Rural counties could be hit by coalition MP cuts
One of the Coalition's cuts that might be more popular than others is the slimming down of the House of Commons.
and standardise the number of voters in each constituency.
We don't know exactly what's being proposed at the moment, .
That average based on the existing figures is thought to be around 77,000 electors.
If that is what happens then the vast majority of the North East and Cumbria's constituencies would be seen as undersized.
I could only find ten of our seats that actually fit that criteria.
So seats like Harrogate and Knaresborough, Middlesbrough South, Scarborough and Whitby, Stockton South, Sunderland Central, Tynemouth, North Tyneside, Thirsk and Malton, York Central and York Outer may well survive unaltered.
But many others fall well short of that 77,000 figure.
Of course Labour believes the plan is all about reducing the numbers of their seats in inner city areas.
And certainly some of their Tyneside seats fall well short of the average.
All three Newcastle seats are below average, with Newcastle Central in particular only having an electorate of 60,507.
David Miliband's South Shields seat also has only 63,294 voters.
But it's actually the large rural counties of Cumbria and Northumberland that look the most vulnerable to a cull of MPs. And that includes seats belonging to all three parties.
The smallest electorate in our region is in Sir Alan Beith's Berwick constituency. It has just 57,403 voters.
Conservative Hexham isn't much bigger either (61,375), and the Labour seats of Wansbeck (63,045) and Blyth Valley (64,263) are also well below average.
Cumbria's seats also fall short. Tim Farron's Westmorland and Lonsdale comes closest (67,881) followed by John Stevenson's Conservative Carlisle (65.263) and Rory Stewart's Tory seat of Penrith and the Border (64,548).
But it's the Labour seats in West Cumbria that look particularly small. Jamie Reed's Copeland has 63,291 voters, while Tony Cunningham in Workington relies on an electorate of just 59,607.
Presumably the Electoral Commission has allowed those seats to be lower in population because they're often huge geographically. Penrith and the Border and Berwick are two of the largest in the country.
Taking a seat out of each county might then make sense in terms of evening out the electorate in each seat, but it could well be controversial when people realise how large it might make the remaining constituencies.
Mind you the Government can point to North Yorkshire, another rural, sparsely populated county, which has some of the most populous constituencies in the region.
If MPs can manage in Richmond (79,748) Thirsk and Malton (76,231), or Scarborough and Whitby (75,443), why can't they manage bigger constituencies in Cumbria and Northumberland?
The Government is planning to look at changes in constituency boundaries and sizes between now and the proposed referendum on changing the voting system next May.
A rough calculation suggests the region could lose around four seats.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to public support for fewer MPs when people find out that their constituency will be in the firing line.
Here's the full list of electorates in the region:
Berwick 57,403
Bishop Auckland 68,370
Blaydon 67,808
Blyth Valley 64,263
Carlisle 65,263
Copeland 63,291
Darlington 69,352
Durham North 67,548
Durham North West 70,618
Easington 63,873
Gateshead 66,492
Harrogate and Knaresborough 75,269.
Hexham 61,375
Hartlepool 68,923
Houghton and Sunderland South 68,729
Jarrow 64,350
Middlesbrough 65,148
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland 72,664
Newcastle Central 60,507
Newcastle East 64,487
Newcastle North 67,710
Penrith and the Border 64,548
Redcar 67,125
Richmond 79,478
Sedgefield 64,727
South Shields 63,294
Scarborough and Whitby 75,443
Stockton North 67,363
Stockton South 74,552
Sunderland Central 74,485
Tynemouth 75,680
Tyneside North 77,690
Thirsk and Malton 76,231
Wansbeck 63,045
Westmorland and Lonsdale 67,881
Workington 59,607
Washington and Sunderland West 68,910
York Central 74,908
York Outer 74,965
I'm Richard Moss, the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
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