalition between the two parties. Labour also offered the Liberal Democrats the Alternative Vote without referendum, but these negotiations quickly ended. On 11 May 2010, Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
stepped down, followed by the establishment of a full coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with Conservative leader David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
becoming Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister.
The initial Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement
Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement
The Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement was a policy document drawn up following the 2010 general election in the United Kingdom...
, dated 11 May 2010, detailed the issues which had been agreed between the two parties before they committed to entering into coalition. On the issue of an electoral reform referendum, it stated:
Following the agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with the new coalition government now formed, a commitment to the referendum was included in the coalition government's Queen's Speech on 25 May 2010 as the Parliamentary Reform Bill, although with no date set for the referendum.
The coalition agreement committed both parties in the government to "whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
" their Parliamentary parties in both the House of Commons and House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
to support the bill, thereby ensuring that it could reasonably be expected to be passed into law due to the simple majority in the Commons of the combined Conservative – Liberal Democrat voting bloc, due to the fact that the Lords can only delay, rather than block, a Bill passed by the Commons.
Passage through Parliament
According to The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reporting after the Queen's Speech, unnamed pro-referendum Cabinet members were believed to want the referendum to be held on 5 May 2011, to coincide with Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly and many English local council elections, with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's prior hope of a referendum as early as October 2010 being unrealistic due to the parliamentary programme announced in the speech.
On 5 July 2010, Clegg announced the detailed plans for the Parliamentary Reform Bill in a statement to the House of Commons, as part of the wider package of voting and election reforms set out in the coalition agreement, including setting the referendum date as 5 May 2011. In addition to a referendum on AV, the reform bill also included the other coalition measures of reducing and resizing the Westminster parliamentary constituencies, introducing fixed term parliaments and setting the date of the next general election
Next United Kingdom general election
The United Kingdom general election of 2010 was held on Thursday 6 May 2010 to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system. None of the parties achieved the 326 seats needed for an overall majority...
as 7 May 2015, changing the voting threshold for early dissolution of parliament to 55%, and providing for the recall
Recall election
A recall election is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before his or her term has ended...
of MPs by their constituents.
The plans to hold the vote on 5 May faced criticism from some Conservative MPs for potentially causing a 'differential result' where turnout was predicted to be higher in those places where local elections are occurring, which would 'artificially inflate' turnout on an issue believed to be unimportant to the electorate. It also faced criticism from Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs for the effects it would have on their devolved elections on the same day, while Clegg himself faced further criticism from Labour, and implied lessening support from Liberal Democrat MPs, for backing down on earlier Liberal Democrat positions on proportional representation. Clegg defended the date, stating the referendum question was simple and that it would save £17m in costs. Over 45 MPs, mostly Conservatives, signed a motion calling for the date to be moved. In September 2010, Ian Davidson
Ian Davidson (Scottish politician)
Ian Graham Davidson is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Glasgow South West since 2005...
MP, chairman of the Commons Scottish affairs select committee, stated after consultation with the Scottish Parliament that there was "unanimous" opposition among Members of the Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.-Methods of Election:MSPs are elected in one of two ways:...
(MSPs) to the referendum date, following the "chaos" of the combined 2007 Scottish parliament
Scottish Parliament election, 2007
The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999...
and council
Scottish local elections, 2007
The Scottish local elections, 2007 were held on 3 May 2007, the same day as Scottish Parliament elections and local elections in parts of England...
elections.
On 22 July 2010, the proposal for fixed term parliaments was put before parliament as the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill, while the proposals for the AV referendum, change in dissolution arrangements and equalising constituencies were put forward in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, which accordingly has three parts – Part 1 – Voting system for parliamentary elections, Part 2 – Parliamentary constituencies and Part 3 – Miscellaneous and general. The Bill contained the text of a proposed referendum question.
The question proposed was:
This wording was criticised by the Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission (United Kingdom)
The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. It regulates party and election finance and sets standards for well-run elections...
, saying that "particularly those with lower levels of education or literacy, found the question hard work and did not understand it". The Electoral Commission recommended a changed wording to make the issue easier to understand, and the government subsequently amended the Bill to bring it into line with the Electoral Commission's recommendations.
The Bill passed an interim vote in the Commons on 7 September 2010 by 328 votes to 269
An amendment proposed by Lord Rooker
Jeff Rooker, Baron Rooker
Jeffrey William Rooker, Baron Rooker, PC is a British politician, who served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Perry Barr from 1974 until 2001...
(Independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
) to require a minimum turn-out of 40% for the referendum to be valid was supported by Labour, a majority of cross-benchers and ten rebel Conservatives and passed in the House of Lords by one vote. Labour's 2010 AV referendum proposal had not included such a threshold and they were criticised for seeking to impose one for this referendum, while the 2011 Welsh referendum, held under a Bill passed by Labour, also had no threshold, (and would have failed if it had had one, as turnout in that referendum was only 35%). In the latter hours of debate, a "game" of parliamentary ping-pong
Parliamentary ping-pong
Parliamentary ping-pong is a phrase used to describe a phenomenon in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, in which legislation appears to rapidly bounce back and forth between the two chambers like a ping-pong ball bounces between the players in a game of table tennis.- Procedure :The British...
saw the Commons overturning the threshold amendment before being reimposed by the Lords, and being removed again.
After some compromises between the two Houses on amendments, the Bill was passed into law by 16 February 2011.
Legislation
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 provides for the holding of the referendum, and the related changes had it lead to the adoption of AV. Passing the bill into law was a necessary measure before the referendum could actually take place. It received Royal AssentRoyal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
from Elizabeth II on 16 February 2011.
The Act has the following long title:
Question
Based on the coalition agreement, the referendum was a simple majorityMajority
A majority is a subset of a group consisting of more than half of its members. This can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any other subset; i.e. a plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset may consist of less than half the group's population...
yes/no question as to whether to replace the current First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system used in general elections
United Kingdom general elections overview
United Kingdom general elections overview, an overview of United Kingdom General Election results since 1922. This 1922 election was the first election in the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, after the creation of the Irish Free State removed Southern Ireland from the UK.-...
with the Alternative Vote (AV) system.
The question posed by the referendum was:
In Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, the question on the ballot paper also appears in Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
:
Date and voting
The referendum took place on 5 May 2011, coinciding with various United Kingdom local electionsUnited Kingdom local elections, 2011
The 2011 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 5 May 2011. In England, direct elections were held in all 36 Metropolitan boroughs, 194 Second-tier district authorities, 49 unitary authorities and various mayoral posts, meaning local elections took place in all parts of England with...
, the 2011 Scottish Parliament election
Scottish Parliament election, 2011
The 2011 Scottish Parliament general election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the mixed member proportional representation system is used to...
, the 2011 Welsh Assembly election
National Assembly for Wales election, 2011
The National Assembly for Wales election 2011 was the most recent election for the National Assembly. The poll was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 and decided the incumbency for all the assembly's seats...
and the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election. The deadline for voters in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
to register to vote in the referendum was midnight on Thursday 14 April 2011, whilst voters in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
had until midnight on Friday 15 April 2011 to register. Anyone in the United Kingdom who qualified as an anonymous elector had until midnight on Tuesday 26 April 2011 to register. In the vote count, the referendum ballots in England, Scotland and Wales were counted after the various election ballots, from 4 pm on 6 May 2011. The referendum had no minimum threshold on the required turnout needed for the result to be valid.
Anyone on the Electoral Register
Electoral register
The electoral roll is a listing of all those registered to vote in a particular area. The register facilitates the process of voting, helps to prevent fraud and may also be used to select people for jury duty...
and eligible to vote in a general election was entitled to vote in the referendum. This includes British citizens living outside the UK who were registered as overseas electors. In addition, Members of the House of Lords, who are not eligible to vote in a general election, were entitled to vote in the referendum, provided they were entitled to vote in local elections.
Political parties
| Political parties' position on the referendum | For a Yes vote (introduce AV) | No official party position | For a No vote (retain FPTP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parties elected to the House of Commons | Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrats The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the... Scottish National Party Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom.... Sinn Féin Sinn Féin Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970... Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966... Social Democratic and Labour Party Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom... Green Party of England and Wales Green Party of England and Wales The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including... Alliance Party of Northern Ireland Alliance Party of Northern Ireland The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is a liberal and nonsectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's fifth-largest party overall, with eight seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and one in the House of Commons.... |
Labour Party Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after... |
Conservative Party Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House... Democratic Unionist Party Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the... |
| Parties elected to the European Parliament or regional assemblies / parliaments | UKIP United Kingdom Independence Party The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP... Scottish Green Scottish Green Party The Scottish Green Party is a green party in Scotland. It has two MSPs in the devolved Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone, representing Lothian, and Patrick Harvie, for Glasgow.-Organisation:... |
British National Party British National Party The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982... Ulster Unionist Party Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland... Irish Green Party (Northern Ireland region) Green Party in Northern Ireland The Green Party in Northern Ireland is the Northern Ireland subdivision of the Irish Green Party, based on the principles of Green politics. It works in co-operation with Green parties across Europe, and was formerly a party in its own right... |
|
| Minor parties | Liberal Party Liberal Party (UK, 1989) The Liberal Party is a United Kingdom political party. It was formed in 1989 by a group of individuals within the original Liberal Party who felt that the merger of the party with the Social Democratic Party, to form the Liberal Democrats, had ended the spirit of the Liberal Party, claiming that... Mebyon Kernow Mebyon Kernow Mebyon Kernow is a left-of-centre political party in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It primarily campaigns for devolution to Cornwall in the form of a Cornish Assembly, as well as social democracy and environmental protection.MK was formed as a pressure group in 1951, and contained as members activists... English Democrats Christian Party Christian Peoples Alliance Christian Peoples Alliance The Christian Peoples Alliance is a Christian democratic political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in its present form in 1999; it grew out of a cross-party advocacy group known as the Movement for Christian Democracy. The party is active throughout England and has fledgling groups specific... Pirate Party UK Pirate Party UK Pirate Party UK is a political party in the United Kingdom. The Pirate Party's core policies are to bring about reform to Copyright and Patent laws, support privacy and reduce surveillance from government and businesses, and guarantee genuine freedom of speech for everyone.The Pirate Party UK... United Kingdom Libertarian Party |
Socialist Party of Great Britain Socialist Party of Great Britain The Socialist Party of Great Britain , is a small Marxist political party within the impossibilist tradition. It is best known for its advocacy of using the ballot box for revolutionary purposes; opposition to reformism; and its early adoption of the theory of state capitalism to describe the... Monster Raving Loony Party |
Traditional Unionist Voice Traditional Unionist Voice Traditional Unionist Voice is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland founded on 7 December 2007, as an anti-St Andrews Agreement splinter group from the Democratic Unionist Party . Its first and current leader is Jim Allister who, until 2009, sat as an independent Member of the European... Respect Party Communist Party of Britain Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain is a communist political party in Great Britain. Although founded in 1988 it traces its origins back to 1920 and the Communist Party of Great Britain, and claims the legacy of that party and its most influential members Harry Pollitt and John Gollan as its... Socialist Party of England and Wales Alliance for Workers' Liberty Alliance for Workers' Liberty The Alliance for Workers' Liberty , also known as Workers' Liberty, is a Trotskyist group in Britain. The group has a complex history but has always been identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna... |
Coalition parties
The coalition partners campaigned on opposite sides, with the Liberal Democrats supporting AV and the Conservatives opposing it.Despite the Conservative Party's formal position, party members aligned to the Conservative Action for Electoral Reform, an internal party group
Ginger group
A ginger group is a formal or informal group within, for example, a political party seeking to inspire the rest with its own enthusiasm and activity....
