Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill — Part 3 — Text of referendum question — 12 Oct 2010 at 23:00

The majority of MPs voted in favour of tweaking the grammar and phrasing of the question for the referendum on the voting system.

The changes include expanding the acronyms MP and UK. The question was split into two sentences, presumably to make it easier to understand. There appears to be slightly more stress in the new version of the fact that a move to the 'alternative vote' would be a change from the present situation.

The text of the approved question is:

  • 'At present, the UK uses the "first past the post" system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the "alternative vote" system be used instead?'[1]

The text originally contained within the Bill[2] was:

  • 'Do you want the United Kingdom to adopt the “alternative vote” system instead of the current “first past the post” system for electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons?'

This change was recommended by the Electoral Commission, as Mark Harper MP mentions in the debate preceding the vote.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Alliance1 00100.0%
Con284 (+1 tell) 1093.5%
DUP0 7087.5%
Green0 10100.0%
Lab0 222 (+2 tell)086.8%
LDem52 (+1 tell) 0093.0%
SDLP0 30100.0%
SNP0 60100.0%
Total:337 240090.8%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Philip HolloboneKetteringCon (front bench)no

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