Oxford was one of only ten places in the UK to vote in favour of electoral reform in Thursday’s referendum, it emerged this morning.

The city bucked a national trend which saw voters across the country vote overwhelmingly against the alternative vote system for electing MPs to Westminster.

In Oxford, 21,693 voted ‘yes’ to the AV system, while 18,395 were not in favour. Elsewhere around the county polls showed opposition to the idea of dumping first-past-the-post.

The others areas to back AV were Cambridge, Hackney, Lambeth, Southwark, Camden, Islington, Haringey, Glasgow Kelvin and Edinburgh Central.

This morning Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said he accepted the public did not share his desire to reform the voting system.

Mr Clegg - whose party passionately supports voting reform and who secured the national vote as the main prize in negotiations to form a coalition government with the Tories last year - said it came "a bitter blow".

Defeat for his cherished policy came on top of a hammering for the Lib Dems in councils across England, as well as elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly in a bruising day at the polls.

However, the Deputy Prime Minister insisted though that the result would not prevent the power-sharing administration continuing.