David Maddox: This reform is the glue that keeps the Westminster coalition together

WHEN Glasgow North West MP John Robertson suggested in the Commons yesterday that MPs were largely talking to themselves about voting reform and the general public did not care much, he was probably right.It is difficult to imagine hordes of demonstrators gathering in Parliament Square demanding AV – the alternative vote system.

Yet this referendum is essentially the glue that keeps the coalition government together. It was the promise of at least a plebiscite on electoral reform, even to a system which the Lib Dems do not even like, that helped persuade the party to swallow its dislike of the Tories and join them in government. If the referendum was not to happen for one reason or another, then it would bring the government down. Liberal Democrats would say the Tories had broken faith with them and not kept their side of the bargain.

Lib Dem members, many of whom are deeply unhappy with their MPs backing VAT increases and slashing of welfare, would start questioning just what Mr Clegg and his colleagues have got out of the coalition deal.

That is what is staying the hands of many of the Tory MPs, who almost unanimously object to voting reform, and has got their whips' office working over time. Few even feel comfortable with the idea of asking people to choose whether they want it or not. Meanwhile, Labour and other opposition parties do not want to be seen to be against a referendum, but are desperate to give Mr Clegg a bloody nose. This is where the issue of the date of the referendum comes into play.

Mr Clegg has, without any serious consultation, made a decision that it should be the same day as Holyrood elections, as well as council elections in some parts of England. He says this is to save money, but in reality it is probably to guarantee a decent turn-out.

It also goes against the recommendation of not holding other elections on the same day as the one for the Scottish Parliament following the fiasco in 2007 when more than 140,000 ballot papers were discounted.

What Mr Clegg has allowed is a means in which Tory rebels can get together with Labour, the SNP and various others to defeat him or force a volte face in a way which would humiliate the Deputy Prime Minister, but not bring down the government.