in favour of electoral reform, campaigned in favour, while a BBC News report described "some Tory MPs" as being "relaxed" about a yes result. Some Conservatives campaigned in favour of AV, e.g. Andrew Boff
Andrew Boff
Andrew Boff is a British politician and a Conservative member of the London Assembly, elected in the 2008 election. He is a Londonwide member, representing all thirty-two boroughs and the City of London....
AM; and Andrew Marshall, former head of the Conservative Group on Camden Council
London Borough of Camden
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century...
. The Conservative party uses a system of successive ballots to elect its leader, which has similarities to AV (since the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated in each round) and has been described as a "form of AV".
Other parties represented in the House of Commons
The previous LabourLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government sought to introduce AV before the 2010 general election. Labour elected a new leader
Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2010
The 2010 Labour Party leadership election was triggered by a general election which resulted in a hung parliament. On 10 May, Gordon Brown resigned as Leader of the Labour Party. The following day, he stepped down as Prime Minister....
after the general election and almost all of the leadership candidates supported AV, including winner Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...
; Andy Burnham was the sole leadership contender who was more critical of the referendum. The party has, however, voiced opposition to the bill currently providing for the referendum, on the grounds of the inclusion of boundary changes that are viewed as beneficial to the Conservative party.
Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
supported AV, but did not take an active role in the campaign, as it focused on separate Welsh votes on the same day. The Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
, while maintaining its long standing support for PR-STV, also supported a Yes vote in the referendum. Both of these parties opposed the planned referendum date, as they did not want it held at the same time as the 2011 Welsh Assembly elections
National Assembly for Wales election, 2011
The National Assembly for Wales election 2011 was the most recent election for the National Assembly. The poll was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 and decided the incumbency for all the assembly's seats...
and the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections
Scottish Parliament election, 2011
The 2011 Scottish Parliament general election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the mixed member proportional representation system is used to...
respectively.
Among the Northern Irish parties, the Alliance Party
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is a liberal and nonsectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's fifth-largest party overall, with eight seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and one in the House of Commons....
and the Social Democratic and Labour Party
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...
(SDLP) supported AV. The SDLP leader, Margaret Ritchie
Margaret Ritchie (politician)
Margaret Ritchie is an Irish politician from Northern Ireland. She was the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party from 7 February 2010 to 5 November 2011 - being replaced in this role by Alasdair McDonnell - and served as the Minister for Social Development from 8 May 2007 until her...
, announced that her party would actively campaign in favour. Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
also supported a Yes vote, but the Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...
supported a No vote.
The Green Party of England and Wales
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
voted in favour of joining the campaign for AV in the referendum at its September 2010 party conference. Many leading figures in the party supported the change as a step towards their preferred system, proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
. Previously, the party's leader and only MP, Caroline Lucas
Caroline Lucas
Caroline Patricia Lucas is a British politician. Lucas is the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, and the Green Party's first and only Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom...
, had called for a referendum that included a choice of proportional representation. But at their Conference, Deputy Leader Adrian Ramsay
Adrian Ramsay
Adrian Philip Ramsay is an English politician and Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. First elected at the age of 21 in 2003, he was a Green Party councillor representing Nelson Ward on Norwich City Council, where he was Coordinator of a fourteen-strong Green groupuing and the...
argued that "If you vote No in this referendum, nobody would know whether you were rejecting AV because you wanted genuine reform, or were simply opposing any reform."
Minor parties
The United Kingdom Independence PartyUnited Kingdom Independence Party
The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...
's National Executive Committee formally announced that it would be supporting Alternative Vote, although they would prefer a proportional system. An e-mail was sent to members informing them that they may vote against AV, but are not allowed to campaign.
The British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
supports proportional representation and has criticised AV as not being proportional. They supported a 'No' vote.
The Respect Party also supported proportional representation and campaigned against AV. Rob Hoveman, on behalf of Tower Hamlets Respect, wrote to the East London Advertiser
East London Advertiser
The East London Advertiser is a weekly local newspaper in east London, England covering primarily the borough of Tower Hamlets. It was founded in 1866 and has been owned by Archant since 2003....
on 24 February 2011 urging a 'No' vote on the grounds that the AV system created an even greater imbalance between votes and seats, and urging a proportional system instead.
The Scottish Green Party
Scottish Green Party
The Scottish Green Party is a green party in Scotland. It has two MSPs in the devolved Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone, representing Lothian, and Patrick Harvie, for Glasgow.-Organisation:...
also supported AV, although it prefers the adoption of STV for all elections.
The Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
and Traditional Unionist Voice
Traditional Unionist Voice
Traditional Unionist Voice is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland founded on 7 December 2007, as an anti-St Andrews Agreement splinter group from the Democratic Unionist Party . Its first and current leader is Jim Allister who, until 2009, sat as an independent Member of the European...
supported a No vote. The Green Party in Northern Ireland
Green Party in Northern Ireland
The Green Party in Northern Ireland is the Northern Ireland subdivision of the Irish Green Party, based on the principles of Green politics. It works in co-operation with Green parties across Europe, and was formerly a party in its own right...
also opposed the change to AV, as they viewed it as a betrayal of proportional representation.
The English Democrats, Christian Peoples Alliance
Christian Peoples Alliance
The Christian Peoples Alliance is a Christian democratic political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in its present form in 1999; it grew out of a cross-party advocacy group known as the Movement for Christian Democracy. The party is active throughout England and has fledgling groups specific...
and The Christian Party all support AV. Pirate Party UK
Pirate Party UK
Pirate Party UK is a political party in the United Kingdom. The Pirate Party's core policies are to bring about reform to Copyright and Patent laws, support privacy and reduce surveillance from government and businesses, and guarantee genuine freedom of speech for everyone.The Pirate Party UK...
endorsed a Yes vote, with over 90% of members expressing support for AV.
The Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK, 1989)
The Liberal Party is a United Kingdom political party. It was formed in 1989 by a group of individuals within the original Liberal Party who felt that the merger of the party with the Social Democratic Party, to form the Liberal Democrats, had ended the spirit of the Liberal Party, claiming that...
agreed to support the 'yes' campaign, seeing AV as "a potential 'stepping stone' to further reform" and STV.
The Communist Party of Britain
Communist Party of Britain
The Communist Party of Britain is a communist political party in Great Britain. Although founded in 1988 it traces its origins back to 1920 and the Communist Party of Great Britain, and claims the legacy of that party and its most influential members Harry Pollitt and John Gollan as its...
opposed AV.
Mebyon Kernow
Mebyon Kernow
Mebyon Kernow is a left-of-centre political party in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It primarily campaigns for devolution to Cornwall in the form of a Cornish Assembly, as well as social democracy and environmental protection.MK was formed as a pressure group in 1951, and contained as members activists...
, the Cornish nationalist party, favoured proportional representation and was disappointed that the referendum did not give voters that option. However, leader Dick Cole announced on 1 April 2011 that Mebyon Kernow would be supporting the Yes campaign.
The United Kingdom Libertarian Party favoured AV as a slight improvement on first past the post.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain
Socialist Party of Great Britain
The Socialist Party of Great Britain , is a small Marxist political party within the impossibilist tradition. It is best known for its advocacy of using the ballot box for revolutionary purposes; opposition to reformism; and its early adoption of the theory of state capitalism to describe the...
adopted a neutral position, arguing "what matters more is what we use our votes for" in the context of class struggle.
The Socialist Party of England and Wales opposed AV, pointing out that it is not more proportional than First Past the Post.
The Alliance for Workers' Liberty
Alliance for Workers' Liberty
The Alliance for Workers' Liberty , also known as Workers' Liberty, is a Trotskyist group in Britain. The group has a complex history but has always been identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna...
opposed AV, arguing that it did not offer progress on the party's main democratic demands.
Politicians
Prime Minister David CameronDavid Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
of the Conservative Party and the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg
Nick Clegg
Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister...
of the Liberal Democrats made speeches backing the 'No' and 'Yes' campaigns respectively on the same day, but were thereafter not expected to take much part in the campaigns, although both have been active since.
Former Labour foreign secretary Margaret Beckett
Margaret Beckett
Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death...
was president of the No to AV campaign.
Labour leader Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...
said he would take an active part in the 'Yes' campaign, while Wales's First Minister and Welsh Labour Leader Carwyn Jones
Carwyn Jones
Carwyn Howell Jones is a Welsh politician and the First Minister of Wales. The third official to lead the Welsh Government, Jones has been Assembly Member for Bridgend since 1999. In the coalition government of Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru, he was appointed Counsel General for Wales and Leader of...
and Scottish Labour Leader Iain Gray
Iain Gray
Iain Gray is a Scottish politician and the Leader of Scottish Labour Party Opposition in the Scottish Parliament. Gray was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament for the East Lothian constituency in 2007 having previously represented Edinburgh Pentlands from 1999 to 2003.-Background and...
both also supported AV. Also supporting the Yes campaign were over 50 Labour MPs including Alan Johnson
Alan Johnson
Alan Arthur Johnson is a British Labour Party politician who served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010. Before that, he filled a wide variety of cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until 20 January 2011 he was...
