David Blackburn

Boundary review leaked

The Boundary review, which was embargoed, has been leaked. Here are some immediate headlines from the proposals:

George Osborne’s Tatton seat appears to have been abolished, though you imagine he’ll have little difficulty in finding anohter.

After much speculation that his Twickenham seat would be subsumed, Vince Cable may have survived. The new seat covers what appears cover to be a fair tranche of his current area, but it’s not exactly clear. Either way, Cable is someone you’d expect to find another berth if necessary. 

Zac Goldsmith’s Richmond Park seat has been reworked, inheriting some wards from Lib Dem held Twickenham, and may now be a tougher proposition to hold.

Ed Miliband’s minions, Chuka Umanna and Sadiq Khan, might fight over a new seat in Streatham and Tooting. The Tories may fancy the seat for themselves, as it is dominated by the plusher areas of Wandsworth and south Lambeth. Umanna might move to the new Brixton seat, but he’d face competition from Kate Hoey, the popular local MP for Vauxhall, which has been combined with Tory-leaning wards in Battersea.

Chris Huhne’s already marginal Eastleigh constituency is likely to become tighter with a few critical wards being replaced by wards from the rural Test Valley. Huhne’s experience seems to be the norm for many Liberal Democrats, who seem to have fared poorly at a first glance: Tim Farron’s constituency in Westmoreland, for instance, has been carved up and Nick Clegg, presumably already in a degree of trouble for his ‘treachery’, has been handed a segment of Labour Sheffield. 

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