44 Tory MPs Opposed to the Coalition Timetabling of the AV Vote

Bernard Jenkins has issued an Early Day Motion (EDM) calling for the date of the vote of the AV referendum to be de-coupled from the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament elections. Despite the efforts of the whips, 44 Tories have signed the EDM and I expect the number will grow. The full list of names (at time of publishing) is:

1.David Amess
2.Richard Bacon
3.Brian Binley
4.Peter Bone
5.Andrew Bridgen
6.Douglass Carswell
7.James Clappison
8.Geoffrey Clifton-Brown
9.Therese Coffey
10.Tracey Crouch
11.Glyn Davies
12.David Davis
13.Nadine Dorries
14.Michael Fallon
15.Mark Field
16.James Gray
17.Adam Holloway
18.Bernard Jenkin
19.Dan Kawczynski
20.Greg Knight
21.Eleanor Laing
22.Edward Leigh
23.Julian Lewis
24.Peter Lilley
25.Ian Liddell-Grainger
26.Jack Lopresti
27.Stephen McPartland
28.Mark Menzies
29.Patrick Mercer
30.Simon Mosely
31.David Nuttall
32.Richard Ottaway
33.Andrew Percy
34.Mark Reckless
35.John Redwood
36.Jacob Rees Mogg
37.Sir Malcolm Rifkind
38.Laurence Robertson
39.Andrew Rossindell
40.Richard Shephard
41.Bob Stewart
42.Graham Stuart
43.Robin Walker
44.John Whittingdale

Best of luck to Mr. Jenkins I say! Everyone knows that the Electoral Commission has recommended that referendums shouldn't be held on the same days as elections.

The full text of the EDM is:

DATE OF PROPOSED REFERENDUM ON AN ALTERNATIVE VOTING SYSTEM

That this House notes that in 2002 the Electoral Commission, following consultations on the holding of a possible referendum on the Euro on the same day as other elections on 1 May 2003, issued a statement making clear that referendums on fundamental issues of national importance should be considered in isolation and that they should not be held at the same time as devolved assembly or local government elections; further notes that in a recent report the House of Lords Constitution Committee recommended that there should be a presumption against holding referendums on the same day as elections; recognises that this advice is in accordance with best constitutional practice in countries such as Switzerland, where referendums are more regularly held; believes that this constitutional practice should be observed unless there are very exceptional reasons for it to be set aside; is concerned at the proposal to hold the referendum on whether to change the voting system on 5 May 2011, which is the same day as elections to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and to local authorities in Northern Ireland, but only in parts of England; further believes that this proposal would allow other issues to cloud the referendum debate before the vote, would artificially inflate turnout in some parts of the country but not others, and that it may accordingly advantage one campaign at the expense of the other; proposes that any referendum on this issue should therefore be held on a different date; and looks forward to advice from the Electoral Commission on this matter which is consistent with its previous statements.