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Electoral Administration Bill

I do not want my remarks to be misunderstood as a bilateral contribution to my Front Bench spokesman, seeking in any way to alter the policy of my party, although it may sound like that in part. The amendment does not impose any responsibility on the Boundary Commission to take those things which distinguish one constituency from another into account. The noble Lord, Lord Tyler, has referred to an archipelago of islands. The same could reasonably be said of seats in the north of England, which are 2,000 square miles—one forty-seventh of the landmass of the United Kingdom. That clearly places a demand of physical movement on the Member of Parliament which is quite different from that elsewhere.