Tony Bennett

FROM THE 'I WANT A REFERENDUM' WEBSITE

Press releases
02/03/08

I Want a Referendum announces results of constituency referendum campaign

See pictures from the announcement [here]:

- 150,000 people turn out to vote across just ten constituencies
- Turnout higher than in local elections
- Higher proportion voted for a referendum than voted for the sitting MPs
- 88% voted for a referendum

I Want a Referendum today announced the results of ten referendums which have been running in ten marginal constituencies. The referendums have been carried out for IWR by Electoral Reform Services - a leading firm of independent election scrutineers recognised by the United Nations, the British Government, and used by all the three main parties for their internal elections.

Despite several of the sitting MPs leafleting constituents telling them not to vote, the referendums have led to an unprecedented response from voters.

Key results:

* Stunningly, 152,520 people voted across just ten parliamentary constituencies. Of these 133,251 voted for a referendum.

* Even though the poll was unofficial, the 36.2% turnout means that a higher proportion of people voted in these unofficial referendums than in real elections in their local area. The average turnout for local elections (when not held with general elections) since 1996 is 35.4%. The average turnout in referendums on directly elected mayors - including in

* This is the highest ever turnout in such an unofficial ballot.

* Voters were asked two questions:

Should the hold a national referendum on the EU's Treaty?
88% voted yes and 12% voted no. Less than 1% did not answer.

Should the approve the EU's Treaty?
89% voted against the Treaty and 8% voted in favour. 3% did not answer.

* In eight of the ten seats a greater proportion of people voted for a referendum than voted for the sitting MP. On average the sitting MPs won 27.5% of the available vote. But of those balloted in this campaign, 31.2% voted for a national referendum.

A full table of the results in detail is available at:

http://www.iwantareferendum.com/finalresults.pdf

Reactions:

Polling expert Anthony Wells from UK Polling Report said: "A turnout in the mid thirties is stunning for a private referendum, higher than you'd expect to find in some actual local elections. Private referendums run the risk of only those sympathetic to the cause taking part in the vote, but with independent opinion polls consistently showing around four-fifths of those who express an opinion support a referendum, these don't seem too out of line."

Mike Hancock MP said: "I'm absolutely delighted that so many people have taken part. I knew that people were interested because so many of my constituents have got in touch with me about it."

Kate Hoey MP said: "This is a fantastic response. All MPs should now take note, listen to their constituents and vote for a referendum on Wednesday."

Derek Scott said: "This is a great result. These MPs must now make it clear whether they are prepared to listen to the wishes of their constituents or just ignore them."

Simon Hearn from Electoral Reform Services said: "Electoral Reform Services can confirm that the administration of the ballot went very smoothly. We are satisfied that any individual who received a ballot paper was able to vote in secret and have their vote accurately counted."

Official announcement:

The results will be officially unveiled, in giant form, at

Derek Scott, Chairman of the cross-party I Want a Referendum campaign and former Economics Advisor to Tony Blair, will unveil the results and will be on location for interviews.

The Campaign:

Ballot papers were distributed in different constituencies on different days, starting with on 4 February, and ending with Conwy on 12 February. The last day for the postal ballots to be returned to Electoral Reform Services was 27 February for all constituencies.

During the course of the campaign two MPs in the seats concerned came out in favour of a referendum on the revived Constitutional Treaty.

David Heath, Liberal Democrat MP for Somerton and Frome, announced during the campaign that he would defy the party whip and vote for a referendum on the Treaty. He announced that he was prepared to be sacked from his front bench role in order to vote for the referendum.

Paul Truswell, Labour MP for Pudsey, also announced that he will vote for a referendum.

However, in several other constituencies MPs resorted to dirty tricks to try and stop people from voting.

Europe Minister Jim Murphy sent a leaflet to all constituents telling them not to vote. It falsely claimed that the Conservatives had organised it, that if people voted the Conservative Party would know how they individually voted, and implied that a referendum would cost his constituents £110 million. Bizarrely, when challenged about the misleading leaflet on BBC Scotland he pleaded ignorance about the activity of his own constituency party. He said: "You'd have to ask the Labour party about that." (20 Feb)

The leaflet is available at:

http://www.iwantareferendum.com/east_ren_letter.pdf

Former Lib Dem leadership challenger Chris Huhne also put round a leaflet to all his constituents telling them not to vote. The leaflet told voters: "Local MP Chris Huhne is boycotting this ballot". He also falsely claims to have requested a second question before the ballots went out.

Huhne's leaflet is available at:

http://www.iwantareferendum.com/huhneleaflet.pdf

At the start of the referendum in the seat of Conwy there were extraordinary antics by chief whip Geoff Hoon, who falsely claimed that sitting MP Betty Williams was seriously ill. After IWR offered to cancel the referendum it emerged that Williams was not ill at all and so the referendum went ahead.

Background information:

The Labour Party's 2005 general election manifesto stated: "The new Constitutional Treaty ensures the new can work effectively... We will put it to the British people in a referendum."

During his campaign to become Prime Minister, Gordon Brown stressed the importance of the manifesto. He said, "The manifesto is what we put to the public. We've got to honour that manifesto. That is an issue of trust for me with the electorate."

