Redisricting London: The Issues and Likely Political Effects

The Parliamentary Boundary Commission for England will soon be producing provisional recommendations for new constituencies for Greater London, which stands to lose as many as thirteen seats. In tackling this task, the Commission faces a substantial problem if it sticks to the previous practice of allocating seats separately to each London borough, and not being prepared to cross borough boundaries in the creation of constituencies. It is shown that the resultant underrepresentation and overrepresentation of boroughs will be greater than at previous reviews, and a procedure is suggested which will substantially overcome it, with as few as five pairs of boroughs created for purposes of constituency allocation and constituency definition.