Scotland will have 57 constituencies under the latest review by the Border Commission, two fewer than today. Meanwhile, England has been allocated 543 seats – an increase of 10 – Northern Ireland will remain unchanged at 18 and Wales will lose eight, leaving it with 32 MPs. The total number of MPs in Westminster will remain at 650. Two Scottish constituencies: the Western Isles and Orkney and Shetland, are protected by law and cannot be changed. The remaining 55 seats must have between 69,724 and 77,062 voters, unless they are larger than 12,000 sq km, where a smaller number is allowed. But electoral districts are also not allowed to exceed the maximum allowed area of 13,000 sq.km. Of the mainland’s 55 constituencies, 20 remain unchanged from those put forward in the original proposals. However, three constituencies changed the proposed name. 35 changed their boundaries. and 20 have changed both their name and their boundaries. The changes will see the proposed seat of Inverness-shire and Wester Ross become the largest constituency in terms of area, at 11,066 sq km – smaller than the current Ross, Skye and Lochaber, which is 12,678 sq km. The smallest constituency in terms of area will be Glasgow West, which is just 19 square kilometers – larger than the smallest existing seat, Glasgow North, which is 17 square kilometers. The changes could see Glasgow South East become the seat with the fewest voters, with the proposed constituency having 69,748 electors – 20,000 more voters than the 46,924 in Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is now the seat with the fewest voters. Clackmannanshire and Forth Valley will be the seat with the most voters under the revised plans, with 77,046 electors living within its boundaries – down from 88,506 living in the current Linlithgow and East Falkirk constituency. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. A four-week public consultation on the revised proposals will run until 5 December, with the Commission developing its final recommendations after that, before reporting back to the Speaker of the House of Commons by 1 July 2023. Lord Matthews, deputy chairman of the Border Commission for Scotland, said they were grateful for the responses to previous consultations. He said: “We considered all the performances very carefully and, where possible, tried to respond positively to suggestions. “The legislative requirements of the review mean that we are not always able to incorporate alternatives and sometimes, of course, we receive conflicting views or proposals with unintended consequences for other parts of Scotland. “We look forward to receiving views on the revised proposals, after which we will finalize our proposals before submitting them to the Speaker of the House of Commons by July 1 next year.”
