The moving boundaries

The old Totnes constituency is no more. We are now voters in the South Devon constituency.

It’s slightly bigger than before, with a sliver coming from the South West Devon and a tiny slice from Torbay… and Torbay gets a nibble of the Totnes seat as was.

So why have the boundaries changed?

There are often revisions of the electoral boundaries and this time it was decided that the populations of each constituency should be levelled up so each one has a “quota” of 73,393 voters – within a margin of five per cent.

This reflects how the population moves around the country. Very small places, like the Isle of Wight, don’t have to conform.

There are still 650 seats but the greater South West now has three more seats – two have disappeared and five new ones have been created. The nearest to Totnes is Tiverton and Minehead.

David Cameron’s coalition Government proposed cutting the number of MPs to 600 but this has been abandoned for the status quo.

There is a full explanation of what the boundary changes are – and what they might mean for the result – by the renown election expert Professor John Curtice here .

 

The Election on the 4th January has the following candidates for South Devon Constituency:

Conservative – Anthony Mangnall  –   Link to Conservative Manifesto

Green – Robert Bagnall –  Link to Green Manifesto

Labour – Daniel Steel  –  Link to Labour Manifesto

Liberal Democrat – Caroline Voaden  –  Link to Lib Dem Manifesto

Reform – Michael Bagley  –  Link to Reform Manifesto

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