, Peter Hain
Peter Hain
Peter Gerald Hain is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for the Welsh constituency of Neath since 1991, and has served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, firstly as Leader of the House of Commons under Blair and both Secretary of State for...
, Hilary Benn
Hilary Benn
Hilary James Wedgwood Benn is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Leeds Central since 1999. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2003 to 2007 and as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs...
, John Denham, Liam Byrne
Liam Byrne
Liam Dominic Byrne is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill since 2004, and was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2009 to 2010 before being appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 20 January 2011.-Early...
, Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Aman Khan is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Tooting since 2005, succeeding Tom Cox as the Labour MP for the seat...
, Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood since 1992. Formerly a member of both the Blair and Brown Cabinets, she is currently the Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London.-Early life:Tessa Jane...
, Ben Bradshaw
Ben Bradshaw
Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Exeter since 1997, and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport....
, Douglas Alexander
Douglas Alexander
Douglas Garven Alexander is a British Labour Party politician, who is currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the shadow cabinet of Ed Miliband. He has held cabinet posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, including Secretary of State for Scotland and...
, Alistair Darling
Alistair Darling
Alistair Maclean Darling is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament since 1987, currently for Edinburgh South West. He served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010...
, Diane Abbott
Diane Abbott
Diane Julie Abbott is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, when she became the first black woman to be elected to the House of Commons...
and Debbie Abrahams
Debbie Abrahams
Deborah Angela Elspeth Abrahams is a British politician, who has been the Labour Member of Parliament for the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency since a by-election in January 2011. Her previous career was as a public health consultant.-Early and professional life:Abrahams was born in...
. Labour peers supporting the 'Yes' campaign include Lord Mandelson, Oona King
Oona King
Oona Tamsyn King, Baroness King of Bow is a Baroness and Member of the House of Lords, and former Chief Diversity Officer of Channel 4. She previously had served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow from 1997 until 2005, when she was defeated by Respect candidate George...
, Raymond Plant (chair of Labour's 1993 working group on electoral reform), Andrew Adonis, Prof. Anthony Giddens
Anthony Giddens
Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens is a British sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern contributors in the field of sociology, the author of at least 34 books, published in at least 29...
, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
, former deputy leader Roy Hattersley
Roy Hattersley
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley is a British Labour politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.-Early life:...
and Glenys Kinnock
Glenys Kinnock
Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock and Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead is a British politician....
, while further Labour figures supporting AV include London Mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
, Michael Cashman
Michael Cashman
Michael Maurice Cashman is a British former actor, now a Labour politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands constituency since 1999.- Acting :...
MEP, Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
, and former Labour council candidate and wife of the Speaker, Sally Bercow
Sally Bercow
Sally Bercow is the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow. She was a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother and was evicted from the house on 26 August 2011.-Early life:...
.
The Liberal Democrats supported a Yes vote and many individual Liberal Democrat politicians were active in the Yes campaign. The SNP leader, Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
, supported a Yes vote. UKIP are supporting a Yes vote and their principal spokesmen on the campaign will be William Dartmouth
William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth
William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth is a British peer and politician. He is a Member of the European Parliament for South West England representing the United Kingdom Independence Party.-Early life:...
MEP and party leader, Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage
Nigel Paul Farage MEP , a position he previously held from September 2006 to November 2009. He is a current Member of the European Parliament for South East England and co-chairs the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group....
MEP.
Supporting the no campaign
NOtoAV
NOtoAV was a political campaign in the United Kingdom whose purpose was to persuade the public to vote against the Alternative Vote in the referendum on Thursday, 5 May 2011. NOtoAV was successful in maintaining the current voting system having received 67.9% of votes cast.-Parties in the House of...
were both senior Conservative (William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
, Ken Clarke, George Osborne
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne, MP is a British Conservative politician. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a role to which he was appointed in May 2010, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001.Osborne is part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in...
, Theresa May
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May is a British Conservative politician who is Home Secretary in the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition government. She was elected to Parliament in 1997 as the Member of Parliament for Maidenhead, and served as the Chairman of the Conservative Party, 2003–04...
, Philip Hammond
Philip Hammond
Philip Hammond MP is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the current Defence Secretary in the Coalition government led by David Cameron, having succeeded Liam Fox on 14 October 2011...
, Steve Norris and Baroness Warsi) and Labour politicians (including John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
, David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...
, John Reid, Tony Lloyd
Tony Lloyd
Anthony Joseph 'Tony' Lloyd is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Manchester Central since 1997.-Early life:...
, John Healey
John Healey
John Healey is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Wentworth and Dearne since 1997, and former Minister of State for Housing and Planning. In 2010 he was elected to the shadow cabinet and appointed shadow health secretary...
, Caroline Flint
Caroline Flint
Caroline Louise Flint is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Don Valley since 1997. She served as the Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2008, and later as the Minister for Europe until her resignation in 2009, citing the leadership of Gordon...
, Hazel Blears
Hazel Blears
Hazel Anne Blears is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Salford and Eccles since 2010 and was previously the MP for Salford since 1997...
, Beverley Hughes
Beverley Hughes
Beverley June Hughes, Baroness Hughes of Stretford is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Stretford and Urmston from 1997 to 2010. In 2004, she was appointed to the Privy Council...
, Paul Boateng
Paul Boateng
Paul Yaw Boateng, Baron Boateng is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Brent South from 1987 to 2005, becoming the UK's first black Cabinet Minister in May 2002, when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury...
, John Hutton
John Hutton (Labour MP)
John Matthew Patrick Hutton, Baron Hutton of Furness is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Barrow and Furness in Cumbria from 1992 to 2010, and has served in a number of Cabinet offices, including Defence Secretary and Business Secretary...
and Lord Falconer). The Conservative Party announced that seven MPs (Conor Burns
Conor Burns
Conor Burns is a British Conservative Party politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Bournemouth West at the 2010 general election.-Early life:...
, George Eustice
George Eustice
Charles George Eustice is a British Conservative Party politician, who was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament for Camborne and Redruth....
, Sam Gyimah
Sam Gyimah
Samuel Phillip Gyimah is a British Conservative Party politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for East Surrey at the 2010 general election.-Education:...
, Kwasi Kwarteng
Kwasi Kwarteng
Dr Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng is a British Conservative Party politician. After the retirement of Conservative MP David Wilshire, Kwarteng was elected as Member of Parliament for Spelthorne in Surrey in the 2010 general election, winning the seat with 22,261 votes and a majority of 10,019.-Early...
, Charlotte Leslie
Charlotte Leslie
Charlotte Ann Leslie is a British Conservative Party politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Bristol North West constituency on 6 May 2010.She attended Badminton School and Millfield....
, Priti Patel
Priti Patel
Priti Patel is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. First elected in the 2010 general election, she is the Member of Parliament for the Witham constituency, and an officer of the Conservative Friends of Israel group....
, Chris Skidmore) and two former candidates (Chris Philp, Maggie Throup) would act as party spokesmen in the No campaign. Overall, most Labour MPs supported the No campaign rather than the Yes campaign, with other notable opponents of AV including Paul Goggins
Paul Goggins
Paul Gerard Goggins is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Wythenshawe and Sale East since 1997, and was a Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office.-Early life:...
, Ann Clwyd
Ann Clwyd
Ann Clwyd Roberts is a Welsh Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Cynon Valley since 1984.-Early life:Ann Clwyd is the daughter of Gwilym Henri Lewis and Elizabeth Ann Lewis...
, Sir Gerald Kaufman
Gerald Kaufman
Sir Gerald Bernard Kaufman is a British Labour Party politician, who has been a Member of Parliament since 1970, first for Manchester Ardwick, and then subsequently for Manchester Gorton...
, Austin Mitchell
Austin Mitchell
Austin Vernon Mitchell is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby since a 1977 by-election.-Education and early life:...
, Margaret Hodge
Margaret Hodge
Margaret Hodge MBE MP, also known as Lady Hodge by virtue of her husband's knighthood, is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Barking since 1994. She was the first Minister for Children in 2003 and was Minister of State for Culture and Tourism at the Department...
, Lindsay Hoyle
Lindsay Hoyle
The Honourable Lindsay Harvey Hoyle is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Chorley since 1997. He is the son of Lord Hoyle, a former Labour MP for Warrington North....
, Jim Fitzpatrick
Jim Fitzpatrick (politician)
James Fitzpatrick is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse since the 2010 General Election. From 1997 to the 2010 election he was the member for Poplar and Canning Town...
, Dennis Skinner
Dennis Skinner
Dennis Edward Skinner is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Bolsover since 1970, the Chairman of the Labour Party from 1988 to 1989, and has sat on the National Executive Committee numerous times since 1978.Born in Clay Cross, Derbyshire, Skinner is the...
and Keith Vaz
Keith Vaz
Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz, known as Keith Vaz, was born 26 November 1956 in Aden, Yemen.Keith Vaz is a British Labour Party politician and a Member of Parliament for Leicester East, He is the longest serving Asian MP and has been the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee since July...
. Also supporting a No vote were crossbencher and former SDP leader Lord Owen, who supported the No to AV But Yes to PR campaign.
Conservative politician Michael Gove
Michael Gove
Michael Andrew Gove, MP is a British politician, who currently serves as the Secretary of State for Education and as the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for the Surrey Heath constituency. He is also a published author and former journalist.Born in Edinburgh, Gove was raised in Aberdeen...
was initially mistakenly announced by the No to AV campaign as opposing AV, but his advisers stated that he had never been involved in the campaign and had not yet made up his mind. Over five Labour MPs announced as opposing AV were also found to have been wrongly included: for example, Alun Michael
Alun Michael
Alun Edward Michael is a British Labour Co-operative politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Cardiff South and Penarth since 1987. He was formerly First Minister of Wales and leader of the Welsh Labour Party from 1999 to 2000.-Education:Michael was born at Bryngwran Anglesey, son of...
is supporting a 'Yes' vote, while Meg Hillier
Meg Hillier
Margaret Olivia Hillier is a British Labour Co-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Hackney South and Shoreditch since 2005, and was a junior Minister in HM Government from 2007 to 2010...
did not lend her name to either campaign.
