Lords cave in and clear the way for referendum on new voting system

THE biggest ever overhaul of the system for electing MPs to Westminster came a step closer last night after the government defeated cross-party resistance in the Lords.

A UK-wide referendum will now be held on 5 May – the same day as the Scottish Parliament election and local elections down south – to ask the public if they want to change the first-past-the-post system to the Alternative Vote (AV) system.

Under AV voters rank candidates in order of preference.

Just before midnight an announcement was made in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons that the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill had got the Royal Assent.

The move signalled an end to days of political "ping pong" over calls from the Lords for a requirement of a 40 per cent threshold of voters turning out to vote to make the result binding.

Peers voted by 221 votes to 153, a majority 68, to reject the call for a 40 per cent turnout threshold. The 11-th hour stand-off late last night was a moment of drama as it had to be approved by today for the referendum to be held in May.

Peers eventually backed down shortly after 11pm when a Labour amendment urging MPs to think again on the issue was eventually defeated.

The House of Lords sat through the night last month as the bill's progress turned into a war of attrition between coalition and Labour peers.

But as the final deadline for the bill to clear parliament in time for a 5 May referendum approached the government managed to overcome the stubborn resistance in the upper chamber.

The result followed a late intervention from Cabinet minister Lord Strathclyde who pleaded with peers to let the bill pass.

The Lords leader said: "I believe we have done our duty and we should let this bill pass."

Labour former minister Lord Rooker had attempted for a third time to press his amendment requiring 40 per cent of the electorate to participate in the referendum for the result to be binding.

MPs had twice overturned the measure and were ready to sit through the night until the deadlock was broken.

But Lord Strathclyde pleaded with peers to back down over the issue of a threshold.

He said: "We have consistently and clearly said that the people of this country should have their say knowing that their vote in the referendum will count, no ifs, no buts, no artificial hurdles.

"At best a turnout threshold rewards apathy, at worst it encourages it. We have asked the other place to think again not just once, but twice now and we have heard their emphatic answer."

The bill was due to get its Royal Assent within hours.

The elections watchdog had said the bill must get Royal Assent by 26 February to enable enough time for the referendum to be staged on 5 May. But the situation was complicated by the fact the Commons will rise for a ten-day recess today.

The issue of the 40 per cent clause was passed back and forward between the two chambers in a effort to find a resolution to the dispute in a parliamentary process known as "ping pong".

Earlier yesterday, peers voted to reinstate the 40 per cent threshold clause by 277 to 215 – with Lord Tebbit, Lord Lamont, Lord Lawson, Lord Howe and Lord Mawhinney among Tory peers to rebel against the government. This prompted accusations of "betrayal" by the former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown.

He said: "We have delivered, in full, our side of the deal – the Conservatives seem unable to deliver theirs."

Yes and no

THE last time a threshold was imposed on a referendum in Britain was the 1979 poll on Scottish devolution, which failed despite a majority of those voting saying "yes".

For the plan for a Scottish assembly to be carried, 40 per cent of Scots had to vote "yes" as well as a majority of all those who turned out.

In the end the "yes" campaign won 51.6 per cent to 48.4 per cent, but because the turnout was just 63.8 per cent, the "yes" vote failed. .

The failure to accept the yes vote led to the fall of Labour government of Jim Callaghan, right, in 1979 when the SNP sided with Margaret Thatcher and the Tories in a vote of no confidence.