Ken Clarke: AV supporters are from 'fringes of politics

 

Kenneth Clarke told the Conservative spring conference that electoral reform supporters are from the 'fringes of politics'. Photograph: Toby Melville/REUTERS

Supporters of electoral reform come from the "fringes of politics", Kenneth Clarke told the Conservative spring conference in Cardiff as the party stepped up its attack on the Liberal Democrats.

In a sign that the Tories are spoiling for a fight before the alternative vote (AV) referendum on 5 May, the justice secretary warned that a yes vote would allow more extreme parties to enter parliament.

David Cameron also took issue with Nick Clegg's central argument in favour of reform when he said he had never heard anyone argue that AV would restore faith in British politics.

Under the terms of their coalition agreement with the Lib Dems, the Tories are free to argue strongly against the AV proposal, which enables voters to rank candidates in order of preference rather than supporting just one candidate.

Clarke, a patron of the No to AV campaign, said the Lib Dems' historic support for electoral reform showed they were a marginal force in British politics.

"This referendum on 5 May is extremely important. I may have been fairly indifferent to referendums over the years, but I was always very opposed to electoral reform, which has been argued by people usually on the fringes of politics."

Clarke said Britain's first-past-the-post system allowed voters to "throw the rascals out" when a government lost its way. Voters were always right, he said, including in 1997 when John Major's government was ejected.

He said: "We were finished in 1997, it was clear it was time for us to be put out of our misery and the change to be made. Gordon Brown was finished in 2010. It was clearly in the national interest for New Labour to be extinguished and for other people to come in and start clearing out the mess."

Changing the system would create more hung parliaments and lead to more coalitions, according to Clarke, who made a point of saying that the current government was working well.

But Clarke, who said that Labour and the Tories were natural coalitions anyway, added: "Actually we were forced together in this way because of the worst financial crisis in the lifetime of anyone now living and because two parties chose to put the national interest over their normal party coalition. Do not rely on that happening if you slip into a multiparty system as the norm where a hung parliament is the predictable result."