Updated: YORK voted overwhelmingly against the alternative vote in the national referendum on electoral reform.

The no campaign won 41,137 votes, against 24,980 for yes.

Turnout in York was confirmed as 45.5 per cent.

UK voters overwhelmingly rejected a change to the voting system – a major blow to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg after heavy election losses.

More than 9.8 million people voted to keep first-past-the-post, more than 50 per cent of votes cast.

The no campaign was on course get a decisive 69 per cent of the vote – leading AV campaigner Chris Huhne conceded the rejection had been “overwhelming”.

The SNP won a majority in the Scottish Parliament, the first party to do so.

And Labour failed by one seat to take a majority in the Welsh Assembly.

Labour supporters of electoral reform blamed the defeat on Mr Clegg’s decision to stage the AV vote on the same day as other polls, limiting the scope for cross-party campaigning at a time when they were pitted against one another for council and assembly seats. Labour grandee Lord Mandelson said: “Nobody could have foreseen the extent to which the whole vote over the last 24 hours has become a referendum on the Liberal Democrats in general and Nick Clegg in particular.”

The Electoral Commission said a total of 18.6 million votes were cast in the AV referendum across Great Britain, giving a provisional turnout of 41.8 per cent. But this figure does not include Northern Ireland.