Some Conservative politicians did support AV, including John Strafford, a former member of the Conservative party's national executive, who chaired the Conservative campaign in favour of a Yes vote.
AV campaigning organisations
Two campaign groups were established in response to the proposed referendum, one on each side of the debate. NOtoAVNOtoAV
NOtoAV was a political campaign in the United Kingdom whose purpose was to persuade the public to vote against the Alternative Vote in the referendum on Thursday, 5 May 2011. NOtoAV was successful in maintaining the current voting system having received 67.9% of votes cast.-Parties in the House of...
was established to campaign against the change to the Alternative Vote and YES! To Fairer Votes
YES! To Fairer Votes
YES! To Fairer Votes was the political campaign in the United Kingdom, whose purpose was to persuade the public to vote in favour of the Alternative Vote in the referendum on Thursday, 5 May 2011.-Structure:...
was established to campaign in favour.
Political reform groups
Take Back ParliamentTake Back Parliament
Take Back Parliament is an organisation campaigning for democratic reform in the United Kingdom.The group has a strong network of autonomous local branches but no paying membership...
, the Electoral Reform Society
Electoral Reform Society
The Electoral Reform Society is a political pressure group based in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It is believed to be the oldest organisation concerned with electoral systems in the world.-Aims:...
, Make My Vote Count, and Unlock Democracy
Unlock Democracy
Unlock Democracy is a UK pressure group, based in Islington, in London. The organisation campaigns for a more participatory democracy in the UK, founded upon a written constitution. Unlock Democracy works to promote democratic reform across the political spectrum and is not aligned with any...
all campaigned in favour of the change to AV.
Trade unions
The GMB UnionGMB Union
The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom, and has more than 600,000 members. Its members are drawn from many sectors, with particular strength amongst manual workers in local government and the health service...
opposes the change to AV. It provided "substantial" sums of money to the No campaign and marshalled its members to vote No.
Think tanks
CompassCompass (think tank)
Compass is a left wing pressure group, aligned with the UK Labour Party describing itself as 'An umbrella grouping of the progressive left whose sum is greater than its parts'...
supported the change to the AV and urged the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
to do so too. It prefers a switch to a more proportional system, but viewed AV as superior to FPTP. ResPublica
ResPublica
ResPublica is a British centre-right public policy think tank, founded in 2009. It describes itself as a multi-disciplinary, non party-political research organisation, whose aim is to create bold solutions to enduring social and economic problems.ResPublica has 7 advisory board members, 4 of whom...
supported the change to AV and urged the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
to do so too. Policy Exchange
Policy Exchange
Policy Exchange is a British conservative think tank based in London. The Daily Telegraph has described it as "the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right"...
opposed the change to AV. Ekklesia
Ekklesia (think tank)
Ekklesia is an independent, not-for-profit British think tank which examines the role of religion in public life and advocates transformative theological ideas and solutions. Jonathan Bartley is the founder and co-director....
supported the change to AV.
A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research
Institute for Public Policy Research
The IPPR is the leading progressive think-tank in the UK. It produces research and policy ideas committed to upholding values of social justice, democratic reform and environmental sustainability. IPPR is based in London and IPPR North has branches in Newcastle and Manchester.It was founded in...
in January 2011 was very critical of FPTP's flaws, while a report in April 2011 came down in support of AV over FPTP. However, the IPPR also previously called for a wider choice in the referendum and favours Alternative Vote Plus over FPTP or AV.
Academics
A number of academics entered the debate, either in mainstream media or through blogs and social networking.Those in favour of AV included David Held (LSE), Patrick Dunleavy (LSE), and Helen Margetts (Oxford), Thom Brooks (Newcastle
University of Newcastle
University of Newcastle can refer to:* Newcastle University, a university in the United Kingdom* University of Newcastle, Australia, a university in New South Wales...
), Alastair McMillan (Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
), and Ben Saunders (Stirling
University of Stirling
The University of Stirling is a campus university founded by Royal charter in 1967, on the Airthrey Estate in Stirling, Scotland.-History and campus development:...
).
Dan Felsenthal (LSE) criticised AV as "deeply flawed", though he also described it as "a minor improvement on the current first-past-the-post system".
David S. Moon (Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
) argued that AV would be worse than FPTP, though he regards both as flawed and supports a move to proportional representation
Proportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
.
At a March 2011 Voting Power in Practice annual workshop, held at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
(LSE), 22 voting theory specialists voted to select the "best voting procedure" to elect a candidate from a selection of three or more. First past the post received no votes, compared to 10 for AV, although another system, Approval Voting
Approval voting
Approval voting is a single-winner voting system used for elections. Each voter may vote for as many of the candidates as the voter wishes. The winner is the candidate receiving the most votes. Each voter may vote for any combination of candidates and may give each candidate at most one vote.The...
(not on offer in the referendum), received 15 votes.
On 11, 29 March historians, including Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson
Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson is a British historian. His specialty is financial and economic history, particularly hyperinflation and the bond markets, as well as the history of colonialism.....
, Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore is a British historian and writer.-Family history:Simon's father, a doctor, is descended from a famous line of wealthy Sephardic Jews who became diplomats and bankers all over Europe...
, Andrew Roberts
Andrew Roberts
Andrew Roberts is an English historian and journalist.-Background:Roberts was born in London, England, the son of Simon from Cobham, Surrey, and Katie Roberts...
and David Starkey
David Starkey
David Starkey, CBE, FSA is a British constitutional historian, and a radio and television presenter.He was born the only child of Quaker parents, and attended Kendal Grammar School before entering Cambridge through a scholarship. There he specialised in Tudor history, writing a thesis on King...
, wrote to the Times expressing opposition to the adoption of the Alternative Vote.
Other organisations
GreenpeaceGreenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
and Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
support the Yes! To Fairer Votes campaign, as do the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, Operation Black Vote, the New Economics Foundation
New Economics Foundation
The New Economics Foundation is a British think-tank.NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth creation, based on equality, diversity and economic stability"....
, 38 Degrees
38 Degrees
38 Degrees is a UK non-profit, progressive, political activism organisation that campaigns on a diverse range of issues, such as protecting the environment and tackling climate change, democratic media ownership, child poverty and political reform...
and bassac. Educational trust The Constitution Society
The Constitution Society
The Constitution Society is an independent, non-aligned educational trust based near Westminster, England. It was established in 2009 to promote public understanding of the British Constitution and to work to encourage informed debate between legislators, academics and the public about proposals...
has also worked to increase public awareness of the issues involved in the debate.
Media
The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, The Daily Mirror, and The Financial Times supported the change to AV. The Sun, the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
and the Daily Telegraph opposed AV. The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
supported a No vote, but does want to see reform of the current electoral system.
Campaigners and celebrities
Supporting the 'Yes' campaign were campaigner and musician Billy BraggBilly Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
; broadcaster and Labour peer Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...
; campaigner and actress Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lumley
Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...
; Labour supporter and broadcaster Tony Robinson
Tony Robinson
Tony Robinson is an English actor, comedian, author, broadcaster and political campaigner. He is best known for playing Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder, and for hosting Channel 4 programmes such as Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. Robinson is a member of the Labour Party...
; designer and ethical fashion campaigner Amisha Ghadiali; Annette Lawson, chairwoman of the national alliance of women's organisations; and Simon Woolley, director and co-founder of Operation Black Vote. AV is also supported by Kevin Maguire
Kevin Maguire (journalist)
Kevin Maguire is a British political journalist, currently Associate Editor at the Daily Mirror newspaper. From an Irish Catholic family, earlier in his career Maguire was Chief Reporter for The Guardian....
, associate editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper, and journalist Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a social democrat and broadly supports the Labour Party, while urging it in many areas to be more left-wing...
. Billy Hayes
Billy Hayes (trade unionist)
William Hayes is the leader of the Communication Workers' Union in the United Kingdom.-Early life:Born in Liverpool, he attended St Swithin's Secondary Modern School on Croxteth Hall Lane...
, of the Communication Workers' Union
Communication Workers Union (UK)
The Communication Workers Union is the main trade union in the United Kingdom for people working for telephone, cable, DSL and postal delivery companies, with 215,000 members....
, also campaigned for a Yes vote.
Celebrities supporting a 'Yes' vote included comedian David Mitchell
David Mitchell (actor)
David James Stuart Mitchell is a British actor, comedian and writer. He is half of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, alongside Robert Webb, whom he met at Cambridge University. There they were both part of the Cambridge Footlights, of which Mitchell became President. Together the duo star in the...
, comedian and actor Eddie Izzard
Eddie Izzard
Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...
, author Naomi Alderman
Naomi Alderman
Naomi Alderman is a British author and novelist.- Biography :Alderman was educated at South Hampstead High School and Lincoln College, Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She then went on to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia before becoming a novelist...
, playwright Bonnie Greer
Bonnie Greer
Bonnie Greer, OBE is an American-British playwright and critic.-Early life:Greer's father was born to a family of Mississippi sharecroppers. He was stationed in the UK during World War II and took part in the D-Day landings...
, comedian Francesca Martinez
Francesca Martinez
Francesca Martinez is an English stand-up comedienne and actress. She has toured internationally, including sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival, the Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal...
, actress Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...
, Oscar award winning actor Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
, actor and Liberal Democrat supporter John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
, comedian Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, actor Art Malik
Art Malik
Art Malik is a Pakistani-born British actor who achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and subsidiary roles in assorted British and Merchant-Ivory television serials and films...
, John O'Farrell
John O'Farrell
John O'Farrell is a British author, broadcaster and comedy scriptwriter.-Early life:O’Farrell grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire the youngest of three children, attending Courthouse Primary School and then Desborough Comprehensive...
, actor Richard Wilson, editor and writer Rowan Davies, broadcaster Greg Dyke
Greg Dyke
Gregory "Greg" Dyke is a British media executive, journalist and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing 'tabloid' television to British broadcasting, and reviving the ratings of TV-am...
, co-founder of the Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound London, commonly referred to as simply Ministry of Sound or MoS, is a nightclub based in London, United Kingdom and an associated record label. It was ranked fourth in the 2010 DJ Magazine top 100 clubs poll 2010. As well as the nightclub in London, there is another in Egypt and...
James Palumbo
James Palumbo
James 'Jamie' Palumbo is the co-founder and Chairman of Ministry of Sound Group, the international music and nightclub business.He was born in London on June 6 1963, and educated at Eton College and Worcester College, Oxford...
