On 12 September, the Boundary Commission presented its plans for new Parliamentary constituencies in England.
A process of consultation now starts, to be completed in September 2018 so the new boundaries can be used for the 2020 general election.This redrawing of boundaries is more drastic than previous ones.
There has been a long time since the last review (completed in 2007: another review in 2011 was aborted by conflicts within the Tory/ Lib-Dem coalition government). Tory legislation now requires the total number of seats to be reduced and boundaries to be drawn in to make constituency electorates as equal as possible.Lots of people dropped off the electoral registers at the time of the poll tax, and the recent switch to individual rather than household registration has lost more.
The official Electoral Commission estimates that eight million people entitled to vote were missing from the December 2015 registers, i.e. from the figures the Boundary Commission uses in drawing boundaries to make electorates as equal as possible.Areas with large numbers of poorer, younger, and more transient people thus lose out especially.
The redrawing will boost the Tories at Labour’s expense. The Electoral Reform Society has called for boundaries to be drawn to give roughly populations, rather than electorates.The redrawing also means that around 200 Labour-held constituencies will altered or will vanish, thus compelling contests for parliamentary candidates despite the Labour right’s protests.
