New Boundary Constituency Proposal For Northfield Ward

Walpole ward to be moved to new Southall and Heston constituency

Current boundaries in blue. Proposed boundaries in red

Initial proposals released by the Boundary Commission would see Northfield ward no longer part of the Ealing Southall constituency but included in a newly formed one called Brentford and Chiswick. Walpole ward in Ealing would also be moved from Ealing Central and Acton to a new Southall and Heston constituency.

The new constituency would include the seven Hounslow wards that make up the Brentford and Isleworth constituency currently represented by Ruth Cadbury plus Southfield ward and the Ealing borough ward of Northfield currently represented by Virendra Sharma.

Commenting today Ruth Cadbury said, "These proposals are undemocratic boundary-fixing by a Tory government determined to secure a permanent majority in the House of Commons. They want to cut the number of MPs but are happy to stuff the House of Lords with their unelected friends. What's more, Hounslow will no longer have two MPs whose seats fit neatly with the borough boundaries.

"When these proposals return to Parliament, we will oppose this gerrymandering - cutting the number of elected MPs whilst increasing the number of unelected peers."

The Southall and Heston constituency would contain four wards from Hounslow Borough and four from Ealing including Walpole.

Ealing North, currently represented by Steve Pound, would gain Lady Margaret and Dormers Wells wards but lose two wards from Northolt to a new Uxbridge and Hillingdon seat which broadly covers the area currently represented by Boris Johnson.

Representation at borough Council level would continue as it currently is.

Other changes include Ealing Central and Acton being replaced with a constituency called Ealing Central and Shepherd’s Bush constituency.

This would include three Hammersmith constituency wards – Askew, Wormholt and White City, and Shepherd’s Bush Green along with six wards from Ealing borough.

Rupa Huq commented, "It does seem that the proposed seat most closely aligned to my current one resembles the old Ealing Acton and Shepherd's Bush constituency from the 90s but this is only an initial version of the proposals. Last time there were quite significant changes between the first and final ones.

"We in the Labour party are opposing these changes as unnecessary and unfair. The Tories claimed they wanted to cut the cost of politics but they have flooded Parliament with peers – 16 in the resignation honours of Cameron alone (a PM who seems to have left the crime scene completely) all with a daily allowance of £300 as well as gongs for Samantha Cameron’s stylist and prizes for Remain campaigners thereby rewarding failure. It doesn’t add up, has been done as a gerrymander to damage Labour and we will fight this all the way.

The rules set out in the legislation on boundary changes state that there will be 600 Parliamentary constituencies covering the UK – a reduction of 50 from the current number. This means that the number of constituencies in England must be reduced from 533 to 501.

Each constituency has to have an electorate that is no smaller than 71,031 and no larger than 78,507

The Boundary Commission are consulting on their initial proposals for a 12-week period, from 13 September 2016 to 5 December 2016.

The BCE must report to Parliament in 2018 and, if agreed by Parliament, the new constituencies will be in use at the next scheduled General Election in 2020.

Sam Hartley, Secretary to the Commission, said, ''Today’s proposals mark the first time people get to see what the new map of Parliamentary constituencies might look like. But they are just the Commission’s initial thoughts – during the next 12 weeks we want people to take a look and tell us what they like and don’t like about our proposals. Parliament has set us tight rules about reducing the number of constituencies, and making them of more equal size, and we now need the views of people around the country to help us shape constituencies that best reflect local areas. Use our website to tell us what you think, or come along to one of our public events to give us your views in person.''

Their website has more information about how to respond as well as details of where and when they will be holding public hearings.

13 September 2016