Tory backbenchers launch backlash against constituency boundary review

Last Updated: September 9, 2016By
Between a rock and a hard place: Theresa May wants to cut MP numbers in order to make it easier to win elections - but her own MPs are rejecting her plan to hand some of them their marching orders. Will she buckle, as she has over everything else of any importance?

Between a rock and a hard place: Theresa May wants to cut MP numbers in order to make it easier to win elections – but her own MPs are rejecting her plan to hand some of them their marching orders. Will she buckle, as she has over everything else of any importance?

Of course the Conservative Party’s backbenchers were going to rebel against the plan to gerrymander boundaries.

If the number of constituencies is reduced by 50 – whether that makes it easier to secure a Conservative government or not – it means some of them will lose their seats.

The Nasty Party – the party that is built on selfishness and backstabbing – won’t want any of that!

Why should they be forced off the gravy train, they’ll be asking. They know perfectly well that Theresa May won’t be in danger of losing her chance to be re-elected in 2020!

Any justification they mount to oppose the proposal is just a smokescreen.

Reforming the House of Lords? Hardly a priority for the Tories before now.

Reducing the number of ministers? Again, not a priority when it seemed possible they could get a larger paycheque out of it.

Of course, one way Mrs May could squeeze out from between this rock and that hard place is by offering peerages to anybody who loses their seat due to the dissolution of their constituency.

I mention it merely because the acceptance of such an honour would demonstrate flagrantly the lack of any moral fibre in the modern Conservative Party.

They would be contradicting their own reasons for opposing the change, you see.

Theresa May is on a collision course with Parliament over controversial plans to redraw the election map of the UK after Conservative MPs attacked them, with one branding them “perverse”.

The review of constituencies due to be published next week will see the number of MPs in the Commons slashed from 650 to 600.

But senior Tory backbencher Charles Walker said the move could not be justified without also reforming the unelected House of Lords.

Fellow Tory Philip Davies also said it would be an “outrage” if the number of MPs serving as paid-up ministers did not fall at the same time.

Mr Davies said if the overall number of MPs fell while the number of ministers remained static it would dilute the power of backbenchers.

Source: Theresa May heading for fight over ‘perverse’ election boundaries review that will slash MP numbers | The Independent

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One Comment

  1. mohandeer September 9, 2016 at 2:19 am - Reply

    With regard to peerages – don’t put ideas into her head!

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