THE CONSERVATIVE/Liberal Democrat coalition has accepted that a general election campaign will have to be called within 14 days if it loses a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons, unless a new administration can be formed.
Under the coalition’s original plans, drawn up because the Liberal Democrats feared the Conservatives would call an election if they thought they could govern alone, it had been intended to change the rules to ensure that parliament would not fall unless 55 per cent of MPs backed a dissolution motion.
However, the 55 per cent super-majority was disliked by many Conservative MPs, who voiced their opposition to prime minister David Cameron, but also by MPs in the other parties, including Labour.
Now, parliament will fall if a simple majority backs a no-confidence motion, though dissolution would not happen for a fortnight to allow time for a new government to be formed. If that does not happen, a general election will be called.
However, a motion from the government calling for parliament’s dissolution will now require a 66 per cent majority. Liberal leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said this would make it “impossible for any government to force a dissolution for its own purposes”.
Other electoral reforms include the cuttung of the number of MPs from 650 to 600, saving £12 million annually, while all bar two constituencies will be made more equal in population to ensure “everyone’s vote has the same value”. The Orkneys and the Western Isles in Scotland are the exceptions.
“Under the current set-up, votes count more in some parts of the country than others, and millions feel that their votes don’t count at all. Elections are won and lost in a small minority of seats,” said Mr Clegg.
“We have a fractured democracy where some people’s votes count and other people’s votes don’t count; where some people are listened to, and others are ignored,” he told the House of Commons.
A boundary review will be completed by 2013 in time for the next general election, which, Mr Clegg said, will happen on May 7th, 2015, once the legislation – which also lays down fixed-term parliaments – is passed.
Under the coalition deal, the Liberal Democrats are to get a referendum on replacing the first-past-the-post voting system with the Alternative Vote system, where voters cast a second preference, ensuring that the winning candidate has 50 per cent support.
The decision to hold the referendum on May 5th, 2011, along with elections to the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales has infuriated nationalist parties in both, and Conservative MPs, who believe it would artificially inflate the referendum turnout.
Opinion divides on the impact of the Alternative Vote system, if introduced. After the general election, the Electoral Reform Society argued that it would have cost the Conservatives 25 seats if it had been in use, to the advantage of the Liberal Democrats.
However, others believe it could damage the Liberal Democrats, if voters in the north of England in an effort to keep out Labour and in the south to keep out the Conservatives, change past tactical voting habits.
Support among senior Labour figures for the Alternative Vote, which is deeply disliked by many of its MPs, is withering fast, as they see an opportunity to inflict damage upon the coalition.
In the commons, former justice secretary Jack Straw said the coalition is tying reform to a gerrymander of constituencies – which could hurt Labour badly in north of England inner-city constituencies with a low population.
Labour leadership hopeful Ed Balls voiced a developing strategy, which could see Labour offering notional support for the Alternative Vote but not campaigning to get the referendum passed.
Meanwhile, Labour’s plan to build nearly 800 new schools in England have been abandoned in one of the first direct signs of the spending cuts to come.
Oddly, however, the new government signed £1.5 billion worth of school contracts since it took up power.
Defending his decision in the face of Labour jeers, education secretary Michael Gove said Labour’s programme “has been characterised by massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy”.
Some 180 schools have been rebuilt or refurbished since 2004 and building had been about to get under way in 230 more. All of England’s 3,500 schools were to have been revamped by 2023.