Q. Which was the only party that promised a referendum on AV in its General Election Manifesto in 2010?
A. Labour.
Q. Which party is electing a new leader by AV right now?
A. Labour.
Q. Which is the only major party now threatening to vote against holding a referendum on AV?
A. Labour!

To be fair to Labour, a Shadow Minister has assured me, “I do not believe that there was any element of Shadow Cabinet election tactics or other internal party politics colouring the decision in any way. Nor was there any suggestion that we should resile from our manifesto commitment to a referendum on AV…. Labour has some straightforward points of principled opposition to the boundary change proposals and there is simply no need for these proposals to be in the same Bill as the AV referendum.”

I have no reason to doubt that Shadow Minister’s sincerity but, although I would have no objection if the referendum legislation was separate from that for boundary changes, it is clear that it won’t be. My guess is that the Government has calculated that it will be easier to persuade reluctant Tory MPs to support the referendum legislation if it is coupled to the other. I hope that, if Labour really wants the referendum as it says it does, it won’t oppose the legislation despite its views on boundary changes. Otherwise, many may think, rightly or wrongly, that it is being hypocritical and opposing the legislation for which it campaigned merely to try to split the coalition and defeat the Government.

Once the legislation is passed with or without Labour support, Labour will have to make the real decision – whether to campaign for a “Yes” vote. If its only objection to the legislation is its link to boundary changes, then it will be difficult to see how it could not support the “Yes” campaign for the system it uses itself.