Parliamentary Boundary Commissions

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 8:50 pm on 1 March 1983.

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Photo of Mr Peter Hardy Mr Peter Hardy , Rother Valley 8:50, 1 March 1983

I intended to detain the House for only a few moments, but the Hon. Member for Chichester (Mr. Nelson) may have extended my speech. He half convinced me of his case. There are grounds for a Speaker's Conference to add a new rule. It would not be a new rule which the hon. Gentleman had in mind, but his speech suggested that it may be worth considering. It is that, in addition to the consideration o physical boundaries and population in determining the size of a constituency, intensity of need should be taken into account. Given the hon. Gentleman's dissertation, the south of England does not seem to need so many Members of Parliament as the north.

My constituency has well over 100,000 electors. The hon. Member for Brighouse and Spenborough (Mr, Waller) contested my constituency twice in 1974, so he will appreciate my remarks. It is a large constituency with an enormous electorate. It has severe problems, which have multiplied enormously since 1979. We are riot part of the affluent belt of southern England where Members of Parliament can be part-timers pursuing business or legal interests for much of the working day. We in south Yorkshire have to be full-time Members of Parliament.

If we allow constituencies to experience 30 per cent. unemployment, industrial dereliction and the wasting of our local economy, we should ensure that Meml5ers of Parliament have the staffing to which the hon. Member for Chichester referred. I entirely agree with the hon. Member for Anglesey (Mr. Best), who suggested that we should not rely on American assistants. I make'it clear that I have not had one and do not want one. It would be unfair on my constituents, given 30 per cent. unemployment, if some of the work were farmed out to an unpaid American researcher. That matter should be seriously examined by the House.

I do not suggest that the boundary commissioners have not acted properly with regard to the county of south Yorkshire. They have looked at the matter carefully. If all hearings were conducted with such careful and considerate cordiality as one I attended in Rotherham, the country would be well served. While the boundaries for south Yorkshire county were scrupulously and properly observed, other county boundaries were not. Thal factor should be borne in mind in any future consideration.

My main concern is that, while the commissioners have acted properly, the Government, as my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Cathcart (Mr. Maxton) suggested, seem to have acted with unseemly haste. Before the words of the court had finished echoing, the papers were already printed and available in the Vote Office and constituencies are being changed. Mine is being changed dramatically. My large constituency is being made into the whole of one adequately sized constituency and the greater part of another. That will mean the termination of relationships. The Government seem to be completely insensitive to the fact that politics in Britain is as much about relationships as about anything else. The relationships within politics in many constituencies in south Yorkshire will be hurriedly scrapped and made redundant or changed. Little time is being given for new relationships to be forged.

I am not speaking only about people in my own party. I am thinking of people such as the Conservative agent in the Rother Valley constituency, Mrs. Matthews, whom the hon. Member for Brighouse and Spenborough will recall with respect and affection; she has given a lifetime of service to the constituency and suddenly she will have to pick up the pieces of two constituencies. I am thinking, too, of my own agent, Councillor Cooper, whom the hon. Member will also recall. Councillor Cooper has given legendary service to politics in south Yorkshire. He will have the task of building new relationships within a very short time. He will have to try to achieve in weeks the sort of organisation which it has taken him 27 or 28 years to build up.

The Government have acted with terrible insensitivity. It is the same sort of insensitivity which the hon. Member for Chichester displayed in playing a slide rule game to suggest that we dispose of large numbers of Members of Parliament. If many Members are disposed of in the north of England there will be much regret. Constituents find it difficult to get work; what would happen if large numbers of Members of Parliament entered the labour market, heaven only knows. Certainly they would not wish to join the hon. Member for Chichester in the more affluent parts of the south of England which he can represent part-time.