Nick Clegg’s nightmare at the polls was completed last night as British voters decisively rejected the Liberal Democrats’ cherished project of electoral reform.

The party’s resounding defeat in the referendum on the Alternative Vote came after Lib Dems took a pounding in councils across England, as well as elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.

Senior Lib Dems insisted that the Deputy Prime Minister’s position was safe and ministers from both sides of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition said the partnership would continue.

But Mr Clegg faces dismay in the Lib Dem ranks at the prospect that electoral reform has been knocked off the agenda for a generation.

In the Bradford district the AV referendum result reflected the national trend with 87,838 (67.21 per cent) voting No to the proposed change and 42,858 (32.79 per cent) backing AV.

Across Yorkshire and Humber region, 474,532 (31.29 per cent) supported AV with 1,042,178 (68.71 per cent) voting No.

Nationally last night, only ten out of 439 districts had voted in favour of AV with 31.69 per cent voting Yes and 68.31 saying No.

And there were calls from the Conservative backbenches for the coalition to be brought to an end before the five-year term agreed by Mr Clegg and Prime Minister David Cameron.

Mr Cameron was hailed by Tories for his performance in delivering an increase in the party’s total of councils and councillors after a year in which his administration has imposed significant public spending cuts, as well as protecting the traditional first-past-the-post system.

Jubilant Tories said they had won more than half the seats in English councils.

Labour celebrated gaining 786 council seats, but was licking its wounds in Scotland, where a remarkable performance by the Scottish National Party sent Alex Salmond back to Holyrood with an overall majority for another term.

In Wales, Ed Miliband’s party missed an overall majority in the Assembly by a single seat.