Boundary Changes Have Made It Harder to Provide Service To Constituents, Warn MPs
4 min read
Providing a consistent level of service to constituents is proving “very challenging” for MPs after boundary changes at the last election increased the population sizes of some seats.
The latest boundary review was completed in June 2023. Under the ‘electoral quota’ rule, the number of people registered to vote must fall within a five per cent range of 73,393 – a minimum of 69,724 and a maximum of 77,062 electors per seat.
However, the latest boundary changes did not take into account the total size of the population including those not registered to vote. For instance, heading into the 4 July General Election Birmingham Ladywood had 76,585 electors registered to vote but a population of 151,867. West Ham and Beckton had 70,590 electors but a population of 137,226.
Currently, only British, Irish or Commonwealth citizens with the right to remain in the UK are eligible to vote in general elections. EU citizens can vote in local but not general elections. Over four million people in the UK cannot register to vote, but such constituents can and do bring casework to their MPs, including complex immigration matters.
One MP with an inner-city constituency said it has between 70,000 and 80,000 electors. However, the population of the borough that includes his seat is roughly 330,000 people. Whilst the Boundary Commission increased the number of MPs representing the borough from two to three, one of those MPs also has a neighbouring borough in their constituency.
“We've got, say, two and a half MPs. 330,000 divided by two and a half is not 70,000 electors,” the MP said.
“It is highly likely the number of people who aren't registered are also the people who demand help,” they said. “I have a massive population who can't register in terms of general elections – they can vote in local, but not national – so they don't register at all.”
“There needs to be a degree of flexibility,” the MP added. “In terms of deciding boundary changes, they really do have to look at the population as well as the electorate of registered voters.”
Another MP said they now have an added 20,000 constituents following the boundary changes. They estimated that their casework has increased from 40 to 50 new cases a month to 150 to 200.
They also said template campaign emails – where constituents send boilerplate requests written by campaign groups – have “exploded”: “It’s quite typical now for us to receive at least 100 a day.”
The MP added that the larger geographical size of the constituency is making it “very challenging to give every community the level of service” they want to offer and called for a “conversation about how the demands on the constituency office and casework have changed since the pandemic, and subsequently the new boundaries”.
The last changes to boundaries were implemented in 2010. Though reviews were held in 2013 and 2018, no changes were made due to political opposition. The next boundary review will take place in 2031.
Migrant Democracy Project (MDP) highlighted that the number of residents in England and Wales unable to vote in general elections has increased by 1.2 million since 2011.
“There are some constituencies where there are thousands of residents who don't even have the right to register to vote,” MDP co-director Lara Parizotto said. “So that MP’s casework is much higher than an MP in a more rural constituency with fewer numbers of migrant residents”.
According to data collected by MDP, there are over 20,000 residents unable to vote in each of the top five constituencies recorded. This includes Kensington and Bayswater with 32,980 residents, Cities of London and Westminster with 31,302, and West Ham and Beckton with 29,888.
Angus MacDonald, Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, said he has “two distinct constituencies” following the boundary changes, covering Inverness and a rural area, with “completely different requirements” demanding his attention.
He added that the Boundary Commission wants a certain number of registered voters per seat, and “nothing else matters to them”.
The Boundary Commission declined to comment.
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