The Revised Proposals for Lichfield issued by the Boundary Commission for England has no surprises for Lichfield. Having received representations from various bodies and individuals, the Commission has kept to its original proposals: namely, that Hammerwich should be transferred to the Tamworth constituency and that, to compensate, Haywood & Hixon should be transferred from the Stafford constituency to Lichfield. A counter proposal that Whittington should be moved into Tamworth instead of Hammerwich was rejected by the Commission.

Michael Fabricant comments: “I did not want to lose any part of my Lichfield constituency having close ties in both Hammerwich and Whittington. It is unfortunate that a change has to be made at all, but I recognise that the numbers just don’t stack up. Tamworth is too small and needs an extra ward to keep its numbers up and by removing a ward from Lichfield, we will need an extra ward to keep our numbers up. It is only right that Parliamentary constituencies should all have roughly the same number of constituents; and the rule is that this should be plus or minus 5% of the average – around 76,000 voters per MP.

“But, of course, this could all be academic. With the Liberal-Democrats now saying they will vote against this measure and Labour saying the same – as it gives them a political advantage in urban seats where there are currently more Labour MPs per head of population – all this could be academic. The vote on boundary changes will be taken in the House of Commons around about July, September, or October next year. If the vote is defeated, the next General Election will be fought on existing boundaries.”