Osborne: The Yes to AV campaign ‘stinks’
By politics.co.uk staff
The chancellor has launched an extraordinary attack on the Yes to AV campaign, highlighting alleged conflicts of interests in its funding.
George Osborne’s accusations are just the latest dispute in an increasingly bitter and bad-tempered campaign which has seen both camps fling insults and accusations of assisting the far-right.
“What really stinks is actually one of the ways the Yes campaign is funded,” Mr Osborne told the Daily Mail.
“The Electoral Reform Society, which is actually running some of the referendum ballots, and is being paid to do that by the taxpayer, stands to benefit if AV comes in.
“That organisation, the Electoral Reform Society, part of it is a company that makes money – is funding the Yes campaign.
“That stinks frankly and is exactly the sort of dodgy, behind the scenes shenanigans that people don’t like about politics.”
The comments were instantly rebuked by Electoral Reform Services Ltd chief executive Sian Roberts, who said the chancellor had made a factual error.
“We provide ballot papers. We don’t get involved in voting machines,” she said.
“The software for Scotland you refer to was provided in 2007 and was for the single transferable vote system. We would not be involved in software for AV because there would be no need for counting machines.”
Mr Osborne’s decision to concentrate on the ‘yes’ camp’s funding is particularly startling given that most observers of the contest believe it is the ‘no’ camp which is particularly vulnerable on the issue of its backers.
Yes to AV campaigners pushed for several weeks to convince the ‘no’ campaign to reveal its funding sources.
The campaign teams only need to reveal their funding six months after the referendum.
