News / Politics
Bristol’s winners and losers of boundary changes
The Green Party could be the biggest losers if Easton ward shifts to a new constituency under changes proposed by the Boundary Commission.
The ward, which is roughly split between Labour and Green voters, will move from Bristol West to Bristol East under plans published on Tuesday.
Neither of the sitting Labour MPs are likely to be troubled by the changes. Bristol East is held by Kerry McCarthy with a majority of 3,980, while Bristol West is held by Thangam Debbonaire by 5,673.
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But the move could come as a slight blow to the Greens, who came an impressive second to Labour in Bristol West in the General Election of 2015, with 26.8 per cent of the vote.
Under the new plans, the Green voters in Easton would be lost to Bristol East where the party polled just 8.3 per cent in 2015.
The changes in Bristol come alongside tweaks across the country which will see the number of MPs drop from 650 to 600 and constituencies represent within five per cent of 74,769 people each.
Bristol East is currently under the five per cent quota, while Bristol West is over the quota. Bristol North West (Conservative) and Bristol South (Labour) will remain unchanged. Changes will come into effect in time for the 2020 General Election.
Chris Skidmore, minister for the constitution and MP for Kingswood, said: “Equalising the size of constituencies in the Boundary Review will mean everyone’s vote will carry equal weight.
“Without such boundary reforms, MPs could end up representing constituencies based on data that is over 20 years old, disregarding significant changes in demographics, house building and migration. As it stands, some constituencies have twice as many electors than other constituencies and this cannot be right.”
A public conslutation over the proposals will include drop-in events at City Hall from Thursday, November 17 to Friday November 18, 2016.
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