After yesterday’s disastrous poll news for the Yes campaign there is further bad news today as more senior Labour figures come out against the Alternative Vote.
The latest to add their weight to the No To AV campaign are Jim Murphy, Shadow Defence Secretary, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Shaun Woodward, and Opposition Chief Whip, Rosie Winterton. They are joined by former cabinet members, Nick Brown and Bob Ainsworth.
Writing for Labour Uncut this morning, Jim Murphy, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence and Labour MP for East Renfrewshire, said his main reason for voting now was that the Yes campaign had failed to make the case:
“The main reason I have decided to vote ‘No’ is that the supporters of changing the system haven’t made a convincing enough case that this is the right kind of change. They have struggled to make a persuasive argument about why the country’s politics would be better with AV.
“Some of the arguments made by the pro-AV campaign are, I think, counter-productive. To use the entirely justified public anger about MPs’ abuse of expenses as a driver for an AV voting system risks further alienating the public from the political process because everyone knows AV wouldn’t deal with that problem. The idea that AV would have prevented previous misuse of expenses is wishful thinking.”
The latest senior Labour figures to join the No campaign do so on the day a new VoteLabourVoteNo.com website is launched.
