IT was a resounding 'no' to changing the electoral system from voters in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

In a picture that reflected the rest of Britain’s categorical rejection of the Alternative Vote (AV) system, the North-East and North Yorkshire elected to keep firstpast- the-post by 71.7 per cent.

Every constituency and borough returned a majority no vote in the referendum, with a total of 593,118 votes rejecting AV to 233,362 voting for the system.

The vast majority of areas had more than 70 per cent of voters against AV. Even in the areas with the lowest no votes – Newcastle and York – the results were 64 per cent and 62 per cent against respectively.

At the Sunderland count, No campaigner Julie Elliottt, the Labour MP for and Sunderland, said: “I think it was an excellent result. There has not been any enthusiasm for either the referendum or a change in the voting system on the door. It has been a nonstarter.

“I do not think the Coalition will fail because people on both sides want to remain in power, which is how we ended up with this Coalition and this referendum. But I do think it will cause fractures around the edges.”

North organiser for the Yes to Fair Votes campaign, Jamie Matthews, said the Conservatives had spent £5m funding the No to AV campaign.

He said: “We are obviously disappointed. We feel we put the issue of political reform on the agenda and it was good to see the issue discussed at length.

“I think that the issue of political reform will remain on the agenda while we have got such an unfair system.

“It just happened to be this time we were out-spent by the Conservative vote no campaign.”