Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

My Lords, I would like to bring to the House some experience of having had to go through a purely numerical exercise in redrawing a constituency, because the reduction of 13 in the number of Westminster seats for Scotland took place against a background of the Scottish Parliament. I am sure the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, will correct me on the timing of these things, as he was the first Deputy First Minister in Scotland. The original section of the Scotland Act said that if the Westminster seats were reduced, the number of Scottish Parliament seats would be reduced as well. However, come the time—I think that the noble and learned Lord was still Deputy First Minister—such a row was kicked up that the proposal for a reduction in Scottish seats was abandoned, but the reduction in the Westminster seats still went ahead. Then the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, fought for the retention of the status quo on seats—God forbid that they reduced the Scottish Parliament seats. Along with some in the Labour Party, it has to be said, the then Deputy First Minister was in the forefront on behalf of the Liberals fighting for the retention of every single Scottish Parliament seat, and the Westminster seats were reduced. Now we have the situation where the same noble and learned Lord is fighting to reduce the seats. It does not affect him or his party as much as it affects the Labour Party. There is an element of, ““Don’t do as I do; do as I tell you to do””. It rankles a bit when you have somebody behaving like that, because in Scotland we were told it was going to be a numbers exercise only, with 70-odd thousand constituents. This is a similar experience to what is going to happen to boundaries and constituencies throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland if this proposal goes ahead. It has happened already in microcosm in Scotland. We were told it was only about numbers, that communities do not count and that there would be lines drawn on a map to count numbers, and that is what happened. The constituency that I happened to represent at the time—I had the core of Rutherglen, Cambuslang and Halfway—was amalgamated with Blantyre and Burnbank. Then because of the numbers and drawing lines on a map exercise, to save the Scottish Parliament seats being reduced—to save the party of the then Deputy First Minister having its seats reduced—the town of Hamilton was halved, and Hamilton West came into the Rutherglen seat and became part of Rutherglen and Hamilton West. The other half of Hamilton town went in to join Clydesdale and became Lanark and Hamilton East. That is what happened, and I went at that time from 53,000 constituents to 74,000 or 75,000, and now that seat contains 77,000 electors. There has been great discussion here about whether it makes any difference or not. I went through it and it does make a difference. I knew and know every single street in those three communities I have mentioned: Rutherglen, Cambuslang and Halfway. I was the MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West for just under five years and I am quite convinced there were some streets in those three extra areas—Blantyre, Burnbank and Hamilton West—that I had never been in, whereas I prided myself on having delivered leaflets in every street in the former boundaries of the constituency I represented. It may be an intellectual or esoteric thing but I thought that I lost something. I knew that part of my constituency much better. That was not just because I was born and brought up there. It was more compact. You could get around it easier and quicker. People knew you and the area. The extra 25,000 constituents plus those from the extended area—because it was not quite rural but it was certainly less urbanised than parts of the Rutherglen area—made a difference. It was only five years but I still believe that I did not get to know that area as well as I would have liked to. This is what is coming to constituencies. ““Warn”” is a heavy word but I certainly advise that what MPs face is even worse than that because of what is facing their constituencies. The town of Hamilton has never been the same since it was split between two constituencies. I always felt guilty that half of Hamilton town was put into Rutherglen purely and simply to make up the numbers. If you talk to people in Hamilton, they are still annoyed and angry and they feel that their sense of belonging to Hamilton has been badly damaged. We are talking about a ruler across a map. The process was about numbers only and Hamilton was halved for the first time in its at least 170-year history as a Hamilton-based constituency. Folk might say that it does not make any difference. I advise your Lordships’ House that I came through it. I saw, experienced and still watch it and it is absolutely wrong. The impact on communities throughout the country from this, as well as from the extra 25,000 or 26,000 constituents—which might be less in England; I know that there are wide variations—will be quite drastic. I like to think that people in Rutherglen, Cambuslang and Halfway could get to me any time they wanted. My phone number was in the book and is still in the book. Folk knew where I stayed and came to the door. It was just like being a councillor—and they all knew me when I was a councillor. That is the identification that MPs and former MPs know they have established with their constituencies. I hope that I will not be accused of overstating the case but that is going to be, at the very least, severely damaged under these proposals because the constituency connection will be destroyed. If anybody has any doubts of that, they can come to the town of Hamilton. I will not need to set anybody up. Speak to anybody from Hamilton and they will immediately say, ““This is terrible. The town does not feel the same. We haven’t got a united voice””. My parliamentary neighbour, Jimmy Hood, and I did our best to try to make sure that we co-operated to represent the town of Hamilton as a whole. However, it becomes disjointed through reality because you are going through different bits of the constituency at different times. It affects constituencies in the way that I have described. I have a fondness for remembering the role that the Liberals played, especially the then Deputy First Minister. The Scotland Act was the settled will of the Scottish people—that was fine—but the Liberals fought tooth and nail to retain their Scottish Parliament seats. Again, it is ““Don’t do as I do; do as I tell you to do””. All MPs—it does not matter whether they are Conservative, Labour or Liberal—will feel the effect on their constituents and there will be a backlash in years to come.