PM faces defeat on boundary shake-up

DAVID Cameron is bracing himself for an embarrassing Commons defeat today on the proposed shake-up of Westminster constituency boundaries with Liberal Democrat ministers for the first time voting against their own Government’s official policy.

It emerged last night the SNP would, like Labour, also vote against the UK Government, pointing out that although the proposed boundaries shake-up would help t he Nationalists increase their number of MPs, they did not want to do anything to help the Tories return to power in 2015.

The shake-up was expectedtogiveMrCameron an extra 20 seats at the next general election.

Following the loss of Lords reform, Nick Clegg made clear, he and his LibDem colleagues would not support the move, which would have led to seats having roughly the same number of voters and to the reduction in MP numbers from 650 to 600 at the next election. Peers delayed the changes to 2018.

Given the split within Government, the usual principle of collective responsibility has been set aside, meaning for the first time in the Coalition ministers will be able to vote against a Government Bill.

Pete Wishart, the SNP for Perth, said: “We have seen the damage Conservative policy has on Scottish communities and we can’t take the risk of seeing another Tory government.”