12th May 2015
Highland MSP, Rhoda Grant is warning that the future of three Highland UK Parliamentary constituencies will be put under threat again by Conservative Party plans to push forward with a Boundary Commission review which could see the Highland Council area, which currently returns three MPs to Westminster, fall to two at the next UK Parliament elections, scheduled for 2020.
Rhoda Grant MSP is cautioning that under proposed changes the Highlands will have a reduced voice at Westminster, saying:
"The Highlands is one of the most challenging areas for politicians to represent due to the unique geography and size of the region and its constituencies.
"The three existing Highland seats already include two of the largest geographical constituencies in the UK and diluting community links further by increasing constituency size will simply reduce local democracy further.
"We have constituencies for a reason, that is to help elected politicians represent defined and differing communities. Increasing the size of our Highland constituencies to even more challenging geography, breaking the link between local authority boundaries and Westminster boundaries, and cutting our number of MPs will only make it more difficult and complicated for voters in the Highlands to feel connected to their local MP.
“Strong opposition to these proposed boundary changes in the last parliament stopped the Highlands from having our number of MPs cut. We need to mount a strong opposition once again to protect our unique Highland voice in Parliament for the future."
Under Conservative plans the Government will reintroduce legislation to cut to the number of MPs, a proposal it put forward in both its 2010 and 2015 manifesto, to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600. In 2011 when the Sixth Review of UK Parliament Constituencies took place in response to the decision by the UK Government to reduce the number of MPs in Scotland from 59 to 52 as part of a bigger exercise to reduce numbers across the UK, it resulted in the Highlands losing one MP.
If the changes previously proposed go ahead this will include the creation of two constituencies in the Highland Council area, namely Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty Constituency and Inverness and Skye Constituency.
Highland Ward 22 (Fort William and Ardnamurchan) and Ward 12 (Caol and Mallaig) and all of Argyll and Bute Council area will make up the Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber Constituency. From the Initial proposals, the constituency name has been changed from Argyll, Bute and Lochaber.
Highland Ward 19 (Nairn) and all of the Moray Council area will comprise Moray and Nairn Constituency. From the initial proposals, the constituency name has been changed from Moray and Strathspey.
Conservative Manifesto plans on page 49:
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/manifesto2015/ConservativeManifesto2015.pdf
Full details of the review and a map of the proposed new constituencies can be downloaded from Highland Council here:
http://www.highland.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/28156/item18hc3012pdf