Review of MPs should be pushed back, says Labour

A REVIEW to slash the number of MPs in Britain should be pushed back to take account of 2m people who signed up to vote in the EU referendum, according to Labour.

The Conservatives want to reduce MPs from 650 to 600 and work will start in Yorkshire and the Humber next month when electoral commissioners arrive in the region to host a series of public meetings on the plans.

Yorkshire and the Humber is set to lose four MPs with seats in East Yorkshire held by Tories under threat while Labour could see seats scrapped in Leeds, Bradford and Hull.

Calculations for the 2018 Parliamentary Boundary Review is based on the number of electors in each constituency collected in December 2015 but Labour say the figures are now considerably out of date as two million new people registered to vote in the European referendum.

A spokesman for Labour Chief Whip Dame Rosie Winterton said the process has been flawed for a number of months and would like to see the entire proposal delayed.

He said: “We are arguing that they should look at this again but the fact of the matter is the Boundary Commission’s hands are tied and they can only work from the legislative framework they have got unless the Government directs them to make a change.The 2m people who entered the electoral register at the EU referendum should be included.”

Currently the constituencies with too few electors, according to December 2015 figures, include Bradford South, East and West, Halifax, Haltemprice and Howden, Huddersfield, Keighley, Leeds East, North and West, Pudsey, Shipley, Barnsley Central, Barnsley East, Rotherham, Sheffield Healey, Brigg and Goole, Hull East, West and North.