Clegg misses Lib Dem AV campaign launch
By Alex Stevenson and Ian Dunt
The Liberal Democrats’ electoral reform campaign launch is going ahead without the party’s leader this morning.
The junior coalition party’s Yes To Fairer Votes campaign launch is taking place in Manchester at the same time as David Cameron addresses the Commons on the Libyan no-fly zone and last night’s UN security council resolution.
Party president Tim Farron, deputy leader Simon Hughes and Lib Dem peer and former children’s TV presenter Floella Benjamin will be present at the campaign launch.
But the deputy prime minister is in London, having attended this morning’s emergency Cabinet meeting as the coalition prepares to use Britain’s armed forces against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
Mr Clegg had been set to offer Labour leader Ed Miliband magnanimous praise over electoral reform, despite the Labour leader refusing to share a platform with him.
Mr Miliband had told journalists he would not share a platform with Mr Clegg, because the Liberal Democrat leader’s unpopularity could hurt the ‘yes’ campaign.
An Ipsos/Mori poll on Thursday suggested the Labour leader was actually less popular than the deputy prime minister, however.
While the poll put Labour ahead of either of the two coalition parties, Mr Miliband himself was four per cent less popular than his Lib Dem counterpart.
Mr Clegg’s planned comments, released to journalists before the UN security council resolution was passed yesterday, offered fulsome praise for the leader of the opposition.
“The Liberal Democrats are of course a party of reform. So it is no surprise that we are vigorously supporting a yes vote in the AV referendum and are launching our own campaign today,” Mr Clegg was expected to tell supporters.
“But no party can claim a monopoly on reform.
“There are, and always have been, both reformers and conservatives – small ‘c’ conservatives, that is – across the political spectrum.
“So I am delighted that the reformers in the Labour party, including Ed Miliband, are backing AV. Especially as there are plenty of Labour conservatives, the John Prescotts and John Reids, clinging to the status quo.
“And I am grateful that there are at least some members of the Conservative party who are carrying Disraeli’s mantle of reform, and backing AV.”
The AV vote is still too close to call, but no-one has more to lose than Mr Clegg, whose entire argument for joining the coalition rested on the Lib Dems securing significant changes like electoral reform.
The referendum on electoral reform takes place on May 5th.
