New Clause 1 - Electorate per constituency

Part of Parliamentary Constituencies Bill – in the House of Commons at 5:00 pm on 14 July 2020.

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Photo of Aaron Bell Aaron Bell Conservative, Newcastle-under-Lyme 5:00, 14 July 2020

The point of my hon. Friend and neighbour is well made.

I would also like to say how much distaste I feel when I hear these allegations of gerrymandering, which sometimes happens with these Bills. They seemed to start with the former Member for Blackburn and former Lord Chancellor, Jack Straw, who described our manifesto proposals in 2010 as “gerrymandering”. I regret to say that Chris Bryant, the Chair of the Committee on Standards, described this Bill as gerrymandering in a tweet in May. Nothing could be further from the truth. This Bill is quite the opposite; it levels the playing field. To call it “gerrymandering” is a slur on the Boundary Commission and the judicial process. As my hon. Friend Shaun Bailey said, it is a judicial process and we should have trust that it will be fair. Either they do not know the meaning of the word “gerrymandering”, or they are choosing to misrepresent what is going on, potentially for partisan gain, or potentially to scare the electorate into thinking something nefarious is going on. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I am also pleased that this Bill introduces the automaticity that my hon. Friend Chris Clarkson was regrettably unable to get to in his speech.

It makes the translation of boundaries into law near automatic. It not only removes delay, but ensures integrity in the process.

I was a neutral outside observer when I saw what happened in the 2010 to 2015 Parliament: clearly, the proposals that came back were, for partisan reasons, unwelcome to Members who had already voted that there should be a review on that basis. To answer the point made by Clive Efford, the House had had its say. The House had said that we should be down to 600; now the House has changed its mind as a result of Brexit, and I understand that, but the House had already agreed to 600, yet the proposals that came back were not acceptable to Members for partisan reasons, because they feared they were going to lose their seats. That is what brings politics into disrepute—when we vote down judicially decided and fair proposals that have been reviewed through the processes that my hon. Friend Mike Wood talked about. If we do that because we are worried about our own individual seats—or the consequences for the Liberal Democrat party, which we can see right now—that brings politics into disrepute. So I really do welcome this, and for that reason I am completely against the proposal to remove the automaticity from this Bill.

Finally, I want to briefly raise something with the Minister, perhaps for another day. There are lots of amendments and suggestions about what we should do with electoral registration; one of the real concerns with the present system is dual registration. I represent a university seat, and I know others who represent university seats, and obviously I represent the students in my seat to the best of my ability, even though I fear that not that many of them voted for me, but dual registration is fundamentally unfair for two reasons: first, it distorts the numbers on which the boundary review is based; and secondly, it gives anybody who is dual-registered, whether they have a second home or are a student, a choice of where to exercise their vote for maximum personal electoral gain. That is not fair, and we need to look at it in the future. People may want to register in two local authorities, but they should have to nominate which is their general election seat. That is something I propose for the future.

In conclusion, I support the Bill and thank the Minister and her team for all the work they have done on it. We must get as close as possible to the principle of equality, so that all votes in this place and in the country count the same.