New Ealing and Acton Constituency Proposed

Revised Boundary Commission plan ditches inclusion of Shepherd’s Bush

Proposed new boundary in blue

The name of Acton will continue to have a place in Parliament if new proposals by the Boundary Commission are accepted.

The commission consulted last year on an initial plan that would have seen the Ealing Central and Acton constituency disappear to be replaced with a new Ealing and Shepherd’s Bush seat in Westminster. However, in the new plans published this week this proposal has been scrapped in favour of an Ealing and Acton constituency.

Rather than incorporating the Hammersmith & Fulham borough wards in the Shepherd’s Bush area previously in the Hammersmith constituency, the new proposal adds in the area of West Ealing between the Uxbridge Road and Northfields tube station. The part of Chiswick which is in Ealing borough and some parts of Acton which are in Southfield ward are transferred to a new Isleworth Brentford and Chiswick constituency.

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.

The Labour party opposed the original planned changes as 'unnecessary and unfair'.

Rupa Huq MP said: '' I would be happy to fight a seat based on the new new boundary and am confident I would have won that for Labour in June had these proposals been in place. 
I would critique the exercise as a whole however.

''The entire imperative behind this was designed to abolish Labour MPs and entrench Tories forever. Alas with their lost majority (although tellingly with these proposals that would not have been so) many are sceptical that this has cost millions and will never happen as they wont be able to get it voted through.

'' The registers that this redrawing is based on are also 2015 population figures when the next election is projected to be in 2022. We know some 2million registered to vote in the EU referendum and swathes of young people for the General Election driven by Corbyn mania. Given these increases and the additional scrutiny needed by MPs on the executive now that we are undertaking the massive constitutional shake-up of Brexit surely we need more MPs not less. for a comment on the new plan and await a reply.

October 17, 2017