How Labour support for AV has waned
When the histories of the AV referendum are written - instant bestsellers, no doubt - the focus will be on the Labour vote.
In particular, the failure of Ed Miliband to give a strong lead to the pro-AV forces within the Labour Party, and above all the sudden switch among such a large section of the party.
Remember, it was actually Labour, not the Lib Dems, who first proposed the idea of a referendum on AV - in Gordon Brown's 2009 conference speech.
And remarkably, at an important meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in early 2010 he got the policy through with just three MPs voting against. Yes, THREE.
OK, supporting a referendum on AV isn't quite the same thing as supporting AV itself, but they come pretty close.
Now we learn that 131 Labour MPs are signed up to the No campaign, more than half the PLP.
How the world changes.
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I'm Michael Crick, and I'm Newsnight's political editor. My guiding rule is that in any story there's usually something the politicians would prefer the world not to know. My job is to find that out. Follow me on
Comment number 1.
At 27th Apr 2011, a cynic writes wrote:I wonder how many of that 131 feel that AV gave them the wrong Milliband.
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Comment number 2.
At 27th Apr 2011, barriesingleton wrote:MISERABLE LITTLE DISTRACTION
PARTIES are the key to corrupt British politics. AV is a miserable little piece of Cameron contempt. It will have no impact on Westminster's contempt for the voter.
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Comment number 3.
At 29th Apr 2011, mcdowella wrote:I think we are seeing the difference between listening to the arguments and agreeing that all the evidence is on the side of AV, and between realising that AV might actually happen, and that you have got a job as an MP under FPTP, and that AV might be a better idea for the country, but that it might change things enough in your constituency that you might not have a job after the next election and... well, the first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it isn't it?
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