Yesterday during Business Questions shadow Commons leader Sir George Young once again raised the issue of councils delaying their election night counts until the day after the polls close with his government counterpart Harriet Harman.

“Finally, may we have a statement on the election night count? A number of senior figures, including yourself, Mr. Speaker, have said that it would be, in your words, “a travesty” for the count to be delayed by local authorities until the next day. Yesterday, no less a figure than the Government Chief Whip told his local paper that delaying the count would increase the risk of electoral fraud. Is there any doubt that having a Thursday night count is the right thing to do?”

Responding to the question Ms Marman dismissively said: “I have two concerns about election night. The first is that the count should be announced as soon as the people have voted, and the second is that it should be the right result.”

The latest survey of Returning Officers, conducted by the Electoral Commission in December, showed that 273 counts are confirmed to take place on Election Night with 53 constituencies currently planning on counting on the Friday. Crucially, 154 Returning Officers are saying they are undecided, which means they are hopefully still open to persuasion.

The government may not want to intervene to preserve the drama of election night, but many MPs do. On December 10th Labour MP Tom Harris re-tabled the Early Day Motion which he first introduced in October backing the campaign to Save General Election Night. As of today this EDM had attracted cross=party support and has been signed by 103 members of the Commons.