The Fairer Votes referendum on May 5 is potentially the most important poll for a generation.

It’s a poll in which every single vote in Islington counts in a long-awaited chance to reform our voting system. A change would mean that for the first time everybody’s vote will count when electing local MPs.

The present unfair voting system for Westminster is broken. It leads to hundreds of “safe seats” with MPs who act as if they have jobs for life. MPs can get elected at present with the backing of just one in three voters – and ignore the rest.

Next time we elect our MPs it must be different. Everybody going to the ballot box in 2015 must feel their vote will count and not be wasted. That’s why voting yes to fairer votes is so important.

The no campaign, not surprisingly, has nothing positive to say about the current system. So it has resorted to false claims and tasteless adverts.

Voting yes will give voters a stronger voice. It will end safe seats and jobs for life, making sure that all MPs have to work hard for all their constituents to get and stay elected. So please join me in voting yes to fairer votes on May 5. – Baroness Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat MEP for London, Lib-Dem European justice and human rights spokeswoman, St Peter’s Street, N1.