Leaders across have admitted that the Lisbon Treaty is the same as the rejected EU Constitution. The Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero has said: "We have not let a single substantial point of the Constitutional Treaty go." Angela Merkel has said: "The substance of the Constitution is maintained. That is a fact." European Commissioner Margot Wallstrom has said: "It's essentially the same proposal as the old Constitution." Michael Connarty, the Chairman of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee has said that: "Every provision of the Constitutional Treaty, apart from the flags, mottos and anthems, is to be found in the Reform Treaty. We think that they are fundamentally the same."

The revised EU Constitution would allow for many more decisions to be taken by the EU, rather than by our own elected politicians. Decisions on issues as fundamental as crime, immigration, and public services like schools and hospitals, would increasingly be taken by officials in . The Constitution would also introduce an EU President and would extend the powers of EU judges. The European Court of Justice would become the 's highest criminal court and would have powers to decide on important issues such as how long our most dangerous criminals should be kept in prison.

Notes for editors:

1) For more details please call on 0207 197 2333 or 07973 142775.

2) IWR is a cross-party campaign calling for a referendum on the revived Constitutional Treaty. The IWR advisory group includes: Derek Scott (chair); Mike Hancock MP; Frank Field MP; Kate Hoey MP; Michael Gove MP; David Heathcoat-Amory MP; Greg Hands MP; and Nick Herbert MP.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony Bennett

NUMBERS VOTING FOR A REFERENDUM IN EACH CONSTITUENCY (and 2005 General Election majority in brackets):

Aberconwy 9,219 (2005 majority 3,081)

Bolton West 15,801 (2005 majority 2,064)

East Renfrewshire 10,889 (2005 majority 6,657)

Eastleigh (Hampshire) 18,370 (2005 majority 568)

Gedling (Nottinghamshire) 21,805 (2005 majoroity 3,811)

Hammersmith 4,358 (New boundaries estimated 2005 majority 5,500)

Harlow (Essex) 12,088 (2005 majority 97)

Pudsey 11,495 (2005 majority 5,870)

Redditch 14,104 (2005 majority 2,716)

Somerton & Frome (Somerset) 15,323 (2005 majority 812)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tony Bennett

For the record, here is the BBC's 'take' on this issue. To be fair, I have checked throughout the day, and this story has been given reasonable prominence on BBC TV, BBC Radio, Ceefax and the BBC website. I saw nothing about it at all on SKY and I don't know about ITV, C4 and Teletext:

====================================

Polls say 88% want EU referendum

[Campaigners lobbied MPs ahead of the Commons vote]

Some 88% of the British public want a referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty, according to private polls for the I Want a Referendum (IWAR) campaign.
The unofficial ballot was conducted by postal vote last month in 10 Labour and Liberal Democrat marginal seats.

A total of 152,520 people voted, with 133,251 backing a referendum. IWAR claims the turnout is higher than that in local council elections.

Higher education minister Bill Rammell dismissed the poll as "flawed".

IWAR sent 420,000 ballot papers to voters on the publicly-available part of the electoral roll, and says turnout was 36.2% of those on the register.

Constituencies where the mini-referendums were held included those of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly, Europe Minister Jim Murphy and Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne.

'Real questions'

Mr Rammell said the turnout figure in his Harlow constituency where a vote was held was "lower than any local government election that I have ever participated in."

"There are some real questions to be answered by the organisers," he told BBC1's Politics Show.

["All MPs should now take note, listen to their constituents and vote for a referendum" - Labour MP Kate Hoey]

["Why 10 Labour and Liberal Democrat marginal constituencies? Why not one referendum in (Tory former chancellor) Ken Clarke's constituency, who is arguing against a referendum?"]

Derek Scott, former Downing Street aide and chairman of IWAR, said: "We have taken the most up-to-date and the only publicly-available register there is and on that basis it is a very substantial turnout.

"There is no reason to suppose that people who have not been sent ballot papers...would be any different.

"There is a very significant number of people across the country who want a referendum."

'Broken' pledge

IWAR is backed by Labour former ministers Kate Hoey and Frank Field and Lib Dem Mike Hancock, but has faced Labour accusations it is a Tory front rather than a genuinely cross-party organisation.

It says it only campaigned against Labour and Lib Dem MPs in marginal seats because both parties broke their pledge to hold a referendum.

The poll was carried out by Electoral Reform Services, a firm of independent election scrutineers recognised by the government and the UN.

Respondents were asked whether the UK should hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, with 88% voting 'yes'. They were also asked if the UK should approve the treaty and 89% voted against.

The result comes ahead of a Commons vote on Wednesday on a Conservative amendment to the EU Treaty Bill, calling for a referendum.

The Lisbon Treaty, also known as the EU Reform Treaty, was drawn up to replace the EU Constitution, which was abandoned in 2005 after being rejected by Dutch and French voters.

Commons vote

Ministers say it only amends the EU's existing constitution and a referendum is therefore no longer needed.

But the Tories, UKIP, SNP, Plaid Cymru, DUP and various groups, including IWAR, say the two documents are substantially the same and that the public must have a say.

Some Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs also back a public vote. The Lib Dem leadership wants a referendum on the wider question of Britain's membership of the EU.

Welcoming the result, Ms Hoey said: "All MPs should now take note, listen to their constituents and vote for a referendum on Wednesday."

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party said: "If Parliament continues to ignore the wishes of the people, as shown by these votes in just 10 constituencies, it becomes clear that to remain legitimate the Government must grant us a poll in all 646 constituencies."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a swansong 4 europe

Was it not Bolton West that for many years always indicated the future government in its election habits, or was that another seat?