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Today marks an important step in a process that may (or may not) radically reshape the House of Commons, and significantly diminish Labour’s chances of winning the next election. The government wants to cut the size of the House of Commons from 650 MPs to 600 MPs and today we are getting draft plans for new boundaries for England and Wales. Labour is said to be overrepresented in the current House of Commons, on the basis of the number of voters per Labour constituency compared to number of voters per Conservative constituency, and if the changes are actually implemented, the Conservatives will almost certainly benefit. But the “if” is important. The Tories tried, and failed, to implement boundary changes in the last parliament and it is quite possible that rebel Tory MPs, unhappy about the prospect of losing their seats, could block the process again.
Partly this is a story about electoral politics, and the way the voting system impacts on the Conservative/Labour battle. But redrawing boundaries means MPs end up fighting colleagues from the same party for the right to represent the new and most winnable constituencies. This is never an easy process at the best of times, but it poses a particular challenge for Labour, where some grassroots activists are looking for an opportunity to purge MPs disloyal to Jeremy Corbyn.
Related: Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson and George Osborne among MPs hit by boundary shakeup
I’m very unhappy about the size of the new constituency that has been put forward. Multiple-needs areas, such as I represent, don’t need to be too big. They need to be places where MPs can represent them properly, just like anywhere else in the country.
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Sig Nordal 