AV reform update

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill has finally passed through the Commons which means that an AV referendum will be held on the same day as the Scottish and Welsh Assembly elections (and others), fixed term Parliaments, redrawing of all the Parliamentary boundaries, and a significant reduction in the number of MPs.

Parliament had rejected amendments to allow voters a choice of what kind of voting system they would prefer, changing the date of the referendum so it did not skew the elections taking place on the same day and reducing the number of Ministers in Parliament to account for the fact that the number of backbenchers would have been drastically reduced.

The Lib Dems voted as an extremely disciplined block throughout this process against all motions to improve the bill and have been rewarded by a similarly disciplined block of Tories voting for a bill they'd rather have never existed.

In the end the bill passed with 321 votes for to 264 against. The bulk of those who voted against the unamended bill were Labour MPs but they were joined in the no lobby by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.

She was rightly concerned about reducing the number of constituencies and that this was to be done without a proportionate reduction in Ministers, thus strengthening the executive. She was also worried that the date of the referendum would unduly distort local and national assembly elections and, of course, that the referendum itself fell far short of a real choice on electoral reform.

Caroline voted for the second reading of the bill (ie before the amendments were put) because she supports the principle of a referendum and wanted to have the opportunity to try and amend the bill – to increase the options on the ballot paper to include proportional representation and other voting systems, as well as to try and decouple the voting reform elements from the proposals to reduce the number of constituencies. Understandably she was very disappointed to see Lib Dems voting against their own policies, but then we've come to expect now I guess. The result was that the bill which MPs had to vote on yesterday in its third reading was unamended on the key issues and thus impossible for Caroline to support, much as she would have loved to back the principle of voting reform.

Of course, the Green Party of England and Wales doesn't go as far as our Northern Ireland counterpart who recently took the decision to campaign for a no vote in the referendum. We'll be having a modest campaign in favour of AV, with the safeguard that no significant party funds are to be spent on the campaign.

Certainly the referendum for AV itself is far from won and YouGov polling has shown that support for the move has fallen away. Just a few months ago polling was showing general support for the idea but now just 32% would vote in favour and 43% against, probably in order to give the government a kick.

If AV does pass the next general election will look very different to the last one. It's likely, for example, that the coalition parties will recommend a second preference for each other and all parties will have to take a firm decision on what recommendations they do or do not make to the electorate.

We have the exciting prospect of candidates praising each other in the hope of gaining second preferences and, of course, denouncing each other for their official choice of second best. I'm particularly interested to see the reactions of candidates who are 'endorsed' as second preference by the BNP or UKIP as well as curious as to what approach Green members want to take.

It may never happen of course, but whatever way the referendum goes the Lib Dems will have strengthened the power of the Parliamentary executive and demonstrated that there is no principle they wont ditch when expediency beckons.