Boundary Commission Decides to Keep Ealing Central and Acton

Constituency is expanded in West Ealing but no longer represents parts of Chiswick

The new Ealing Central and Acton constituency

The Boundary Commission has announced that the changes to the local constituency proposed last October are to be their final recommendations. The only change from their previous report is that the constituency will continue to be known as Ealing Central and Acton rather than Ealing and Acton.

The proposal adds in the area of Ealing between the Uxbridge Road and Northfields tube station to the constituency. 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 seat.

The commission had previously consulted last year on a 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, this idea was scrapped after numerous objections.

The Labour party opposed the current recommendations as 'unnecessary and unfair'. Rupa Huq MP said at the time of the proposal last year, "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 won't be able to get it voted through."

Secretary to the commission, Sam Hartley, said, "We're confident that the new map of constituencies best reflects the rules set for us by Parliament and we're especially pleased that our recommendations are based heavily on what members of the public have told us about their local areas.

"It is now up to the government to present our report to Parliament, and we look forward to being able to publish our recommendations once that has happened."

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.

The constituencies do not take effect until the next general election after the legislation has been voted on currently due to be 5 May 2022. If an early election is called, the constituency boundaries to be used will depend on whether the Order in Council (legislation) has been made and come into force.

September 12, 2018