Barking MP Margaret Hodge has criticised the Boundary Commission’s recommendation to merge Barking with Beckton, labelling the entire process of altering constituencies a Conservative “stitch-up.”
“As everyone knows, Beckton and Barking are very different communities and belong to two different London boroughs. They are also clearly divided by both the North Circular road and the River Roding,” she said.
“It would have made more sense for Barking to retain its Dagenham wards.”
However, Dame Hodge doesn’t think it is likely these recommendations will ever take effect.
“After the general election, the Tories lost their majority in parliament and no Tory MP will ever vote to lose their seat,” she added.
“This whole process has been an attempt by the Tories to stitch-up seats to increase their chances of winning a general election. I hope we can instead find a sensible cross-party way forward to equalise the size of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.”
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