One of the amusing inclusions in yesterday’s otherwise anodyne Mid-Term review document was the promise that the government ‘will provide for a vote in the House of Commons on the Boundary Commission’s proposals for changes to constituencies’. If yesterday was a renewing of vows, some of them have been rather watered down since the Coalition Agreement, as its pledge for legislation for providing for fewer and more equal-sized constituencies has now simply become a ‘vote’.
Today at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions, Chloe Smith was quizzed by opposition MPs on whether the government might just drop the boundary changes. She said:
‘The boundary commissions are continuing with the boundary review in accordance with the legislation which requires them to report in October 2013.’
She then added:
‘I think the parties within the Government have made their positions clear on that matter and if I may quote the Prime Minister from yesterday, there will be a vote, it will take place, and I suppose that is that.
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