After the decision was taken by Parliament to reduce the number of constituencies, the Boundary Commission was tasked with evening out the number of electors in each by making independent recommendations about where the boundaries of English constituencies should be. Some areas have grown nearly 20%, with five of the top ten increases (and four of the top five) being in London – Lewisham seeing the biggest growth at 18%.
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A new parliamentary map published by the Boundary Commission for England (BCE) yesterday reveals a big shake up of seats in Devon and Cornwall.
So reducing the number of MPs in parliament without reducing the number of ministers means an increase in the power of the executive – and correspondingly makes it more hard to hold the government to account.
The Commission said: “Although we have treated Lancashire and Merseyside as separate sub-regions, we have proposed one constituency that crosses the county boundary, which combines three wards of the Borough of Ribble Valley with the town of Southport”. We are considering the current criteria for Loss of Office Payments to ensure the provision is fair and consistent in light of the upcoming reduction in the total number of constituencies’.
“So I give the changes a cautious welcome while we wait to hear what the community says about the proposals”.
A new Rayleigh and Woodham Ferrers seat would replace the existing Rayleigh and Wickford constituency, with Wickford wards transferring to Basildon and Billericay.
She added: “The government are not doing it by population”.
Young people, some ethnic minority groups and those in the private rented sector are all less likely to register to vote than others. This is wrong. Because of the European Union vote, and how they extended the deadline, two million more people registered to vote and they are just ignoring them.
These changes would mean that Fulham would no longer be represented by Greg Hands, who has been the local MP since the creation of the constituency six years ago.
Anna Turley, Labour MP for Redcar, said the proposals were “unnecessary gerrymandering by the Tories”.
For more information, see the Boundary Commission website.
He said: “It is right that we highlight the hypocrisy of the Government who are forcing this through while at the same time cramming the unelected House of Lords with their cronies at a cost of £34 million, compared with the suggested £12 million saving resulting from fewer MPs”.
The current split between the parts of Chiswick in Ealing and Hounslow Borough would disappear with Ealing’s Southfield ward moved out of the Ealing Central and Acton constituency to the current Brentford and Isleworth constituency which would be renamed Brentford and Chiswick.
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“The Government’s recognition of the Cornish as a national minority under the Framework Convention in 2014 came after the Act came into force and we are arguing that the Act needs amending to address this conflict”. Numerous adjustments are to ensure that constituences have an electorate that is no smaller than 71,031 and no larger than 78,507.
