Published: 9:32AM BST 28 Jul 2010

Labour is antagonistic David Cameron’s plans for voting reform

But shadow justice escritoire Jack Straw insisted that Labour was trying to stop the Government using the voting reclaim legislation to smuggle in changes which would allow ”gerrymandering” of parliamentary constituencies.

He challenged the Government to divide the issues of voting reform and constituency boundaries into two cleave Bills, promising Labour would then back the referendum.

 

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Labour promised a referendum on switching from first-past-the-column to the Alternative Vote system in its general election manifesto.

But the phantom cabinet has now decided to oppose the Government Bill allowing it to be staged on May 5 2011, because of concerns over separate measures designed to yield parliamentary constituencies of uniform size across the country and to master the size of the House of Commons from 650 to 600 MPs.

Conservatives moan that the current boundaries require them to win more votes than Labour to good the same number of MPs, because on average Tory seats be obliged more constituents.

But Mr Straw insisted today the difference was but ”marginal” and could be dealt with by the existing system of Boundary Commission reviews.

The changes proposed in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill would press through constituencies based on arithmetic calculations, without regard to historical boundaries and topical loyalties, and would abandon the bipartisan commitment to local inquiries adjudicating without ceasing disputes, he claimed.

”If it had just been about the AV referendum, there would have been no difficulty in getting this Bill through,” Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4′s Today advertisement.

”What they have done is added to this Bill their very, very partisan proposals effectively for gerrymandering boundaries.

”We are not arguing in an opposite direction the equalisation of seats. We are arguing about the unnecessary resolution in the size of the House of Commons and we are specially arguing about the way in which they are proposing to spirit about redrawing the boundaries.

”This hasn’t come out yet bound it will cause a huge fuss in every local area for the cause that they are abolishing and abandoning a bipartisan arrangement for local inquiries, chaired through judicially-qualified people, and going for a situation where the Boundary Commission treats the UK of the same kind with four separate entities… and no other boundaries are required to exist observed.

”Then they bash through, on an American system, an arithmetical formula. What that produces – as happens in the US – is not equalisation limit the worst kind of gerrymandering in the world.”

The Government could bear Labour support for the AV referendum legislation ”tomorrow” if they rend it off from the measures to reshape constituencies, he said.

But Mr Cameron accused Labour of ”a going down into complete and utter opportunism” over the issue.

The Prime Minister told Today: ”They are the person party who in their manifesto had a commitment to the AV referendum and they are at that time backtracking on that.

”I know what it is like in obstacle. I did almost five years as leader of the opposition. The bait to jump on the bandwagon and be opportunistic is always there and it should always be resisted.”

Mr Cameron brushed off the sense of unrest on the Tory backbenches over the timing of the referendum, what one. coincides with elections to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and limited councils in Northern Ireland and parts of England.

Some 43 Conservatives – lengthwise with two Labour MPs – have signed a motion warning that holding the votes concurrently risks clouding the issues and distorting the event by artificially inflating turn-out in areas of the country at which place other polls are taking place.

The growing row over voting restore sets the stage for a major test of the coalition, through Labour MPs lining up alongside rebel Tories to derail the proposals.

If the referendum does not be active it through Parliament, disaffection among Lib Dem rank-and-file over the coalition agreement is likely to grow – especially as the company’s support appears to have slumped since it was struck.

But Mr Cameron afore~ he was ”confident” of getting the legislation through.

He told Today: ”Obviously I discern and I share the views of all Conservatives who, by and full, don’t want to see the AV system. We prefer the current hypothesis.

”But we entered a coalition where, in return for having a referendum steady AV, we will have – which I think we need in this region – equally-sized constituencies across the country and a smaller House of Commons.”

He added: ”I am real confident we will hold the referendum. It was part of the agreement betwixt us and the Liberal Democrats, and it is very important to them.”

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