No2AV lead still in double figures as Yes campaign becomes more dishonest and more dirty

By Jonathan Isaby

As much of the country retreats into another double bank holiday weekend, there is good news for the No2AV campaign from two new opiniopn polls.

An ICD Research poll for the New Statesman has a a 12-point lead amongst all respondents for the No Campaign (No - 46% | Yes - 34% | Don't know - 17%), increasing to 14 points amongst those certain to vote (53% | 39% | 8%).

It is especially encouraging to see big No votes in the Scotland and Wales, where turnout is expected to be higher than the UK average due to the elections for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly:

• Scottish voters currently oppose AV by 50 per cent to 30 per cent
• Welsh voters currently oppose AV by 56 per cent to 26 per cent

There is also a new ComRes poll commissioned by No2AV which gives the No campaign a 12-point lead (No - 45% | Yes - 33% | Don't Know - 22%) , which extends to a 20-point lead (60% | 40%) when excluding Don't Knows and only taking into account those likely to vote.

Meanwhile, it has emerged this afternoon that the desperate Yes Campaign are descending into ever more dishonest and dirty tactics with a week to go before polling day.

The latest Yes leaflet (pictured, right) clearly suggests that the Labour Party are backing the Yes Campaign, when it is a fact that the majority of Labour Party MPs, peers and Councillors are backing the No Campaign, including many of the shadow cabinet, not least the Labour Chief Whip in the House of Commons. The leaflet also see the words ‘Liberal Democrats’ removed from their party logo (despite ‘Green Party’ and ‘UKIP’ being clearly visible).

Furthermore, the leaflet tries to suggest that only the Conservatives and the BNP are backing the No campaign, forgetting the thousands of Labour activists in support of it and overlooking the fact that the BNP are not in fact an official supporter of the No2AV campaign (and according to the ICD Research poll cited above, their supporters overwhelming back the Yes campaign by 72% to 18%.

Labour MP Tom Harris and backer of No2AV slammed the leaflet as "a shameful example of the Yes campaign’s dirty tricks" given that the majority of the Labour Party are voting no, whilst George Eustice, the Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth, said:

“If the desperate Yes campaign are relying on this sort of disgraceful scaremongering to get a ‘yes’ vote, one has to question whether they deserve the support of anyone in the UK? As the most recent polls show, the supporters of fringe, extremist parties want the Alternative Vote, because they know it will give them more influence at the ballot box.”