As of 2020 the government has recently commenced a full rezoning of UK constituencies which they plan to complete in 2023. They claim the need to balance constituencies based on their respective population however their plan to finish the project so close to the 2024 general election and the fact that the Conservatives stand to gain a number of seats from this may suggest an ulterior motive.
Currently it is planned that England gain a further 10 seats in the house of commons while Scotland is to lose 1 seat and Wales is to lose 8 seats. While this may more accurately represent the population distribution between the constituent nations of the UK, it also further reinforces English dominance over the British political system which is often a concern amongst Welsh and Scottish voters that their interests are to be overlooked in favour of promoting those of the English. This type of political dominance has been termed a ‘tyranny of the majority’ whereby the political majority uses their power to exclusively represent their own interests rather than taking into account those of the minority.
I was quite surprised to discover that when it came to local constituencies my own neighbourhood had been moved out of Reigate and into Horley despite our proximity to the very center of Reigate. I would speculate that such a move was made in order to transfer Conservative voters from the historically Conservative Reigate into Horley in a play to shore up support there which leads me onto my second point.
A second major concern with the changes to constituency boundaries is that they’re likely to have an impact upon the makeup parliament with the house of commons being shifted to even further favour the Conservatives. With the voting patterns of the newly created and shifted constituencies taken into account the Conservatives stand to gain a further 15 seats in the house of commons come the next election, meanwhile Labour is set to lose 9 and the LibDems are to lose 5. Performing such a change that obviously boosts Conservative electoral performance so close to an election makes it clear that an even spread of population representation is not the sole goal of the government when it comes to implementing this change. Perhaps in this year so chalked full of scandal the Conservatives have grown worried and now seek some additional support when it comes to the 2024 general election.
