Leeds LibDems lead the way with the new parliamentary boundaries

On 27 June 2023, the Boundary Review Commission for England (“the BCE”) formally submitted its final report to Parliament. This final report brings to a close a process that began all the way back in January 2021.

The importance of this moment cannot be understated – without a vote for approval by MPs, the boundaries submitted in their final report will be the new parliamentary boundaries for the next General Election!

Throughout the consultation process on both the initial and revised constituency proposals, Brandon Ashford on behalf of the Leeds Liberal Democrats actively engaged with the BCE and composed our formal counterproposal.

Following the BCE’s requirements, Brandon’s counterproposal aimed to create more harmonious constituencies that better reflect the similarities in neighbouring communities across the City of Leeds. The guiding principle behind this was to ensure that every community is represented by a democratically elected Member of Parliament that best reflects the desired collective will of similar communities.

We are very proud to see that our efforts were adopted fully by the BCE for the constituencies of Leeds North West, Leeds West and Pudsey, Leeds Central and Headingley, Leeds South West and Morley, and Leeds South.

Alongside those changes, the BCE have kept the Wetherby and Harewood wards together in the new Wetherby & Easingwold constituency, whilst Kippax & Methley has joined the Selby constituency, and Rothwell has joined the Wakefield & Rothwell constituency.

When adopting our counterproposal, the BCE explained that they were persuaded by:

1. Our evidence highlighting that Middleton Park ward is part of the urban sprawl of Leeds city centre, with poor physical ties to the rest of their initially proposed Morley constituency;
2. Our representations that the isolation of the Armley ward south of the River Aire made it a poor fit in the initially proposed Headingley constituency; and
3. Our arguments for combining the Headingley & Hyde Park and Little London & Woodhouse wards in the same constituency, not least to unite the student population and avoid the division of the Little London estate between constituencies.

The BCE described our proposal in their final report “to be the superior arrangement for the constituencies of Morley and Pudsey…”.

It is a fantastic result for the Leeds Liberal Democrats and we are glad to see that residents across the city will now have the best opportunity to be represented by a Member of Parliament that reflects the common interests of their entire constituency, not just some parts of it.