, actor and comedian David Schneider
David Schneider (actor)
David Schneider is an English actor and comedian.Schneider studied modern languages at the University of Oxford, and studied for a DPhil in Yiddish Drama. During his time at university, Schneider performed a predominantly physical comedy act that contrasted with the trend towards stand-up comedy...
, Kris Akabusi, Chris Addison
Chris Addison
Chris Addison is an English stand-up comedian, writer and actor. He is known for his lecture-style comedy shows, two of which he later adapted for BBC Radio 4...
, Josie Long
Josie Long
Josie Long is an English comedian.-Background:Long spent her early life in Orpington, South East London, where she attended Newstead Wood School for Girls in Swift House. She also attended GIFT Ltd. summer schools. She began performing stand-up comedy at 14, winning the BBC New Comedy Awards at...
, Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah is an English writer and dub poet. He is a well-known figure in contemporary English literature, and was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008....
and Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
. Comedian and actor Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
also supported a Yes vote.
Supporting a 'No' vote were television presenter Esther Rantzen
Esther Rantzen
Esther Louise Rantzen CBE is an English journalist and television presenter who is best known for presenting the BBC television series That's Life!, and for her work in various charitable causes. She is founder of the child protection charity ChildLine, and also advocates the work of the Burma...
, scientist and Labour peer Lord Winston
Robert Winston
Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston is a British professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and politician.-Early life and education :...
; nightclub impressario Peter Stringfellow
Peter Stringfellow
Peter James Stringfellow is an English nightclub owner.-Early life:Stringfellow was born on 17 October 1940 to Elsie and James William Stringfellow , a steelworker...
, cricketers David Gower
David Gower
David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
and Darren Gough
Darren Gough
Darren Gough is a retired English cricketer and former captain of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The spearhead of England's bowling attack through much of the 1990s, he is England's highest wicket-taker in one-day internationals with 234, and took 229 wickets in his 58 Test matches, making him...
, Olympic rower James Cracknell
James Cracknell
James Cracknell, OBE is a British rowing champion and double Olympic gold medalist and adventurer. Cracknell is married to TV and radio presenter Beverley Turner; they have three children. In the New Year Honours List, 2004, he was appointed OBE for services to sport...
and F1 boss Sir Frank Williams. Actor and television presenter Ross Kemp
Ross Kemp
Ross James Kemp is a BAFTA award-winning British actor, author and journalist, who rose to prominence in the role of Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
also backed the No vote.
Religious figures
Also supporting the 'Yes' campaign were several Church of England bishops: Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Rev Michael LangrishMichael Langrish
Michael Laurence Langrish is a British Anglican bishop and the current Bishop of Exeter.Born in Southampton, Hampshire, the son of Douglas Frank Langrish and Brenda Florence Passingham was educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton, and Birmingham University, where he received a Bachelor of...
; former Bishop of Woolwich, the Rt Rev Colin Buchanan; Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Rev Alan Smith; Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Rev John Packer; Bishop of Beverley, the Rt Rev Martyn Jarrett
Martyn Jarrett
Martyn William Jarrett AKC, SSC is the current Bishop of Beverley. He was educated at Cotham Grammar School and King's College London . He was ordained in 1969 and began his ordained ministry with a curacy in Swindon. Following this he held incumbencies in Northolt and then Hillingdon...
; Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Rt Rev Nigel Stock; Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Rev Alan Wilson; Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Rev Michael Perham
Michael Perham
Michael Perham is a young adventurer from Potters Bar who, at the age of 17 years and 164 days, became the youngest person to sail around the world solo in the 50 ft racing yacht totallymoney.com, completing his journey on 27 August 2009...
; former Bishop of Derby, the Rt Rev Peter Dawes; and former Bishop of Thetford, the Rt Rev David Atkinson
David Atkinson
David Anthony Atkinson was Conservative British Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East from a 1977 by-election until he stepped down at the 2005 general election.-Early life:...
.
Jonathan Bartley
Jonathan Bartley
Jonathan Bartley is the founder and co-director of Ekklesia, a Christian think tank based in London, and a left-wing religious commentator who appears regularly on UK radio and television programmes...
(founder and co-director of the Ekklesia
Ekklesia (think tank)
Ekklesia is an independent, not-for-profit British think tank which examines the role of religion in public life and advocates transformative theological ideas and solutions. Jonathan Bartley is the founder and co-director....
religious thinktank) supported the referendum.
Others
Anti-corruption campaigner, former broadcaster and independent MP, Martin BellMartin Bell
Martin Bell, OBE, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician...
supported AV. A group of leading businesswomen and campaigners published a letter in The Guardian backing a Yes vote on 28 April 2011, with signatories including Alexandra Shulman
Alexandra Shulman
Alexandra Shulman, OBE , is the editor of the British edition of Vogue. She is one of the country's most oft-quoted voices on fashion trends. She took the helm of Vogue in 1992, presiding over a circulation increase to 200,000 and a higher profile for the publication...
(editor of Vogue
Vogue (British magazine)
The British edition of Vogue is a fashion magazine that has been published since 1916.When British Vogue was launched, it was the first overseas edition of an existing fashion magazine. Under the magazine's first editor, Elspeth Champcommunal, the magazine was essentially the same as the American...
), illustrator Daisy de Villenueve
Justin de Villeneuve
Justin de Villeneuve was Twiggy's manager from 1966-1973. He was born in Edmonton, London as Nigel John Davies.Justin de Villeneuve worked as a Mayfair hairdresser before meeting Twiggy as a teenager. They became a couple, and as her career as a model took off, he became her manager and helped to...
, writer Gillian Slovo
Gillian Slovo
Gillian Slovo is a South African born novelist, playwright and memoirist.Her novels were at first predominantly of the crime and thriller genres, including a series featuring the detective Kate Baeier but she has since written more literary fiction...
, human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy, Hilary Wainwright
Hilary Wainwright
Hilary Wainwright is a British socialist and feminist, best known for being editor of Red Pepper magazine.-Personal life:Hilary Wainwright's father was the Liberal MP Richard Wainwright, and her brother, Martin, is the Northern Editor of The Guardian, to which she occasionally contributes.She...
(editor of Red Pepper
Red Pepper (magazine)
Red Pepper is an independent ‘red, green and radical’ magazine based in the UK. For most of its history it appeared monthly, but relaunched as a bi-monthly during 2007.- Origins :...
), journalist Isabel Hilton
Isabel Hilton
Isabel Nancy Hilton OBE is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster based in London.-Biography:She was educated at Edinburgh University where she studied Chinese to post-graduate level...
OBE, Professor Jacqueline Rose
Jacqueline Rose
Jacqueline Rose is a British academic who is currently Professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London.-Life and work:...
, writer Jay Griffiths
Jay Griffiths
Jay Griffiths is an award-winning British writer and author of Wild: An Elemental Journey, Pip Pip: A Sideways Look at Time, Anarchipelago and A Love Letter from a Stray Moon.Biography=...
, broadcaster Joan Bakewell, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, fashion designer Patsy Puttnam, journalist Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee
Polly Toynbee is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian newspaper since 1998. She is a social democrat and broadly supports the Labour Party, while urging it in many areas to be more left-wing...
, Professor Janet Todd
Janet Todd
Janet Margaret Todd is a Welsh-born academic and a well-respected author of many books on women in literature. Todd was educated at Cambridge University and the University of Florida, where she undertook a doctorate on the poet John Clare...
(President of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge), Chair of Young Labour
Young Labour (United Kingdom)
Young Labour is the youth section of the British Labour Party. It is open to all Labour members between the ages of 15 and 26, and membership is automatic for those between 15 and 27 joining the Labour Party ....
Susan Nash, activist Tamsin Omond
Tamsin Omond
Tamsin Omond is an author, environmental activist and journalist. She has campaigned for the government of the United Kingdom to take action to avoid man-made climate change....
, financial consultant Tessa Tennant, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
, gynaecologist/campaigner Dr Wendy Savage
Wendy Savage
Professor Wendy Savage is a British gynaecologist, and advocate and campaigner of women's rights in childbirth and fertility....
and journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown MBE is a Ugandan-born British journalist and author, who describes herself as a "leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim, part-Pakistani...a very responsible person"...
.
Campaign donors and spending
By around the beginning of May, the Yes campaign had spent £3.4 million compared to £2.6 million by the No campaign.The Yes campaign revealed that they had raised £2 million (as of 15 February 2011), with 95% coming from two donors, the Electoral Reform Society
Electoral Reform Society
The Electoral Reform Society is a political pressure group based in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It is believed to be the oldest organisation concerned with electoral systems in the world.-Aims:...
and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. The Yes campaign also received five-figures sums from Alan Parker
Alan Parker
Sir Alan William Parker, CBE is an English film director, producer, writer and actor. He has been active in both the British cinema and American cinema and was a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.-Life and career:...
, who is close to both Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
and David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
, and Paul Marhsall, a donor to the Liberal Democrats.
The No campaign initially refused to publish details of their donors, but subsequently said on 18 February 2011 they would do so before the referendum date. However, they had not done so by 28 March 2011 when the Yes campaign published an updated list of all donors of over £7,500 and launched a petition calling on the No campaign to do the same.
The No campaign released a list of donors on 9 April 2011, which included several major donors to the Conservative Party, including Lord (John) Sainsbury
John Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Preston Candover
John Davan Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Preston Candover, KG is the President of J Sainsbury, a British businessman and politician. He sits in the House of Lords as a member of the Conservative Party.-Early and private life:...
, Michael Farmer, Lord Harris
Philip Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham
Philip Charles Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham is an English Conservative member of the House of Lords and businessman.-Business interests:...
, Lord Fink and Lord Edmiston. In total, the No campaign had raised by that date £1.8m in donations of over the declarable limit of £7,500 from 41 donors, with the largest being from philanthropist Peter Cruddas, founder of the CMC spread betting firm, who gave £400,000.
The Guardian newspaper identified 42 of the 53 named donors to the No campaign as donors to the Conservative party, while one, the GMB union, is a donor to the Labour party, and nine were not identified in official donor records. The remaining donor is official funding from the electoral commission. The donors include seven Conservative peers. They quote Margaret Beckett, a leading Labour No campaigner, as saying this situation is a "necessary evil".
