Parliamentary Constituencies Bill — Decline Second Reading — 2 Jun 2020 at 19:51

The majority of MPs voted to have 650 MPs in the House of Commons (amending a law which would have reduced the number to 600) and to remove Parliament's role in approving changes to Parliamentary constituencies.

MPs were considering the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill[1].

The Bill provides:

* for there to be 650 UK MPs (amending Schedule 2 of the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 which at the time of the vote stated: "The number of constituencies in the United Kingdom shall be 600").

* for the removal of provisions, in Section 4 of the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 requiring the approval of any modifications to Parliamentary constituency boundaries by resolution of each House of Parliament, replacing them with arrangements requiring ministers to pass on the recommendations of the Boundary Commissions to the monarch for implementation via an "Order in Council".

* to require the Boundary Commissions to carry out a review of parliamentary constituencies by 1 July 2023, 1 October 2031 and every eighth year after that, replacing provisions for a review every five years.

MPs were considering the motion:

  • That the Bill be now read a Second time.

The amendment rejected in this vote stated:

  • leave out from “That” to the end of the Question and add:
  • “this House whilst supporting the retention of 650 parliamentary constituencies
  • declines to give a Second Reading to the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill because the Bill would disproportionately and undemocratically concentrate power over constituency sizes and boundaries in the hands of the executive, because the Bill fails to create a more flexible electoral quota allowing greater consideration to be given to local ties and community connections when drawing constituency boundaries, and because the proposed numeration date for the boundary review of 1 December 2020 risks boundaries being based on an incomplete register owing to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the preparation of electoral registers.”

The motion rejected in this vote was:

Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con261 (+2 tell) 0072.1%
DUP3 0037.5%
Lab0 125 (+2 tell)062.9%
LDem0 2018.2%
PC0 2066.7%
SNP0 8016.7%
Total:264 137063.6%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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