Welsh election boundary map set to change

Proposals for new Welsh constituencies for Westminster will be released this month, following the publication of proposals for other three countries in the UK.

It is expected that there will be 30 seats for MPs to represent Wales, following the changes which cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600 and introduce a population criterion to determine constituency boundaries.

Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards said:

“Plaid Cymru fought strongly against the 25% cut in Welsh representation at Wales which was forced through by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrat coalition.

“We disagreed with the cut in the number of MPs at Westminster from 650 to 600 and the way of doing this – ignoring community links or history as the most important criterion for a seat and replacing them with a population criterion which will mean constant change in boundaries to keep the numbers right.

“Plaid Cymru have, of course, contributed our thoughts to the consultation and will respond accordingly when the proposals are published.

“However, it is not certain that these changes will take place.

“Many Conservative and Lib Dem MPs who went through the lobbies to back the cut have now begun to realise that they might lose their own seats through these changes, and have to started to fight against them.

“On the one hand, I hope that they are successful because that would be the right thing to do, but it is worrying that ConDem coalition MPs will fight so hard for their own job while consigning more than 700,000 public sector workers to the dole queue.”