New Year, new voting system! South West in favour of AV, says new poll

Cast an Alternative Vote: the latest survey results say the South West is coming out in favour of voting reform

A new poll has revealed that most people are in favour of reforming Britain’s voting system. Despite the proposals still having us elect MPs, the survey shows the South West is jolly keen on the reform nevertheless, with 63 per cent of voters supporting changing the voting system in May.

Maybe it’s the winning smile of Exeter MP and former Minister Ben Bradshaw, who is leading the Labour arm of the campaign, but an ICM Research survey for the Electoral Reform Society found the regional breakdown of the poll shows higher than the national average support for the reforms in the South West, with 63 per cent supporting change and only 37 per cent against.

Nationally the figures are 56 per cent of people favour the alternative vote (AV), in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, while only 44 per cent want to retain the existing first-past-the-post system.

South West Regional Organiser for the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign, Tim Kent, told the PRSD: “The poll shows that people are willing to embrace change and are fed up with the current electoral system.

“We believe the South West will be a crucial area for the campaign and the polling evidence has backed this up showing that the area favours change.

“Our telephone campaign over the last few weeks has now recruited over 400 new activists across the South West, with hundreds of additional activists already working in local groups.”

According to the ICM survey of 1,000 people, the proposed switch to AV enjoys much stronger support amongst young people. It is backed by 61 per cent of 18-24 year-olds and 75 per cent of 25-34 year-olds, while 39 per cent and 25 per cent of these age groups respectively want to keep first-past-the-post.

Among 55-64 year-olds those supporting change was 48 per cent to 52 per cent opposing it.

The poll also breaks down the support by political party with over one-third of Conservative voters saying they will support change. Labour and Liberal Democrat voters are both clearly in favour of switching to the Alternative Vote in May’s referendum.

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