Labour Yes campaign gears up for a Yes vote on May 5th
The Labour Yes campaign has welcomed today’s announcement that Royal Assent has been granted to the Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill.
“Now that the Bill is an act of Parliament, we are excited to be able to formally commence campaigning for a Yes vote on the 5 May” Ben Bradshaw, MP for Exeter and the Labour Yes campaign spokesperson said today.
“On the 5th of May, we will have an historic opportunity to change politics in Britain for the better, and to vote for a fairer, more democratic system to elect our representatives to Parliament.
“We now have the chance to vote for a change from the current system under which only 1.6% of the electorate decide the outcome of General Elections”. Mr Bradshaw said
The Labour Yes campaign has been rapidly gaining support with a growing number of Labour MPs, MEPs, MSPs, and House of Lords members signing up to the Labour Yes campaign and committing to a Yes vote in the referendum, whilst the numbers of those committed to a No vote has been sliding backwards.
The announcement earlier this week that Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter will be voting Yes to AV in the referendum adds to the long list of celebrities including Labour supporters Tony Robinson, Eddie Izzard and John O’Farrell who are voting Yes in May.
Labour supporters of AV include Labour leader Ed Miliband, former leader Neil Kinnock, Alan Johnson, Alistair Darling, John Denham, Sadiq Khan Tessa Jowell, Diane Abbott, Tony Benn, Glenys Kinnock, Ken Livingstone and Oona King.
In an article for the Guardian today, Ed Miliband writes: “AV offers an opportunity for political reform, ensuring the voice of the public is heard louder than it has been in the past. And given the standing of politics that is an opportunity we should take. It is a system that combines the direct representation of first-past-the-post with one that will make the votes of more people count.”
As former Labour Leader Neil Kinnock says: “The Alternative Vote will increase the power of each vote, because every vote in every constituency will have full value. That’s why I’m glad to be active in the campaign to win a Yes majority for AV in the May referendum.”
“AV offers a truly fair change from the current First Past The Post system in which an MP can be elected with as little as a third of the votes cast in their constituency.” Mr Kinnock said.
Tessa Jowell, Shadow Minister for the Olympics said: “There is a growing sense throughout the community that politics in this country is broken. AV will mean that our elected representatives are those who genuinely best represent the views of their electorates, and that every MP has the support of the majority of voters”
The Labour Yes campaign believes that all MPs should have the support of the majority of voters. Under the current system of First Past the Post ( FPTP), only a third of MPs elected to Westminster can say they were elected with over 50% support from the voters in their constituency
However, under AV, a candidate will have to work to gain the support of the majority vote in order to get elected, and MPs will have to reach out to the entire of their consistency rather than having to just their core vote out in order to get elected. Under AV, voters will have a bigger say in who their local MP is, which will lead to an increased constituency link between MP and voter.
