Cameron and Clegg polls apart on elections

PRIME Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg were today set to kick off the referendum campaigns on changing the Westminster voting system on opposite sides.

The end of Labour Party resistance in the Lords to the Bill to change constituency boundaries and hold a referendum on the voting system means the Tory and Lib Dem party leaders have been freed up to start the political campaigning on the two sides of the debate.

Privately, aides to Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg admit that the referendum is a crunch point in their two parties' relationship in government and defeat will be hard for supporters in their respective parties to stomach.

Voters will be asked to decide whether to replace the traditional first past the post system with the alternative vote (AV), which means the winner needs to get more than 50 per cent of the vote in a constituency with candidates ranked in preference.

Mr Clegg was due to say on a visit to Leeds today: "First past the post is out of date and it is at the heart of so many of the reasons that people don't trust in or care about politics. It means most MPs are elected without the support of most of the people they are supposed to represent. It means millions of votes make no difference whatsoever."

However, Mr Cameron will argue: "AV will make politics less accountable and make it harder to kick out governments."