Manipulating Territories: British Political Parties and New Parliamentary Constituencies

Abstract

In 2011 the UK Parliament introduced a new set of rules and timetable for the redistribution of Parliamentary constituencies, which also included a new procedure for public consultation on the Boundary Commissions' proposals. The first redistribution under this new regime began in 2011, and an extensive series of Public Hearings and submission of written representations took place in late 2011 and early 2012. During the consultation, the political parties—as under the previous regimes—sought changes to the proposals that would better serve their electoral interests. This paper evaluates the extent to which their counter-proposals were able to achieve that end, given the reduced degrees of freedom provided by the new rules and other geographical constraints. At best, each party might have been able to change the number of seats it might win by about 10–12, out of 600.