Will Boris Johnson Be Your Next MP?

Radical changes proposed for Ealing constituency boundaries

The proposed Ealing and Acton constituency

The Boundary Commission have issued revised plans for new parliamentary constituencies which would mean major changes to the areas covered by local seats. These new proposed borders are based on responses to a consultation that the commission held last year.

A new Ealing and Acton constituency would replace the Ealing Central and Acton seat currently held by Rupa Huq for Labour. It is substantially the same as the existing seat other than Southfield ward, which comprises the parts of Chiswick in Ealing borough plus some parts of Acton W3 and Northfield ward, which is the area between Northfields tube station and Boston Manor Road, would be moved to a new Isleworth, Brentford and Chiswick seat. Elthorne ward which covers part of West Ealing would become part of the Ealing and Acton seat having previously been in Ealing Southall. The original proposal for this seat envisaged the Shepherd’s Bush area being incorporated to make up an Ealing Central and Shepherd’s Bush seat.

Steve Pound’s Ealing North seat would disappear with much of it being incorporated into a new Greenford and Sudbury constituency. This would include parts of the London Borough of Brent. The two Northolt wards would be moved to a new Hillingdon and Uxbridge raising the prospect of Boris Johnson becoming the MP for people in the area.

Mr Pound said, '' To create a long tall silliness of a constituency stretching from Northwick Park to the Wharncliffe Viaduct makes no sense at all and whilst I have absolutely nothing against the good people of Brent I think that it is in no-ones interests for any MP to have to work with two entirely different boroughs, as would be the case if this bonkers idea ever saw the light of day.

''Similarly poor Boris Johnson would – in the unlikely event of his re-election – have to speak up for Hillingdon and Ealing as Northolt would be shifted west.

''My opinion is that this scheme has no chance of coming to fruition as the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland now hold the reins on the nominally Conservative government and, believe you me, there is no way that they will vote to reduce the number of seats in Northern Ireland or risk a likely Sinn Fein gain.

''In years to come people will look at these long abandoned proposals and marvel at the sheer idiocy of it all.

''Mind you – we do still need to equalise out the constituencies to reflect rising and falling populations. This work would be a lot more useful that drawing silly squiggles on a map and creating constituencies with nothing that unites them.''

The proposed Greenford and Sudbury constituency

Virendra Sharma’s Ealing Southall seat would lose Elthorne ward to the east and become a new constituency of Southall and Heston taking in wards from the London Borough of Hounslow.

he said: '' "I'm pleased to see that the Boundary Commission have revised their proposals to keep the five Southall wards in one Southall constituency. I was however disappointed to learn that under the new proposals I would no longer represent the wards of Elthorne and Northfield that I have been proud to represent since I was first elected in 2007. I hope these reforms don't go forward, I am proud to be the MP for all of Ealing, Southall, and the reforms will just be a distraction from the import business of governing, and will only make representation weaker."

The proposed Southall and Heston constituency

An initial 12-week consultation was held in the autumn last year, giving the public the first chance to view and comment on the plans, followed by a second consultation in the Spring of this year. Over 25,000 public responses were received during these consultations.

Sam Hartley, Secretary to the Boundary Commission for England, said, “We’re delighted with the huge number of comments on our initial proposals that we’ve received from members of the public, many of which contain valuable evidence about people’s local communities. Based on what people have said to us, we have revised more than half of our initial proposals. The new map of the country we publish today is, we think, close to the best set of Parliamentary constituencies we can achieve, based on the rules to which we work and the evidence given to us by local citizens. But we still want people to tell us what they think of this latest map before we make our final recommendations to Parliament next year. It’s so important to have your say in this fundamental democratic exercise.”

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. The reduction was the idea of David Cameron's government and a cost-cutting measure in response to the expenses scandal.

Each constituency has to have an electorate that is no smaller than 71,031 and no larger than 78,507. There will be 32 fewer seats in England, six fewer in Scotland and eleven fewer in Wales with Northern Ireland losing one.

It widely expected that the proposals are unlikely to make immediate progress given the Government's thin majority and dependence on the Democratic Unionist Party who have opposed previous proposals to change boundaries. If parliament does approve the plan it will take effect at the time of the next election due to take place in 2022.

People have until 11 December to have their say. To view and comment on the consultation go to the commission's website, www.bce2018.org.uk  

October 18, 2017