Publications

 

 

Laurence Robertson’s

 

VIEW FROM WESTMINSTER

2nd March 2010

 

Over the last few days there has been a flurry of speculation about the possibility of the Prime Minister calling a General Election to take place before the expected date of Thursday 6th May. At the time of writing, nothing has been announced so it looks as if the date will be the bookies’ favourite of 6th of May when the actual poll takes place.

 

At that time, or whenever it is, the number of seats to be contested in the House of Commons will rise slightly from 646 to 650 as a result of boundary changes. In addition to this, the boundaries of some local seats will change as a result of decisions taken by the Boundary Commission.

 

In Tewkesbury, my seat loses Leckhampton, Warden Hill and Up Hatherley to the Cheltenham constituency, but  gains Longlevens from Gloucester. I am well aware that some people in, for example, Longlevens, consider themselves to be part of Gloucester and, to an extent, resent being asked to vote in the Tewkesbury constituency.

 

I understand this feeling. I do, though, repeat that the changed arrangements are nothing to do with me, or to do with any other politician, actually, but are being made as a result of the decisions taken by the Boundary Commission, although the final recommendations for the country are approved en bloc by Parliament.

 

The Boundary Commission carries out regular reviews of Parliamentary constituencies and their objective, by and large, is to ensure that constituencies are roughly kept to the same size in terms of the number of electors in each one. A figure of about 72,000 is the level of electorate they aim to achieve. In the remote areas of Scotland, though, the constituencies would be larger geographically but smaller in terms of the number of electors each one contains.

 

The actual date of the General Election is, in effect, decided by the Prime Minister, although it is the Monarch who actually dissolves Parliament at the request of the Prime Minister. Given that the present Parliament first sat on 11th May 2005, it must be dissolved by 10th May 2010, which would mean that the very last possible date for the General Election would be 3rd June. However, it is generally accepted that the date will be set to coincide with the local elections on 6th May.

 

Whichever date the election is set for, it is not long away, and it promises to be a keenly contested affair!