Parliamentary Constituencies (Amendment) Bill

Debate between Michelle Donelan and Khalid Mahmood

2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 1st December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mahmood]

I have taken the hon. Gentleman’s intervention; he must now sit down.

[Michelle Donelan (Chippenham) (Con)]

rose—

[Mr Mahmood]

I am not going to take any more silly interventions from Conservative Members. They must realise what this means to my communities. This is about protecting those communities and building on the unity and bonds that have been formed. Conservative Members do not understand that, and neither does the Boundary Commission. I am passionate about keeping this unity, because of the work we have done over the last 16 and a half years, with the police, the community and many different sorts of organisations, to pull that together. [Interruption.] Conservative Members find this funny, but it is not funny for those people who have had huge numbers of issues to deal with. Thankfully, over the last 16 years, working with these organisations and the police, we have managed to address them. We want to continue to hold the constituency together, and support those people.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Mahmood]

The hon. Gentleman cannot have been listening to me: my point is about the connection between the communities that we have, and we want to keep them together. [Interruption.] They will not be together under the boundary changes, because they will be divided between two different local authorities.

[Michelle Donelan]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mr Mahmood]

No, I am sorry, but I must conclude.

What I am asking for is an understanding of what my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton wants to do. It is important to keep such communities together. The Boundary Commission had a duty to do that— to look after communities and people. We are here discussing this matter because the Government have not provided proper registrations for such communities. If they had done so, we would not be looking at boundary changes. I commend my hon. Friend for introducing this Bill.