Private Member
Private Member's Bill

My Private Members Bill on Parliamentary constituency boundaries had its Second Reading this month and I am delighted to say that it passed unanimously. Constituency boundaries may seem like a technical issue, but they are essential to the public’s ability to hold Members of Parliament to account. They should reflect communities and stay stable over time, so that residents with common issues and existing ties can be properly represented in Parliament. I firmly believe that the proposed boundary changes were gerrymandering on the part of the Tory party, attempting to rig the system in their favour, and were simply making it harder to achieve a Labour Government.

My bill is simple, it has four clauses which do five things. It retains the number of MPs at 650; reviews the boundaries every ten years; ensures that all constituencies have the same number of voters within a margin of 7.5%; makes sure the 2 million people who registered to vote since 2015 are included in the boundary review; and fixes the number of constituencies in Northern Ireland at 18.

I gave a number of interviews about why I was proposing my Bill, including with BBC Daily Politics, which you can watch here.

You can read the full text of my bill here. I also wrote two articles about the importance of proper representation:

Huffington Post –
Constituency Boundaries May Seem Like A Technical Issue – But They’re Essential To The Public’s Ability To Hold Parliament To Account

Labour List –
Afzal Khan: Let’s listen to the voices of two million people left out of boundary review

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