Burnham-On-Sea’s MP Tessa Munt has welcomed a decision by the House of Commons this week to halt proposals to redraw constituency boundaries across the UK.
MPs voted on Tuesday by 334 to 292 to accept changes made by peers, meaning the planned constituency shake-up will be postponed until 2018 at the earliest.
Tessa Munt voted against her Conservative coalition colleagues in parliament in opposition to the proposals from The Boundary Commission.
As pictured above, the plans would have seen Tessa’s Wells constituency adding the Huntspills, Pawlett, Puriton, Woolavington, the Poldens, Shapwick, Ashcott, Westonzoyland, Middlezoy, North Petherton and surrounding villages.
Burnham and Highbridge would have stayed in the constituency, however the villages of Street and Chilcompton, and the towns of Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet, would have been transferred into other constituencies.
“I voted to keep the parliementary boundaries as they are and I am delighted by the outcome of the vote. I love my constituency the way it is and want to keep it as it is now,” she told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
The issue of boundary changes has been one of the biggest flashpoints between Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg since the two entered government together.
It was the first time that Lib Dem ministers have voted against their Conservative coalition colleagues in the Commons.
Parliament agreed in principle in 2011 to reduce the number of MPs and to redraw the electoral map to make all constituencies roughly the same size in terms of number of voters.
The plan to cut the number of MPs by 50 to 600 may have saved the taxpayer an estimated £13.5m a year. Some believe the proposals, which were backed at the time by both coalition parties, would help the Conservatives win up to 20 extra seats at a future election.
A row over plans to reform the Lords – abandoned in the face of Conservative opposition – had led the Lib Dems to say they will block implementation of the boundary review until after the next general election, which is scheduled for 2015.
