Brighton and Hove’s three seats in the House of Commons will be transformed by a review of the boundaries being proposed today (Tuesday 13 September).
The biggest change will be the creation of a new Brighton East and Newhaven constituency, adding about 4,000 voters overall.
Brighton Pavilion and Hove will be redrawn as Brighton North and Brighton Central and Hove.
Many of the new voters in Brighton East and Newhaven will be drawn from wards in Seaford and Newhaven that have returned mostly Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors in recent elections. The seat will no longer include Woodingdean, which is predominantly Tory, and Labour-held Moulsecoomb and Bevendean Ward.
If the changes are implemented they make it more likely that the incumbent MP, Simon Kirby, will retain his seat.
Mr Kirby, who is now a Treasury minister, won the marginal Brighton Kemptown seat from Labour at the 2010 general election.
He held the seat, which already includes Peacehaven, with a slightly reduced majority in May last year.
The new boundary should make it harder for a challenger and cement Mr Kirby’s position.
The proposed Brighton East and Newhaven constituency would include 71,505 voters compared with the 67,858 in Brighton Kemptown at the general election last year.
Brighton North will include Hove Park, Patcham and Woodingdean wards, in addition to Withdean, giving the Conservatives a fighting chance of regaining a second seat locally.
With the inclusion of the two universities – and thousands of students – the Green Party will also be in contention. But a crucial core of Green support in the Regency and St Peter’s and North Laine wards will be lost, diluting the party’s prospects.
Along with the addition of Moulsecoomb and Bevendean, the changes hold out hope in the longer term for Labour to become the main challenger. The seat also includes Labour-held Preston Park and Hollingdean and Stanmer.
The Greens are looking at whether and how to challenge the proposals which are subject to consultation.
Under the proposals Brighton Central and Hove looks more like a Labour seat although the Greens may fancy their chances. It looks the least winnable for the Conservatives unless the opposition becomes too evenly divided.
Peter Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove, said: “I’m pleased that the boundary review with keep the heart of our Hove community intact.
“Even after the changes it will still be the place I’ve proudly represented in Parliament, loved living in for 16 years, set up a business and been a school governor.”
The overall number of voters in the three seats would rise from just under 218,000 to just under 225,000.
The Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Warren Morgan, said: “Cutting the number of seats in the Commons while adding more peers to the House of Lords won’t make this country more democratic or save money, but it will help ensure permanent Conservative government.”
Councillor Morgan added: “Whatever happens to parliamentary constituency boundaries locally, the council remains unchanged and despite the cuts we will continue doing what we were elected to do, pursuing sensible but innovative policies that deliver jobs, homes, good schools and basics like street cleaning.”
Jonathan Bartley, the co-leader of the Green Party, has slammed the Conervative party for ignoring the ‘sickness that afflicts our democracy’ while pushing forward with changes which ‘strengthen their grip on power’. He accused the Government of creating a ‘retirement village for their friends’ in the House of Lords and called for an elected upper chamber and fair elections to the House of Commons.
The Green Party’s national co-leader Jonathan Bartley, who shares the post with Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, said: “Only a government with a profoundly skewed set of priorities would plough ahead with this boundary review while ignoring the deep-rooted sickness that afflicts our democracy.
“If ministers were in the least bit serious about enhancing our democracy then they would immediately bring forward proposals for an elected second chamber rather than continuing to use the House of Lords as a retirement village for their friends.
“And if they want to seriously give each and every voter an equal say then surely the only solution is to have a fair voting system for the House of Commons.
“As a principle, of course, we want to see constituencies of an equal size – but we won’t stand by and watch while the Conservatives force through changes simply to strengthen their grip on power.
“Whatever the eventual results of the boundary changes, it’s crystal clear that progressives need to be working from the grassroots to find the best way to beat the Conservatives at the next general election.
“Our public services – and in particular our NHS – will not survive another government like this one.
“We need to urgently look at how we can work together to bring about a progressive government and a fair voting system.”
The proposals are similar but not identical to those put out five years ago but dropped after support was withdrawn by the Liberal Democrats, who were then in coalition with the Conservatives in government.
Simon Kirby is a hard-working MP as is Peter Kyle.
Brighton would be a far better place without the Greens and the far left though.
Caroline Lucas is a hard-working MP.
Brighton would be a far better place without the Tories and New Labour though.
Quite. It’s utterly bizarre the support corporate puppets get for their destruction of this country. All savages.
Hove could be very interesting, what with Labour’s second attempt to close down the Carnegie Library – and cllr Morgan muttering in June about making yet another attempt to do so in the middle of the next Elections. It was folly of the MP Peter Kyle to have so active a part in trying to close down a Library, the proposal based on, shall we say, wayward figures. I should imagine that, behind the scenes, there is considerable trouble for the officers.
Residents need to remain vigilant.
http://www.facebook.com/savehovelibrary
that’s ‘poring over details’ Frank. Sauces pour.
The only fair system would be for proportional representation and not the first past the post system which we currently have in the UK.
All students voting, should only be allowed to vote in the constituency which is their home town, as it distorts the actual views of the town in which they are temporary residents.
Temporary residents cannot have a full picture of a place unless they have lived in it for some time, so although well meaning, their votes often skew what locals want and need. In a town like Brighton and Hove, this has a huge impact with so many temporary residents.