VILLAGES including Long Lawford will leave Rugby’s parliamentary constituency if proposed boundary changes are approved.
The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) has published its final recommendations to reduce the number of MPs by 50 to 600.
BCE proposes to create a new Rugby and Southam seat which would include Southam, Dunchurch and Radford Semele – all currently part of the Kenilworth and Southam seat held by Jeremy Wright.
But villages to the north of Rugby, including Brinklow, Wolston, Brandon, Monks Kirby, Pailton and Long Lawford, would become part of a new Nuneaton constituency – as would Bulkington, which joined Rugby when the Rugby and Bulkington seat was created in 2010.
The changes will bring each constituency’s electorate to between 71,030 and 78,500 people.
The BCE report said respondents to their consultation wanted Rugby to retain the council wards of Revel and Binley Woods, and Wolston and the Lawfords, as both are closer to Rugby than Nuneaton.
But the report stated: “To remove the wards from the Nuneaton constituency and include them in the Rugby and Southam constituency would not be possible as the electorate of both constituencies would fall outside of the permitted electorate range.
“We do not consider that any additional compelling or new evidence has been provided that might justify further amending the boundaries.”
Rugby and Bulkington’s Conservative MP Mark Pawsey said: “I am pleased the proposed boundary changes will see the return to Rugby constituency villages that are very much part of the town, such as Dunchurch.
“I am disappointed however that the constituency will lose Long Lawford, which has a very strong connection to both Rugby and the constituency.
“Without these 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.
“These proposals will help to equalise the size of constituencies, ensuring that everyone’s vote will be of equal value.”
Labour’s local parliamentary candidate Debbie Bannigan described the recommendations as “fitting a quart into a pint pot to achieve a Tory power-grab”.
She said: “They are driven by out-of-date numbers first agreed under David Cameron. They take no account of population growth which should rightly result in an increase in parliamentary representation for local people.
“The proposed constituency ignores longstanding links between Rugby and the villages on the North side of town. They are squeezing more of us into fewer constituencies, cutting across local connections and effectively disenfranchising Rugby people.
“Mark Pawsey should be as outraged by these undemocratic proposals as I am, but – if it ever comes to a vote – I expect he’ll do whatever the Tory Party tells him to, rather than what’s in the best interests of his constituents.”
The original timetable for Parliament to vote on the proposals this autumn has been abandoned amid rumours of a Conservative backbench revolt.
Chloe Smith, the minister for the constitution, would not commit to a vote before Christmas, saying it would take place “in due course”.
Visit www.bce2018.org.uk for more information.
