Any change in constituency boundaries must be based on the most recent voter data
![The more than two million voters have joined the rolls across the UK since the electoral registration snapshot was taken in December 2015 [Image: Dinendra Haria/Rex/Shutterstock].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/160911-polling-station.png)
The more than two million voters have joined the rolls across the UK since the electoral registration snapshot was taken in December 2015 [Image: Dinendra Haria/Rex/Shutterstock].
It is heartening to see that supporters of the current process, which seems set to cause turmoil to Labour-held constituencies, say the addition of the new electors will not necessitate any changes.
It means they should offer no objections to the addition of those voters to the boundary calculations.
Labour has called for the government to halt its shakeup of parliamentary constituencies, arguing that the rush of new voters before the EU referendum means the proposed changes will be out of date and “an affront to democracy”.
The plan to trim the UK’s 650 Commons seats to 600 and balance the number of registered voters in each has been in train since 2011. The boundary commissions for England and Wales will publish their initial recommendations on Tuesday.
Together these will form the bulk of what is being billed as the most extensive shakeup of Commons boundaries in the postwar era, with 50 seats to be abolished and hundreds more seeing major changes.
Labour, which is forecast to see the greatest turbulence in its seats, has called for the process to be delayed to allow the constituency changes to be based on more up-to-date data.
The 2011 Act which began the process decreed that the independent electoral commissioners for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland should base their calculations on electoral registration snapshots from December 2015.
But since then more than 2 million voters have joined the rolls across the UK, a rush of new voters inspired in part by June’s Brexit referendum.
Supporters of the process dismiss charges of unfairness, saying that the new electors are mainly distributed across the country, with three-quarters of seats seeing voter numbers change within two percentage points on the national average.
Source: Labour wants Commons constituency shakeup to be based on new data | Politics | The Guardian
ADVERT
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Well the system has always been abused by whichever party was in power, altering boundaries to improve the chances of getting more seats. maybe having the same amount of voters will on paper be more equal but then you have to take in the the area that the constituency will cover as well as rural areas have less constituents than city zones.
There are additional complications to this in the South-West, where it seems they are fixated on having a cross-Tamar constituency despite the illegalities. I found this a good read on it:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/craig-weatherhill/the-case-against-devonwall-the-proposed-cross-border-constituency-and-why-it-can/10154527212041967
Liers can figure and figures lie I have no trust in the system any more
Unfortunately the TORIES are fast becoming dictators and something should be done to stop them, they break laws very often and there’s no come back for them, what the hell do people do or what can we do. Look what happened with the poll tax,
Had a issue posting this to facebook, facebook blocked it, I cut and pasted the address and that worked OK.