12 September 2016

Jeremy Corbyn’s critics under threat in boundary review

The boundary review will place some of the Labour leader’s most high-profile opponents at risk.

A series of Jeremy Corbyn’s critics are under threat due to the boundary review, the New Statesman has learnt.

Tristram Hunt and Chris Leslie, both vocal critics of the Labour leader, are facing tricky reselection fights after boundary changes. The seat of Alison McGovern, the chair of Progress, changes from a Labour held-marginal to a notional Conservative seat. Chuka Umunna’s Streatham seat takes on parts of Siobhain McDonagh’s Mitcham and Morden, leaving McDonagh without a claim. Both Umunna and McDonagh are critics of the leader.

Under Labour party rules, MPs have a territorial claim if they retain four-tenths of their old seat.

Boundary changes in south London also imperil Jane Ellison, the banking minister, whose seat will notionally switch places from being a safe Conservative seat to one in which Labour start as the notional holders.

However, the Conservatives have a “no MP left behind” policy, which meas a seat for Ellison, who supported Theresa May from the start of the contest, will likely be found. Her Conservative neighbour, Justine Greening, will feel the benefit of Ellison’s discomfort, as her seat will absorb an extra 10,000 Conservative votes. The Labour marginal of Tooting will also become a safer Labour seat, in a boost for the newly-elected MP, Rosena Allin-Khan.

The full figures will be released at midnight tonight.