Election live: Clegg heads for AV humiliation

Although referendum votes are not being counted until Friday afternoon – and the official result is not expected until this evening – opinion polls have pointed to a comfortable victory for the No campaign as the public shows little appetite for electing MPs by the alternative vote (AV) system.

As the last poll of the bitter campaign projected a 28-point lead for the No campaign, the only threat to keeping the first past the post system appeared to be a low turnout, which many think would favour the Yes campaign.

Tonight former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown seemed to have accepted defeat as he launched a scathing attack on David Cameron.

Lord Ashdown - a close ally of Mr Clegg - accused the Prime Minister of a “breach of faith” in permitting a largely Conservative-funded No campaign to target his deputy personally.

“You cannot fund a deeply vicious campaign to destroy the personality of your partner, who has been unmoved in his brave support of the coalition, without there being consequences,” he said.

Lord Ashdown said any other prime minister would have dissociated himself from what he called “a regiment of lies” produced by the No campaign, which accused Mr Clegg of broken promises on tuition fees and spending cuts and argued that the Alternative Vote was a “Lib Dem fix”.

The Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East, David Ward, admitted “something has gone wrong”, and said voters had been left confused over the issue.

“People have been told, this is complicated, there will be difficult unclear outcomes and so on and that argument seems to have prevailed,” he said.

Defeat would be a big blow for Mr Clegg, who had demanded the referendum as a condition for joining the coalition Government and argued that AV was a fairer system. But it would be a huge relief for David Cameron, who would have faced fury from his party in the event of a Yes vote, with some Tory MPs still angry the referendum was offered to the Liberal Democrats in the first place.

The row threatens a crisis for the coalition Government, as trust between the Liberal Democrats and Tories has been shattered by clashes.

These led to Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary Chris Huhne confronting the Prime Minister in this week’s Cabinet meeting and challenging him to disown material from the No camp.

Tory Minister Sir George Young, leader of the Commons, admitted that the campaign had caused “understandable tensions” between the two parties, but insisted the “divisions will heal” and the coalition will be “back in business” next week.

Today’s was the first nationwide referendum since 1975, when voters were asked whether they wanted to stay in the European Common Market. On that occasion there was a comfortable Yes vote.

Mr Clegg, the Sheffield Hallam MP, sought to play down the tensions but admitted “the temperature is rising”.

He said: “Feelings are rising high as you would expect at this stage of a referendum campaign.

“But at the end of the day it isn’t about what politicians think or feel or even say to each other, it’s about what people want.”

An ICM survey for the Guardian gave the No camp a 36-point lead, YouGov for the Sun put the advantage at 20 points and Opinium Research for the Evening Standard found a 28-point lead for the No campaign,