Pushing the Boundaries
The Boundary Commission for England has published its final revised proposals for changes to parliamentary constituencies across the country. Voters in Hastings and Rye have until 5 December to submit their views on the recommendations.
The plans would see the areas around Broad Oak, Three Oaks, Udimore, Cock Marling and Westfield move from the Hastings and Rye constituency to the Bexhill and Battle constituency with parts of Peasmarsh and Rye Foreign moving the other way.
The Stone Cross ward currently within the Bexhill and Battle seat would move to the Lewes constituency whilst Heathfield North and Heathfield South would shift to a new Sussex Weald seat.
Sally-Ann Hart MP; Cllr Helena Dollimore
The following local government wards will make up the Hastings and Rye constituency: Ashdown, Baird, Braybrooke, Castle, Central St Leonards, Conquest, Eastern Rother, Gensing, Hollington, Maze Hill, Old Hastings, Ore, Rye and Winchelsea, Silverhill, Southern Rother, St Helens, Tressell, West St Leonards, Wishing Tree.
The following wards will make up the Bexhill and Battle constituency: Bexhill Central, Collington, Kewhurst, Bexhill Old Town and Worsham, Pebsham and St Michaels, Sackville, Sidley, St Marks, St Stephens, Burwash and the Weald, Catsfield and Crowhurst, Herstmonceux and Pevensey Levels, Hurst Green and Ticehurst, North Battle, Netherfield and Whatlington, Northern Rother, Pevensey Bay, Robertsbridge, Sedlescombe and Westfield, and South Battle and Telham.
Rebalancing
The stated purpose of the boundary review is to rebalance the number of electors each MP represents. At present, the size of each parliamentary constituency varies widely. The Outer Hebrides is the smallest constituency with just over 21,000 electors, whilst the Isle of Wight is the biggest with over 110,000. Under the new proposals the Hastings and Rye constituency will have an electorate of 75,581, some 5,000 fewer than in 2019. Bexhill and Battle will have 70,869 electors, down from 81,963 in 2019.
The Boundary Commission will submit its final recommendations to Parliament by 1 July 2023. MPs will then vote on whether to approve the changes. If they do, the new constituencies will be set up in time for a General Election in 2024.
Hastings and Rye is likely to remain a marginal battleground between Conservatives and Labour. In 2019 it was held by Sally-Ann Hart for the Conservatives with a majority of 4,043, but the result was much closer in 2017, when Amber Rudd squeaked home by just 346 votes, and previously Labour’s Michael Foster had won three successive elections in 1997, 2001 and 2005. The proposed boundary changes seem at first glance to assist the Labour cause. The party’s recently appointed candidate for the next election, Helena Dollimore, will surely be happy to see the constituency shaved of some rural wards which don’t return Labour councillors in local elections.
Over at Bexhill and Battle, Conservative Huw Merriman holds the seat with a comfortable majority – 26,059 in 2019. That majority may be cut next time round by the thinning of electorate numbers, but the changes are unlikely to make much difference to his security of tenure.
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