Blunkett leads attack on Yorkshire constituency boundary changes

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett claims the plans – which will see the number of MPs in Yorkshire cut and his Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough seat split between three new ones – will lead to a “complete breach of any kind of community identity”.

Mr Blunkett revealed he has yet to decide whether to stand again at the next election. He is also being encouraged by some in the party to run to become South Yorkshire’s first elected Police Commissioner in next November’s election.

But he warned that the proposed boundary changes could herald the end of the current first-past-the-post voting system – which voters overwhelmingly decided to keep in May’s referendum. Meanwhile supporters of proportional representation have seized on the lack of community ties to argue there is no longer a need for a direct constituency link between voter and MP.

Mr Blunkett said: “The complete breach of any kind of community identity is a forerunner to doing away with the single member constituencies, in my view.

“Once they’ve done away with that link and there’s no longer a sense of belonging or identity then the Liberal Democrats will come back with the mantra ‘well now the link has been clearly broken, isn’t it time we reconsidered the single transferable vote and multi-member constituencies and party list systems’.”

The new constituencies have been drawn up in order to meet Government plans to cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600, saving £12m a year and ensuring most MPs represent a similar number of voters. Despite Mr Blunkett’s concerns, the Labour Party is not understood to be planning to appeal against most changes in Yorkshire.

Mr Blunkett believes the new seats covering Mr Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam constituency are winnable by Labour.