Mark Spencer 'disappointed' he may lose Hucknall in review

Hucknall may be carved away from the Sherwood constituency under new plans to redistribute parliamentary constituencies to better balance the size of the electorate in each area.

Prposed changes in north Nottinghamshire could mean that Sherwood loses Hukcnall and Ollerton, and regaining areas around Lowdham - a traditionally Conservative area which could make the revised seat more of a Tory stronghold in the future.

But a conservative source said the MP is disappointed that he may lose Hucknall in the boundary plans, still only in a draft state, having 'worked hard to build a Conservative majority in the town'.

Mark Spencer MP said: "Obviously this is just an initial draft and it remains to be seen how people will react to the changes. There are two years and several consultations before anything final comes out so it may be totally different in the end, but my initial reaction is that I would be incredibly disappointed to lose Hucknall.

"That’s the biggest proposed change and obviously it’s been my base since day one of becoming an MP, I would really miss working in Hucknall if that were to be confirmed. I will get the chance to feed back on the proposals though, as will residents, so I do get to share my views and we’ll see what they come back with in their second draft in 9 months or so.’’

Seats across the UK face a shake-up in the boundary review proposals, unveiled this morning.

The plans could usher in a cut in the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

Several seats in Nottinghamshire face changes, although the Mansfield and Ashfield seats, held by Labour’s Sir Alan Meale and Gloria De Piero respectively, would be largely unchanged.

The dissolution of the Gedling Borough entirely would mean one fewer Labour MP in Nottinghamshire.

Present MP for Gedling Vernon Coaker has been approached for comment.

In its draft proposals, the commission says: “The East Midlands currently has 46 constituencies. Of these constituencies, 24 have electorates within 5 per cent of the electoral quota. “The electorates of 19 constituencies currently fall below the 5 per cent limit, while the electorates of three constituencies are above.

“Our initial proposals for the East Midlands are for 44 constituencies, a reduction of two.”

The commission says constituencies must have no fewer than 71,031 electors and no more than 78,507. Talking about Nottinghamshire, the commission’s report says: “With electorates, respectively, of 76,764 and 74,066, we propose that Bassetlaw and Mansfield should remain wholly unchanged.

“This would mean that the boundaries of the Mansfield constituency would continue to be coterminous with the District of Mansfield. We propose that Ashfield, with an electorate of 76,490, would be changed only to reflect the changes to local government ward boundaries in the area.”

Under the proposals, Ollerton and Boughton wards would transfer from the Sherwood constituency to Newark.

Nationally, Labour is forecast to be worst affected by the changes, as a larger proportion of its seats contain fewer than the prescribed minimum number of voters – with party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington North seat one of those under threat.

Jon Ashworth, the party’s shadow minister, said: “There is nothing fair about redrawing boundaries with millions left out, and reducing the number of elected MPs while the unelected House of Lords continues to grow.”

Chris Skidmore, Tory constitution minister, said the government was “committed to ensuring fair and equal representation for the voting public across the UK is in place by the next general election”. A public consultation is under way into the reforms, with final proposals due in October 2018. If agreed by Parliament the new boundaries would be in place by the 2020 general election.