While the Yes campaign has released figures of all donations over the declarable limit since it was set up, the No campaign has not declared any donations prior to the referendum bill receiving Royal Assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
, as they are not required to do under the relevant regulations. David Blunkett, a No campaigner, has called on the No campaign to do so.
Campaign
The initial part of the campaign was overshadowed by continuing Parliamentary battles over the introducing Bill, which had threatened to delay the referendum date. Launching their campaign supporters of AV argued that the need for candidates to campaign for later preferences will encourage candidates to appeal to a broader cross-section of the electorate. They have also pointed out the declining number of people voting for the main two parties in the UK over recent decades.Party politics
The Yes campaign sought to present their campaign as being on behalf of members of the public. The No campaign sought to play on the unpopularity of the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick CleggNick Clegg
Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister...
, and to present the referendum as an opportunity to punish Clegg at the polls. They also claimed that Clegg described AV as "a miserable little compromise" before the 2010 general election. The fuller quote says "I am not going to settle for a miserable little compromise thrashed out by the Labour party" and Clegg later explained he was talking about negotiations between the two parties. However, the Conservatives rejected the possibility of introducing PR in coalition negotiations, leading to a referendum in which the choice was between FPTP and AV.
While officially supporting a No vote, the Conservative Party leadership reportedly initially held back on campaigning and advised major Conservative Party donors not to donate to the No campaign. However, this position changed in January 2011 and the leadership became more involved, with requests to donors to fund the No campaign and staff and party headquarters becoming directly involved in campaigning.
In mid-February, the prime minister, David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
, and the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg
Nick Clegg
Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister...
, made opposing speeches advocating a 'No' and 'Yes' result respectively. Clegg argued that AV would mean "fairer votes" and that FPTP produced more safe seats, and linked these to the MPs' expenses scandal. He said that AV would encourage politicians to work to appeal to more of the electorate rather than just their core supporters. He stated that "I think this [AV] is a natural evolution which reflects the fact that politics is no longer now, as it was 50 years ago when everybody was very happy to plump for the blue corner or the red corner, people want more choice now."
Cameron, in contrast, argued that FPTP delivers more accountability and claimed it reduces the number of "hung" parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...
s. He insisted that "when it comes to our democracy, Britain shouldn't have to settle for anyone's second choice. He also made the claim, on the 3 May 2011 BBC Radio4 Today Programme, that AV would undermine the fundamental principle of "one person, one vote", although to be true this requires an unusual definition of one person one vote (since at any point in time one person has no more than one vote). Despite the coalition parties being on different sides in the campaign, Cameron insisted that "whatever the result", the coalition would continue.
Caroline Lucas
Caroline Lucas
Caroline Patricia Lucas is a British politician. Lucas is the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, and the Green Party's first and only Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom...
, head of the Green Party of England and Wales
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
said in support of AV that "they can vote for what they believe in and I think that will be very liberating for a lot of people".
Row over possible costs
The No campaign launched with a claim that choosing AV would cost £250 million. However, this figure was criticised on several grounds. For example, it included an estimated £82 million for holding the referendum, that would have applied whatever the referendum outcome, and failed to take into account costs saved from holding the referendum at the same time as other elections. The £250 million figure also included £130 million for the cost of electronic voting systems, although these were not used by the largest country then using AV, Australia, and there were no plans to use such machines if AV were introduced in the UK.Labour MP Douglas Alexander
Douglas Alexander
Douglas Garven Alexander is a British Labour Party politician, who is currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the shadow cabinet of Ed Miliband. He has held cabinet posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, including Secretary of State for Scotland and...
described the figure claimed as a "lie". A Channel 4 News Fact Check concluded that the specific claim that AV would require electronic counting machines, the main component of the £250 million figure, was "fiction". Dr Alan Renwick likewise dismissed the suggestion that voting machines would be required, saying "The No camp [...] say that AV would require expensive voting machines. [...] that is just plain false."
The Treasury stated that the adoption of AV would not lead to any spending cuts. Danny Alexander
Danny Alexander
Daniel Grian Alexander is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been Chief Secretary to the Treasury since 2010. He has been the Member of Parliament for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey constituency since 2005....
, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the third most senior ministerial position in HM Treasury, after the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer . In recent years, the office holder has usually been given a junior position in the British Cabinet...
and a supporter of AV himself, stated in a leaked letter that, "The Government has no plans to reopen departmental spending review settlements as a consequence of a Yes vote in the referendum on AV." He also told the Independent on Sunday newspaper that, "I don't expect to see any increase in the cost of holding a general election if the British people vote yes. There's no good reason to believe that even under a new voting system an election would need to be more expensive."
The No campaign launched a series of advertisements in regional newspapers based on the £250 million figure. The Yes campaign described these as "shameful", a "smear" and "lies", and complained to the Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission (United Kingdom)
The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. It regulates party and election finance and sets standards for well-run elections...
and Advertising Standards Authority
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances...
, both of whom stated that they did not have powers to regulate individual adverts in the campaign.
On 5 May, David Blunkett, one of the Labour Party former-government ministers who had supported the No Campaign, admitted that the £250 million figure used by the No Campaign had been fabricated, and that the No campaign had knowingly lied about the figure and other claims during the campaign.
Coalition and minority governments
Supporters of a No vote claimed that AV would lead to more coalition governments, but models of recent UK elections suggest that this may not be the case, The BBC had modelled the possible effect of AV on every general election since 1983 and concluded that the overall result would not have changed in any of them. Paddy Ashdown pointed out that in the twentieth century Australia had fewer hung Parliaments under AV than the UK had under FPTP. The report of the Independent Commission on the Voting SystemJenkins Commission (UK)
The Independent Commission on the Voting System, popularly known as the Jenkins Commission after its chairman Roy Jenkins, was a commission into possible reform of the United Kingdom electoral system.-The commission:...
, issued in 1998, stated that "There is not the slightest reason to think that AV would reduce the stability of government; it might indeed lead to larger parliamentary majorities."
During the referendum campaign a BBC Newsnight special on the referendum suggested that AV would lead to a small increase in the number of hung results and Dr Alan Renwick, author of A Citizen's Guide To Electoral Reform, wrote in Total Politics magazine that "AV makes election results more volatile, exaggerating landslides on the one hand and making coalitions more common on the other." However, Professor Dennis Leech of Warwick University has argued that coalitions will not be any more likely under AV. Professor Vernon Bogdanor
Vernon Bogdanor
Vernon Bogdanor, CBE, FBA is Research Professor at the Institute for Contemporary History at King's College London, and a Fellow of Brasenose College, University of Oxford. He is one of Britain's foremost constitutional experts and has written extensively on political and constitutional issues...
stated that:
Channel 4 News FactCheck summarised the position as follows:
"One person, one vote"
The No campaign argued that some people would get multiple votes under AV, and that the system was therefore contrary to the principle of "one person, one vote" (which they adopted as a slogan of their campaign). AV is based on the concept of a "single transferable vote". Seeking to clarify various "facts and fallacies" of the AV system, the Ipsos MORI Guide to AV states thatcontrary to the arguments of some opponents of AV, this system [AV] does not involve some people getting more votes than others. Every voter gets just one vote, which is counted several times. Your second preference is not a second vote, it is an instruction about how you want your (only) vote to be used if it would be wasted because your first choice candidate can't win. Each vote is counted in each round of voting
The FullFact site similarly criticised No campaigners, saying, "some of these claims have trod a fine line between accuracy and error." Professor Vernon Bogdanor
Vernon Bogdanor
Vernon Bogdanor, CBE, FBA is Research Professor at the Institute for Contemporary History at King's College London, and a Fellow of Brasenose College, University of Oxford. He is one of Britain's foremost constitutional experts and has written extensively on political and constitutional issues...
, a political scientist at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
, has stated that "the no campaign's claim that AV gives some voters two votes" is "absurd". He continues, "if I ask you to buy me a Mars but a Mars is not available and I suggest you buy a Twix instead, I will not receive two bars of chocolate. A transferred vote is not a multiple vote." Dr Alan Renwick, an electoral systems specialist at Reading University, made similar comments:
The No camp asserts that the Alternative Vote (AV) system gives extra votes to supporters of fringe parties. This is simply untrue.
In each round of counting under AV, every voter has one vote and one vote only.
Channel Four News Factcheck states:
The argument that the alternative vote is contrary to the principle of "one person, one vote" was addressed and rejected by a Michigan court in 1975. In Stephenson v. the Ann Arbor Board of City Canvassers, the court held "majority preferential voting" (another name for AV) to be in compliance with the Michigan and United States constitutions, writing:
Safe seats
The Yes campaign argued that AV would be fairer, and that it would reduce or even eliminate 'safe seats', making MPs work harder. This was contested by the No campaign, again with reference to Australia. This view was supported by Dr Alan Renwick, who stated that "AV wouldn't significantly change the number of safe seats. Even the claim that AV would make a big dent in the number of safe seats goes further than the facts support." However, the New Economics FoundationNew Economics Foundation
The New Economics Foundation is a British think-tank.NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth creation, based on equality, diversity and economic stability"....
think-tank, which supported a Yes vote, published modelling showing that with the introduction of AV the number of very marginal seats would have increased from 81 to 125, and the number of very safe seats would decrease from 331 to 271, although there would also have been an increase in the number of quite safe seats. The Foundation found that, with FPTP, the average number of seats changing hands per election was 13% and this could rise to 16% under AV, modestly increasing voter power overall, but concluded "that neither system is very good at translating votes into electoral power."
Majority support for MPs
The Yes campaign argue that AV ensures that every MP is supported by an overall majorityMajority
A majority is a subset of a group consisting of more than half of its members. This can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any other subset; i.e. a plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset may consist of less than half the group's population...
(more than 50% of the voters). In its Guide to AV, Mori-Ipsos states "this is not really true, but maybe it’s a defensible simplification". AV ensures that a candidate is elected with the support of 50% of voters who have expressed a preference between the final two candidates in the contest. If some voters have indicated that they are indifferent between the final two, by not ranking either of them on the ballot paper, then the winner may be elected with the support of less than 50% of all votes cast.
Professors Rawlings and Thrasher state that "the claims that AV will guarantee local majority support can only be validated if every voter is compelled or chooses to cast a full range of preferences. There seems little prospect of that happening in a general election conducted under AV in the UK." Channel Four FactCheck states that it "is right that candidates will have to aim for 50% of votes, though it is true that some candidates will end up being elected on fewer than 50% of all the votes cast."
