Commenting in the Boundary Commission’s proposals for new parliamentary constituency boundaries, Alex Cunningham, Labour MP for Stockton North, said:
“It is lamentable that there is the loss of an MP to the Tees Valley which weakens our area’s representation in Parliament – and that nationally we will see a democracy deficit with a reduction of 50 elected MPs at the same time as the Tory Government is creating dozens of new and unelected Peers in the House of Lords.
“The democracy deficit is all the worse as the proposals are based on the number of people on last December’s electoral role, meaning that thousands of people across the Tees Valley and 2.1 million nationally who registered to vote in the EU Referendum haven’t been included in the numbers.
“The proposals as they stand for the Stockton Borough are a hotchpotch with no fewer than three communities – Billingham, Norton and Stockton itself – split into different constituencies, showing the Boundary Commission doesn’t understand the area.
“Labour will continue to work to oppose the Tory plan to reduce the number of MPs and damage the representation of the people in Parliament.”