By Jonathan Isaby
Five weeks before referendum day, tonight's Evening Standard has picked up on some academic research which seeks to demonstrate how the political map would have looked different if the last election had been fought under AV.
It finds that the following constituencies across London and the South East would have been won by different parties:
Conservative seats which Labour would have won
- Brentford and Isleworth
- Hendon
Conservative seats which the Lib Dems would have won
- Oxford West and Abingdon
- Reading East
- St Albans
- Watford
Labour seats which the Lib Dems would have won
- Islington South and Finsbury
- Lewisham West
- Oxford East
- Streatham
This would have resulted in the parties holding the following number of seats in the Commons:
- Conservatives - 284
- Labour - 249
- Lib Dems - 89
Crucailly, that would have enabled the Lib Dems to deliver an overall majority in the Commons for either of the two bigger parties.
The research was undertaken immediately after the general election by academics from the University of Essex and the University of Texas at Dallas for the journal Parliamentary Affairs. Whether people would assign their preferences today as they would have done last May, though, is certainly highly questionable...
> Earlier today William Hague launched the NO to AV Group
