09.05.11
Recriminations in the wake of AV landslide
Business Secretary Vince Cable has accused his Conservative coalition colleagues of being “ruthless, calculating and thoroughly tribal” in the wake of the landslide ‘No’ vote in the AV referendum.
But “that doesn't mean to say we can't work with them”, Cable added, speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, insisting that the Coalition will continue in a “businesslike and professional” way.
The final margin was an overwhelming 68% to 32% ‘No’ vote on a 42% turnout, with just ten of the counting areas in the UK coming out in favour of ‘Yes’ – six London boroughs, plus Oxford and Cambridge, and two Scottish seats, Glasgow Kelvin and Edinburgh Central. The English counting areas were coterminous with local authority areas, but in Scotland they matched Parliamentary seats.
Cable said AV was “dead for the foreseeable future”, but said the wider question of electoral reform was not dead, especially as the Lib Dems seek to reform the House of Lords along proportionally-elected lines.
Many commentators have suggested that David Cameron will need to work hard to hold the Coalition together, perhaps granting the Lib Dems concessions over the NHS reforms and the income tax personal allowance.
But others have suggested Cameron, whose stature is seen to have been enhanced by the resounding ‘No’ vote after he got so personally involved in the campaign, can now afford to ignore the Lib Dems. If they pulled out of the Coalition, the vast majority of their MPs could be wiped out in the subsequent general election, as the results of the local elections showed.
Figures in the Conservative and Labour parties suggested that those on the right and left of the Lib Dems respectively should jump ship and join them.
Conservative Bernard Jenkins was among those making that call and said: “The idea that there are going to be some more transactions in this relationship is not going to impress the voters at all…The concessions have been made.”
Labour leader Ed Miliband, meanwhile, told Lib Dem ministers to have the “courage of convictions you went before the electorate with a year ago” and quit the Government.
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