Boundary change judicial review rejected

Ed Balls and three other Labour MPs have had their application for a judicial review of the Boundary Commission’s decision to scrap Balls’ Normanton seat under the Commission’s boundary changes rejected in the High Court.

The four MPs who brought the case all represent the district of Wakefield and were trying to prevent the district’s current four seats being reduced to three, claiming residents strongly oppose the reduction in their representation in Parliament.

Well that of course is the reason the MPs are giving for the challenge. I’d be willing to bet that if this was four Tory seats being cut to three, they wouldn’t be arguing for better representation of residents.

There is of course the small issue of a possible General Election next year. The new boundaries will reduce the bias Labour currently enjoys from the electoral system. Therefore there is a real incentive for Labour to delay the boundary changes until the General Election has taken place.

Had the judicial review of been given the go ahead, it would of delayed the implementation of the new boundaries, giving more weight to Gordon Brown to call a snap election. As it is the new boundaries look set to be introduced on time.