This poll shows that Tony Blair would abandon electoral reform at his party's peril

Lord Lipsey

Lord Lipsey said any plans by Labour to drop a committment to electoral reform at the forthcoming election could lose the party votes.

His comments come on the same day as another group Charter 88 delivers a giant Valentines card to Downing Street calling for electoral reform.

Agony aunt Claire Rayner will deliver the card as part of a campaign that aims to convince Mr Blair to hold a referendum on electoral reform.

The move comes amid speculation Labour could leave the referendum pledge out of their next election manifesto. The pledge was included in the party's 1997 manifesto.

Some voting reform supporters have accused Labour of going off the idea as it has settled into government.

Ministers set up the Jenkins Commission to examine the issue and it suggested a new system known as AV plus.

Referendum support

The ICM survey, consisting of 1,000 telephone interviews, indicates 67% of voters want a referendum compared to 26% against the proposal.

A spokesman for Make Votes Count said that the figures also showed that nearly one quarter of Liberal Democrats, who might have voted for Labour on tactical grounds, would be less likely to do so if the pledge were dropped.

Ms Rayner will deliver a Valentines card to Downing Street

"This result suggests that dropping the pledge would seriously damage Labour's chances of picking up Liberal Democrat tactical votes," the spokesman said.

"The impact of dropping the pledge on voters generally will also worry Mr Blair's supporters.

"Voters are now evenly split between those who trust Mr Blair to keep his promises, those who don't and those who are in between, according to the poll."

Blair warned

Make Votes Count claims that abandoning the referendum pledge would make a fifth of voters less likely to trust Mr Blair on other promises in the future.

More than a third of voters who now trust him would be less likely to do so if he dropped the pledge, the group says.

Its chairman Lord Lipsey said: "This poll shows that Tony Blair would abandon electoral reform at his party's peril.

"Lib-Lab tactical voting depends on this pledge."

The poll also suggested that if a referendum were held only 35% would want to retain the existing first-past-the-post system, while 50% would vote for a change to a more proportional system.

The remainder were either "don't-knows" or wanted something different from either main choice.