In the most recent general election roughly two-thirds of MPs were elected with less than an overall majority. Rawlings and Thrasher predict that 'more than four out of ten' MPs will still not have majority support under AV. Ipsos Mori state "It is certainly true that in many constituencies ..MPs elected under AV will have the support of a higher proportion of voters than they did under FPTP".
Existing use of voting systems in the UK and abroad
The No campaign argued that only three countries use AV. They also stated that the Australian public wish to do away with AV, a claim that is contested. Three nations use AV for parliamentary elections: AustraliaAustralian electoral system
The Australian electoral system has evolved over nearly 150 years of continuous democratic government, and has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, preferential voting and the use of proportional voting to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate.- Compulsory voting...
, Papua New Guinea
National Parliament of Papua New Guinea
The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was first created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea, but gained its current name with the granting of independence in 1975....
and Fiji. However, AV is also used internationally for many other forms of election.
AV is used for Irish presidential elections and for by-elections in the Republic of Ireland, and in some local elections in New Zealand. In the United Kingdom, AV is used by MPs to elect the chairs of select committees, the Speaker of the House of Lords and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. AV is also used in by-elections to select hereditary peers for the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. A variant of AV called the supplementary vote
Contingent vote
The contingent vote is an electoral system used to elect a single winner, in which the voter ranks the candidates in order of preference. In an election, if no candidate receives an absolute majority of first preference votes, then all but the two leading candidates are eliminated and there is a...
is used to elect the Mayor of London
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
and of other UK cities. A related system called the exhaustive ballot
Exhaustive ballot
The exhaustive ballot is a voting system used to elect a single winner. Under the exhaustive ballot the elector simply casts a single vote for his or her favorite candidate. However if no candidate is supported by an overall majority of votes then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated...
is used to elect the Speaker of the House of Commons. AV is used for various elections in the United states (see AV in the United States).
AV is used by many private organisations in the UK, for example in the leadership elections of the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats, while the leadership elections for the Conservative party use the related exhaustive ballot. AV is also used by the Royal British Legion, and in certain trade unions and student unions
Students' union
A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...
. In the US, AV is now used to decide the winner of the Oscar for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
.
A method similar to AV, called the two round system, is widely used internationally. For example it is used to elect the National Assembly of France and the Presidents of eighty nations. It is also used to elect governors and mayors in many US states. The United States also uses primaries
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
, followed by a second round, for the President, House of Representatives and the Senate.
PR-STV
Single transferable vote
The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...
is another related system. It uses a preferential ballot like AV but is used for elections in multi-seat constituencies. It is used for national elections in the Republic of Ireland, Australia and Malta, and for other purposes in many other nations.
The No campaign stressed that FPTP is used in over fifty countries, with a combined population of approximately 2.4 billion people. FPTP is used for legislature elections in the United States, India and Canada, as well as other non-G20 nations. It is used for presidential elections in twenty countries, and for various forms of election in 45 others (35 of these are Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations or British Overseas Territories
British overseas territories
The British Overseas Territories are fourteen territories of the United Kingdom which, although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself, fall under its jurisdiction. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not acquired independence or have voted to remain British territories...
).
Proportional representation
Some opponents of AV see it as a stepping stone towards, for them unwanted, proportional representation, while some supporters of proportional representation contradictorily see the referendum as a lost opportunity that will delay a move to proportional representation. Both positions have been described as "entirely speculative". An Evening Standard editorial described the result of a 'No' win: "the issue of electoral reform will be shelved for a generation." Whereas Dr Thomas Lundberg, an electoral systems specialist at Glasgow University, wrote in a Political Studies Association paper: "Anything that reduces the ability of small parties to win seats – a process that has been going on since the 1970s at British general elections – could be detrimental to the prospect of a PR transition. Because AV raises the threshold to victory to 50 per cent plus one vote, small parties, which often win seats on low vote shares, might be threatened unless they can win significant numbers of transfers from voters who prefer other parties."Tactical voting
Tactical votingTactical voting
In voting systems, tactical voting occurs, in elections with more than two viable candidates, when a voter supports a candidate other than his or her sincere preference in order to prevent an undesirable outcome.It has been shown by the Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem that any voting method which is...
means that a voter supports a candidate other than his or her sincere preference, in order to get a better outcome. No meaningful voting systems can eliminate tactical voting (under the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem) and situations in which AV is susceptible to tactical voting can be demonstrated. The Yes to AV campaign argues that under AV such scenarios are rare or theoretical. The independent market research group Ipsos MORI has published a guide to AV. This states that the scenario in which tactical voting might influence the outcome of an AV election "is very easy to demonstrate in the case of AV and is unlikely to be especially rare", but "it is true that tactical voting will probably be less under AV."
AV is more resistant to tactical voting than "first past the post" (FPTP), partly because it meets the independence of clones
Independence of clones criterion
In voting systems theory, the independence of clones criterion measures an election method's robustness to strategic nomination. Nicolaus Tideman first formulated the criterion, which states that the addition of a candidate identical to one already present in an election will not cause the winner...
and mutual majority
Mutual majority criterion
The mutual majority criterion is a criterion used to compare voting systems. It is also known as the majority criterion for solid coalitions and the generalized majority criterion...
criteria; FPTP does not meet these criteria. The use of preferences under AV has been described as "tactical voting" in itself; AV supporters argue that the ranked ballot is a desirable feature of the system, and point out that a sincere ranking of preferences cannot be tactical voting by definition.
AV and the BNP
The far-right British National PartyBritish National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
(BNP) supported a No vote in the referendum. Nonetheless, the No campaign argued that AV would benefit far-right parties like the BNP and National Front. For example, Conservative politician and No supporter Baroness Warsi described AV as "a system which rewards extremism and gives oxygen to extremist groups". In response, the Yes campaign launched advertising with the slogan, "Say No to the BNP, Say Yes on 5th May" pointing out the BNP's opposition to AV. The Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in 1982.-Channel 4 News:...
FactCheck concluded the Yes campaign were correct, saying:
AV is highly unlikely to help the BNP win any seats, and the secondary votes of BNP supporters alone wouldn’t swing a seat for any other party – going on last year’s results.
In fact, in a very divided constituency, the BNP arguably has a better chance of winning a seat under First Past the Post than under AV.
They go on to quote the BNP deputy chairman Simon Darby
Simon Darby
Simon Darby is a British politician and former Deputy Chairman of the British National Party.-Background:By occupation a computer communications consultant, Darby began his political career in the National Democrats, most of whose activity was centred around his West Midlands base...
, who said: "AV is a retrograde step – it's worse than what we've got now[.] We are never going to get our feet under the table under the AV system." The No2AV-Yes2PR campaign website countered that "AV does confer a subtle benefit on extremists like the BNP: increased legitimacy. AV enables people to cast ‘free’ protest vote safe in the knowledge that they can they cast a second preference for the party they actually want."
Professor Dennis Leech of Warwick University has argued that extremists like the BNP are more likely to win under FPTP, but he has also argued against the notion that AV automatically favours centrists:
while AV prevents the kind of undemocratic result that often occurs under FPTP, and always ensures that the winning candidate has at least some kind of majority support, it has nothing to do with proportional representation. It does not follow that centrist or compromise candidates such as the LibDems will be more likely to win – only that the least popular cannot win. A centrist candidate such as a LibDem will still need enough first preference votes to stand a chance.
Final weeks
The final weeks of the campaign were marked by an increased rancour, with a battle of words between members of the Coalition Government. For example, Liberal Democrat energy secretary Chris HuhneChris Huhne
Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne, generally known as Chris Huhne is a British politician and cabinet minister, who is the current Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire...
threatened legal action over "untruths" that he claimed were told by Conservative Chancellor George Osborne
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne, MP is a British Conservative politician. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a role to which he was appointed in May 2010, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001.Osborne is part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in...
that new voting machines would be required by AV, despite these not being used in Australian elections under AV and no plans to introduce them. The No campaign countered, quoting a senior returning officer (Anthony Mayer), that voting machines would be essential with AV if results are desired as quickly as today, rather than counting over the weekend after a general election. See the Row over possible costs section for a fuller discussion.
Huhne was reported to have strongly criticised Conservative colleagues at a Cabinet meeting in early May 2011 for the No campaign's material. However, one of the key No campaign leaflets he targeted, showing a newborn baby with the slogan "She needs a maternity unit, not an alternative voting system", was developed by Dan Hodges, a Labour Party campaigner working for NO2AV.
Leading members of the Labour Party on different sides of the campaign also stepped up to campaign for the votes of Labour supporters, including a major newspaper interview with Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
in which he called for a Yes vote and a major advertising campaign by the Labour Yes to Fairer Votes group, both arguing that Labour voters should vote Yes because of Conservative support for a No result. However, the No campaign responded by pointing out that a majority of Labour MPs oppose AV (130 out of 255 opposing AV, 86 in support). In the last week a grassroots campaign featuring Reform Cat in the YouTube video "Is your Cat confused about the referendum on the voting system on the 5th May?" which was released on 27 April 2011, gained more views than either official campaign videos.
