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By Ned Simons - 5th May 2011
A year ago Nick Clegg wrung a promise of a referendum on the Alternative Vote from David Cameron as the price for joining him in coalition. But his hopes of changing the electoral system appear to have turned to dust in the wake of a bitter campaign.
Votes in the Alternative Vote referendum will begin to be counted at 4pm tomorrow afternoon and the final result is expected around 8pm. The turnout, expected to be low, will be announced at around 3pm.
The 'No' camp is widely expected to win and two polls published on the eve of election day suggested voters will resoundingly reject AV. The latest Guardian/ICM survey predicted 68 per cent will vote 'No' with just 32 per cent in favour. A YouGov poll for The Sun suggested 60 per cent will say 'No' and 40 per cent will say 'Yes'.
Recriminations have already begun in Westminster over the apparent failure of the 'Yes' campaign and Clegg will appear before the Commons political and constitutional reform committee on Thursday to asses the "aftermath" of the vote and how it has affected the relationship between Lib Dem and Tory ministers.
Tensions within the coalition boiled over in Cabinet this week when Chris Huhne confronted George Osborne and David Cameron over the conduct of the 'No to AV' camp. The chancellor reportedly slapped the energy secretary down, telling him: "This is a Cabinet meeting, not a sub-Jeremy Paxman interview."
Several Lib Dem's were angered by the personal nature of the 'No' campaign and its attacks on their leader. Huhne implied Cameron had behaved in a "thoroughly reprehensible and underhand manner" while Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott accused the prime minister of being a "smiling assassin, stabbing Nick in the back".
Clegg also said the 'Yes' campaign had been forced to battle a "headwind of lies, misinformation and deceit" from the opposition including the claim that AV would require expensive voting machines and that it would cost £250m to run a general election under the system.
And in an attack on David Cameron former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown told the Guardian said the prime minister had destroyed the "goodwill and trust" between the two parties.
"This is a triumph for the regiment of lies," he said of the 'No' campaign. "We live with pretty strenuous political campaigns in Britain, but these were downright lies."
But the Conservative leader of the Commons Sir George Young has insisted that the wounds of the bitter campaign would heal and that the coalition would continue.
He told MPs todaythat while there had been "understandable tensions" between two parties during the referendum campaign and local elections the coalition remained more united than Labour.
"From next week we will be back in business, working together in the national interest to get the economy back on its feet. Our divisions will heal, but Labour’s never will," he said in a reference to the divisions of the Blair/Brown years.
Labour was divided over AV despite Ed Miliband playing a leading role in the 'Yes' campaign. Several Labour MPs, including frontbenchers, were angered by the 'Yes' campaign's decision to base much of their appeal to voters on the argument AV would make MPs work harder.
Many were especially annoyed by an election broadcast, described by one Labour MP as the work of "scum", that encouraged people to vote in favour of changing the voting system largely on the basis that it would stop politicians from fiddling their expenses.
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