The leader of Mebyon Kernow has hit out at the failure of Conservative MPs to oppose the parliamentary Boundary Review during a debate in the House of Commons yesterday (19th October).
A motion was tabled by Scottish National Party MP Pete Wishart MP, which called for a reduction in the number of unelected peers in the House of Lords and also for plans to reduce the number of MPs to be abandoned.
But it was defeated by 245 votes to 278, with local MPs Steve Double, Scott Mann, Sheryll Murray, Sarah Newton and Derek Thomas all voting with the Government.
Cllr Dick Cole said: "I find it shocking that Cornwall's Conservative MPs failed to use the opportunity of the debate to speak out and vote against the flawed Boundary Review and the imposition of a cross-Tamar Devonwall constituency on the people of Cornwall. They chose to vote against the best interests of Cornwall and support a process that is likely to breach the very territorial integrity of the historic nation of Cornwall."
Further information
Cllr Cole is calling on local people to lobby central government and local MPs for an amendment to the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act, which is guiding the Boundary Review.
The Act, agreed in 2011, reduces the number of constituencies to 600 and states that, apart from four specific constituencies (Orkney & Shetland, the Western Isles, and two seats for the Isle of Wight), the electorates for individual seats must be within 5% of the United Kingdom average. This equates to between 71,031 and 78,507 votes in each seat.
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were protected as entities in the legislation, but sadly Cornwall was not.
The electorate of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (recorded in December) means we would be entitled to about 5.27 MPs and it is therefore a statistical impossibility for the Boundary Commission to propose five seats for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.
That is why we need to build a massive campaign to put pressure on central government and Members of Parliament to modify the existing legislation to ensure that Cornish constituencies remain whole and lie entirely within the boundaries of Cornwall (and the Isles of Scilly).
Correspondence should be sent to:
Chris Skidmore MP, Minister for the Constitution, Cabinet Office, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2AS and / or chris.skidmore.mp@parliament.uk
