SCOTLAND’S only Labour MP is facing the loss of his seat under boundary changes which also threaten to drag a series of high-profile Nationalists into messy selection battles.
Ian Murray, whose Edinburgh South seat is split in two under Conservative plans to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600, denounced it as “unfair, undemocratic and unacceptable”.
The boundary proposals, which go out today for a 12-week consultation before a vote in parliament, were drawn up by the independent Boundary Commission for Scotland.
Read more: Kezia Dugdale's Labour facing council polls meltdown
The number of Scottish seats is set to fall from 59 to 53 by the 2020 general election, with the average electorate increasing from around 66,000 to 73,500 voters.
Only three seats survive the boundary review unscathed - East Lothian and the automatically protected island seats of Orkney & Shetland and Na h-Eileanan an Iar.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell also sees changes to his Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale seat, which becomes Clydesdale and Eskdale, but these are relatively minor.
Mr Murray now faces a choice between chasing the worker class voters who deserted him in an expanded Edinburgh East seat, or sticking with the middle class tactical voters who helped him survive in 2015 in the new Edinburgh South West and Central seat.
If he turns east he faces the SNP’s Tommy Sheppard, if west Joanna Cherry QC. Handily for Mr Murray, Ms Cherry’s seat includes the Hearts FC ground, where he is a director.
Read more: Kezia Dugdale's Labour facing council polls meltdown
He said: “These Tory proposals to redraw constituency boundaries are unfair, undemocratic and unacceptable. They are based on an out-of-date version of the electoral register with nearly 2m voters across the UK missing.”
Because of its success in 2015, the party most affected by the proposals is the SNP.
Among the other seats effectively disappearing are Dundee East, East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow North, Inverness, Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath and Motherwell & Wishaw.
These are held respectively by former SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie, SNP culture spokesman John Nicolson, former SNP National Secretary Patrick Grady, transport spokesman Drew Hendry, Treasury spokesman Roger Mullin and whip Marion Fellows.
Mr Nicolson now faces having to challenge Martin Docherty-Hughes for the new West Dunbartonshire & Bearsden North seat or Stuart C McDonald for Milngavie & Kirkintilloch.
The changes also pit Mr Grady against Carol Monaghan for Glasgow West; Drew Hendry against Ian Blackford for Inverness & Skye; and Ms Fellows against Angela Crawley for Hamilton & Motherwell.
However Mr Mullin is expected to retire, sparing the party one fight, as is Angus MP Mike Weir, who on paper would be Mr Hosie’s rival for the Angus Glens & Dundee East seat.
SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson said cutting MP numbers was “unacceptable”.
Read more: Kezia Dugdale's Labour facing council polls meltdown
He said: “It is outrageous and undemocratic that the UK government is planning to cut the number of Scottish MPs while it continues to pack the unelected and unaccountable House of Lords with yet more Tory donors and cronies to do the government’s bidding.”
After the consultation, the final proposals are due to go to the UK government in 2018.
The boundary review was dropped in the last parliament after the LibDems refused to support the Conservative plans amid feuding within the Coalition.
Former First Minister Alex Salmond last week predicted the changes would never become law, as too many Tory MPs were worried about losing their seats to support them.
Constitution minister Chris Skidmore said the reforms would achieve "equal-sized constituencies that will ensure an equal say for each voter" as well as saving £66m over the next parliament.
The Boundary Commission for Scotland plans are available at www.bcs2018.org.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel