The Scoop

Hackney voters were AV's biggest fans

Darryl Chamberlain | Saturday 7 May, 2011 13:54

The UK might have rejected the Alternative Vote in Thursday’s referendum – but the people of Hackney were its biggest fans, according to a borough-by-borough breakdown of the vote.

A total of 61% of voters in the borough backed changing the voting system, the “yes” campaign’s highest vote in the country.

Six out of London’s 33 boroughs voted “yes” – Camden, Islington, Haringey, Lambeth, Hackney and Southwark.

Unusually, Hackney’s “yes” campaigners were bolstered by help from local Conservatives such as London Assembly member Andrew Boff.

What made these areas stand apart from the rest of the nation? Channel 4 News political editor Gary Gibbon reckoned he knew: “I don’t mean to be flippant – these are the sort of places that would probably vote for the legalisation of cannabis.”

In Lewisham, voters only rejected change by just a few hundred votes. But across London, the “no” vote dominated, with 60.47% opting to stick with first past the post.

Unfortunately for fans of statistics and electoral trends, the voting figures only go down as far as borough level. But the AV vote does give us a crude idea of the parts of London which are unafraid of being out of step with the rest of country.

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