Polling
| Polling organisation |
Poll was taken on behalf of |
Was actual referendum question used? |
Survey end date |
AV (%) |
FPTP (%) |
Would not vote (%) |
Don't know (%) |
Ref | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ComRes | Independent on Sunday | 2010-05-13 | 59 | 32 | 10 | ||||
| ICM | Sunday Telegraph | 2010-05-13 | 56 | 35 | 9 | ||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-06-14 | 44 | 34 | 5 | 17 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-06-28 | 42 | 34 | 5 | 18 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-07-05 | 45 | 32 | 6 | 17 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-07-19 | 39 | 38 | 7 | 17 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-08-02 | 41 | 36 | 5 | 18 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-08-16 | 37 | 38 | 7 | 18 | |||
| ICM | Guardian | 2010-08-16 | 45 | 45 | 10 | ||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-08-31 | 37 | 39 | 5 | 18 | |||
| YouGov | Constitution Society | 2010-09-01 | 32 | 33 | 8 | 28 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-09-06 | 35 | 39 | 8 | 18 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-09-20 | 36 | 39 | 8 | 17 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-10-04 | 35 | 40 | 7 | 18 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-10-18 | 33 | 41 | 6 | 19 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-11-01 | 32 | 43 | 8 | 17 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-11-15 | 33 | 40 | 7 | 20 | |||
| ICM | Yes to fairer votes | 2010-11-28 | 48 | 35 | 17 | ||||
| ICM | ERS | 2010-11-28 | 35 | 22 | 9 | 35 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-11-29 | 35 | 41 | 7 | 17 | |||
| ICM | Guardian | 2010-12-03 | 44 | 38 | 18 | ||||
| ICM | ERS | 2010-12-03 | 36 | 30 | 34 | ||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2010-12-13 | 33 | 39 | 7 | 21 | |||
| YouGov | 2010-12-14 | 32 | 40 | 9 | 19 | ||||
| Angus Reid | 2011-01-07 | 37 | 20 | 6 | 37 | ||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-01-10 | 32 | 41 | 8 | 18 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-01-24 | 32 | 41 | 7 | 20 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-02-07 | 38 | 39 | 7 | 16 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-02-08 | 37 | 38 | 6 | 18 | |||
| ComRes | Independent on Sunday | 2011-02-10 | 40 | 30 | 30 | ||||
| ComRes | Independent on Sunday | 2011-02-10 | 40 | 30 | 30 | ||||
| ComRes | Newsnight | 2011-02-13 | 41 | 41 | 18 | ||||
| Populus | Times | 2011-02-13 | 41 | 29 | 30 | ||||
| Populus | Times | 2011-02-13 | 29 | 43 | 9 | 20 | |||
| Angus Reid | 2011-02-16 | 37 | 22 | 6 | 35 | ||||
| ICM | Guardian | 2011-02-20 | 37 | 37 | 27 | ||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-02-21 | 34 | 41 | 7 | 18 | |||
| YouGov | No2AV | 2011-02-28 | 32 | 43 | 7 | 17 | |||
| YouGov | No2AV | 2011-03-01 | 33 | 30 | 6 | 30 | |||
| Angus Reid | 2011-03-04 | 32 | 26 | 7 | 35 | ||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-03-07 | 30 | 47 | 8 | 15 | |||
| ComRes | Independent on Sunday | 2011-03-10 | 34 | 37 | 28 | ||||
| YouGov | Sky News | 2011-03-10 | 37 | 32 | 7 | 24 | |||
| Harris | Metro | 2011-03-11 | 31 | 32 | 37 | ||||
| YouGov | Sunday Times | 2011-03-18 | 39 | 37 | 1 | 23 | |||
| Angus Reid | 2011-03-21 | 29 | 28 | 7 | 35 | ||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-03-21 | 32 | 44 | 7 | 17 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-03-28 | 32 | 44 | 6 | 18 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-03-30 | 31 | 44 | 7 | 18 | |||
| YouGov | Sunday Times | 2011-04-01 | 40 | 37 | 1 | 22 | |||
| Populus | Times | 2011-04-03 | 33 | 37 | 30 | ||||
| Populus | Times | 2011-04-03 | 29 | 46 | 8 | 17 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-04-04 | 34 | 42 | 7 | 17 | |||
| YouGov | Sunday Times | 2011-04-08 | 39 | 38 | 1 | 22 | |||
| Angus Reid | 2011-04-11 | 32 | 28 | 8 | 32 | ||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-04-11 | 33 | 45 | 6 | 15 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-04-12 | 37 | 44 | 0 | 19 | |||
| ComRes | Independent on Sunday | 2011-04-15 | 37 | 43 | 21 | ||||
| YouGov | Sunday Times | 2011-04-15 | 40 | 41 | 1 | 17 | |||
| ICM | Guardian | 2011-04-17 | 42 | 58 | Includes Northern Ireland | ||||
| TNS-BMRB | Independent | 2011-04-18 | 32 | 34 | 13 | 20 | |||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-04-19 | 42 | 58 | |||||
| Angus Reid | 2011-04-21 | 42 | 58 | ||||||
| ICD | New Statesman | 2011-04-25 | 39 | 53 | 9 | ||||
| ComRes | No2AV | 2011-04-25 | 40 | 60 | |||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-04-26 | 41 | 59 | |||||
| YouGov | Sunday Times | 2011-04-29 | 45 | 55 | |||||
| ComRes | Independent | 2011-05-01 | 34 | 66 | |||||
| ICM | Guardian | 2011-05-03 | 32 | 68 | |||||
| YouGov | Sun | 2011-05-04 | 40 | 60 | |||||
| Angus Reid | 2011-05-04 | 39 | 61 |
System
Under the alternative voteInstant-runoff voting
Instant-runoff voting , also known as preferential voting, the alternative vote and ranked choice voting, is a voting system used to elect one winner. Voters rank candidates in order of preference, and their ballots are counted as one vote for their first choice candidate. If a candidate secures a...
system proposed in the referendum, voters would still be electing just one candidate associated with one geographic constituency. Instead of simply voting for one candidate on the ballot paper (with an 'X'), the voter would instead be asked to rank one or more of the candidates in order of preference. If after first preferences have been counted, no one candidate has a majority of the votes cast, then the bottom candidate will be eliminated and votes for that candidate are transferred to each voter's next available preference. The process continues repeatedly until one candidate reaches a majority and wins. The system proposed was a form of "optional preferential voting
Preferential voting
Preferential voting is a type of ballot structure used in several electoral systems in which voters rank candidates in order of relative preference. For example, the voter may select their first choice as '1', their second preference a '2', and so on...
", in that voters would not be obliged to rank every candidate in order of preference in order to cast a valid vote.
Ballot instructions
Schedule 6 of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill proposes to amend Paragraph 5 of Rule 29 of Schedule 1 of the Representation of the People Act 1983Representation of the People Act 1983
The Representation of the People Act 1983 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It changed the British electoral process in the following ways:* Amended the Representation of the People Act 1969....
, so that the instructions to the voter displayed in ballot boxes would be changed from an instruction to vote for only one candidate, to read:
Result
According to the Electoral Commission, the votes were first counted in 440 local counting areas across the United Kingdom. Except in Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, the results from these local counts were relayed to twelve regional counting areas to be officially announced by the Regional Counting Officers. Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
were each classed as one regional counting area, so votes in those areas were counted and declared locally within Scottish Parliamentary and Welsh Assembly constituency boundaries before the results were declared nationally. Northern Ireland was also classed as a single regional counting area but its votes were counted and declared nationally as one unit. In England, the votes were counted and declared locally at district council level, and those results were carried over to the nine remaining regional counting areas. The national result for the whole United Kingdom was announced at the Platinum Suite at the Exhibition Centre London (ExCel) by The Chief Counting Officer (CCO), Jenny Watson, at 1 am on Saturday 7 May 2011 after all the counting regions had declared their results.
Ahead of the last results from Northern Ireland, the result was confirmed as a "No" as it was mathematically impossible for the "Yes" voters to outnumber them.
| Yes : 6,152,607 (32.1%) |
No : 13,013,123 (67.9%) |
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| ▲ | |||
Results by region
| Region | Turnout | No vote | Yes vote | No % | Yes % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Midlands East Midlands The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire... |
42.77 | 1,013,864 | 408,877 | 71.26 | 28.74 |
| East of England East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.Its... |
43.15 | 1,298,004 | 530,140 | 71.00 | 29.00 |
| London Greater London Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London... |
35.37 | 1,123,480 | 734,427 | 60.47 | 39.53 |
| North East England North East England North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland... |
38.73 | 546,138 | 212,951 | 71.95 | 28.05 |
| North West England North West England North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East... |
39.10 | 1,416,201 | 613,249 | 69.78 | 30.22 |
| Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west... |
55.8 | 372,706 | 289,088 | 56.32 | 43.68 |
| Scotland Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the... |
50.74 | 1,249,375 | 713,813 | 63.64 | 36.36 |
| South East England South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex... |
44.31 | 1,951,793 | 823,793 | 70.32 | 29.68 |
| South West England South West England South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ... |
44.6 | 1,225,305 | 564,541 | 68.46 | 31.54 |
| Wales Wales Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²... |
41.74 | 616,307 | 325,349 | 65.45 | 34.55 |
| West Midlands West Midlands (region) The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,... |
39.82 | 1,157,772 | 461,847 | 71.48 | 28.52 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber Yorkshire and the Humber Yorkshire and the Humber is one of the nine regions of England and formally one of the government office regions. It covers most of the historic county of Yorkshire, along with the part of northern Lincolnshire that was, from 1974 to 1996, within the former shire county of Humberside. The... |
39.92 | 1,042,178 | 474,532 | 68.71 | 31.29 |
Aftermath
Further details of campaigning decisions emerged after the referendum result with Dan Hodges reporting that the Conservatives had endorsed the No campaign's targeting of Nick Clegg, although they had originally opposed the idea. Hodges also reported that an aide of David Cameron secretly met No campaign leaders in a hotel room in order to stop the Liberal Democrats finding out the scale of Conservative involvement.The Coalition Government continued and sought to present a united front after the fractious campaign. Former Conservative Cabinet minister Michael Portillo
Michael Portillo
Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo is a British journalist, broadcaster, and former Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister...
criticised Cameron, saying he "forgot the importance of courtesy" towards Clegg and the Liberal Democrats and, thus, the survival of the Coalition, when he joined what Portillo called "the disgraceful No campaign".
On 8 July 2011, the Alternative Vote Provisions were repealed, bringing the statutory process that had initiated the referendum to an end.
See also
- Electoral systems in the United Kingdom
- Electoral reform in the United Kingdom
- AV in the United States
- Comparison of AV with other voting systemsComparison of instant runoff voting to other voting systemsThis article is a comparison of various voting systems with "Instant-runoff voting" , also called the "Alternative Vote", "preferential voting" and "ranked choice voting."-Categories:Voting systems fall into three broad types....
External links
- About My Vote: Referendum on the voting system used to elect MPs to the House of Commons (Electoral CommissionElectoral Commission (United Kingdom)The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. It regulates party and election finance and sets standards for well-run elections...
's explanation of the referendum) - Referendum on the voting system for the UK Parliament (Electoral Commission)
- Yes! to Fairer Votes Official website of the 'yes' campaign
- NO2AV Official website of the 'no' campaign
- "10 reasons the AV referendum was lost" by Tom Clark