David Cameron Backs No2AV Campaign
It came as no surprise to anyone that today Prime Minister David Cameron came out in support of the No2AV campaign.
“Cameron and the Tories have always been against voting reform—and have quickly forgotten the lessons of the expenses scandal. The Alternative Vote (AV) would give more power to the public and make MPs more accountable. On this as on so much else, now they’re in Government we can see they’re the same old Tories,” Ben Bradshaw MP campaign spokesperson for Labour Yes said today.
“Of course the Tories are in favour of the status quo and maintaining a system that has served them well in the past electorally, but he also knows that under FPTP he can get away with savaging the health and public service sectors without any real accountability from the electorate.”
Mr Cameron also seemed to acknowledge the problems and mistakes bedevilling the no campaign as, in a recent statement, Downing Street confirmed that they would be getting involved with financing the campaign.
In his speech delivered earlier today Mr Cameron said that AV is “the precise opposite of what we need now”. He also made his commitment to campaign “loud and clear”, for a no vote on May the 5th. Such a statement flies in the face of previous claims that the Prime Minister is a “progressive” politician.
The current FPTP system is no longer fit for purpose, as argued in a recent IPPR report ‘The Worst of Both Worlds’, as it can no longer provide strong and stable government. Moreover, with voters shifting away from primarily supporting either Labour or the Tories, we now have an electoral system where just 1.6% of the electorate determine the outcome of elections.
The Conservative Party has historically always been opposed to electoral reform and AV in particular, not least because it is, in the words of one senior Tory, the ‘anti-Tory’ system. Mr Cameron will face a great deal of pressure from his own party to ensure a no vote with some arguing, on Conservative Home for example, that this could be the defining moment of his leadership.
Labour Yes is campaigning with many leading Labour figures - including Labour leader Ed Miliband who declared his clear support for the yes campaign in the Guardian yesterday – for a yes vote in the May 5th referendum.
