Daily Express

Labour wants to manipulate voting rules to win on EU

-

THE campaign for Britain to stay in the EU has finally got underway in earnest with both Labour and the SNP firing their opening salvos. What ammunition did they choose? A convincing argument why businesses thrive better inside the EU than outside? A thorough analysis of the costs and benefits of staying in the EU versus leaving it?

No, they both want to manipulate the electoral system to what they see as their advantage. They say they will gang up to try to persuade David Cameron to allow 16 and 17- year- olds to vote in the referendum. Sensibly, the Prime Minister has ruled against this and also against allowing citizens of other EU states to vote in the poll.

Cameron has used the most straightfo­rward approach: to hold the referendum under the same rules as a general election. There will just be one minor addition in that Gibraltari­ans will be able to vote on the grounds that Gibraltar’s relationsh­ip with the EU is entirely dependent on the UK’s membership.

But given that Gibraltar’s population is only 30,000 against 64 million for the UK no one can reasonably expect the territory to decide the result.

If Labour and the SNP were confident of winning the argument that Britain should remain a member of the EU they would not be fiddling with the system. They would be saying to Cameron: hold your referendum under whatever rules you like. The campaign to stay in the EU will still prevail.

WHAT they are doing is a grubby piece of gerrymande­ring – named after a 19th- century governor of Massachuse­tts, Elbridge Gerry, who redrew electoral boundaries in such a way as to maximise his chances of winning. One of the districts he created had such a weird, thin and curvy shape that critics likened it to a salamander, hence the name.

Labour and the SNP have looked at the polling data, which says that while only 45 per cent of the population say they will vote to stay in the EU that proportion climbs to 63 per cent among young people.

The SNP tried the same

 ??  ?? SCHEMING: Labour and the SNP want to change the process to their advantage
SCHEMING: Labour and the SNP want to change the process to their advantage
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom