Surrey could be getting a new seat in Parliament

The South West Surrey constituency would be split in two under proposals reviewing boundaries across England, giving Surrey an extra seat in Parliament.

It would be turned into Godalming and Ash and Farnham and Bordon, leaving MP Jeremy Hunt with a choice to make about which to represent.

The plan is part of an independent review done every few years as populations change, to try to make sure all parliamentary constituencies contain a roughly equal number of voters, around 70,000-77,000.

This one is now open for public comments and is due to be completed by July 2023, ahead of the next general election in May 2024.

South West Surrey’s western boundary currently stops at Churt, but would be extended as far as Bordon in East Hampshire.

Meanwhile its eastern boundary would move westward to include Sandhills but leave out places like Godalming, Hambledon and Dunsfold.

These would instead become part of a new Godalming and Ash constituency, along with Cranleigh and surrounding villages, which would no longer be represented by the Guildford MP.

Instead, the Guildford seat would encompass more places to its east such as Ripley and the Horsleys – the latter currently part of the Mole Valley seat – making Guildford more akin to its local authority area.

Guildford borough councillor Tony Rooth, of the Residents for Guildford and Villages party, thought this would make sense from a geographical point of view.

“Horsley is very much part of Guildford Borough Council whereas Cranleigh works with Waverley. It aligns everything up.”

He was not sure how much difference it would make politically and thought that on a parliamentary level Guildford would continue to be a “marginal seat contested between the Conservatives and Lib Dems”.

In the last general election Angela Richardson beat Zöe Franklin by 3,337 votes.

Mrs Franklin, Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesperson for Guildford and Cranleigh, said a boundary change was long overdue but was not sure about these proposals.

“There are some places that don’t fit,” she said. “It needs to take into account the natural communities in the area.

“A complete rethink of the voting system would be a much better place to start. I think it’s clear that first past the post isn’t fair and I think that should be part of the conversation.”

She also had concerns that Ash had been “bounced around quite a lot”.

Michael Gove’s Surrey Heath would lose Ash to the new constituency Godalming and Ash, but gain Pirbright and Normandy from the Woking constituency, which would reduce in area size and take on exactly the same boundaries as Woking Borough Council.

Woking MP Jonathan Lord said: “I’m delighted that Woking is set to continue as a single strong constituency, although I am obviously very sad indeed that we may perhaps lose the Guildford borough villages of Pirbright and Normandy from the Woking seat because of these boundary changes.

“I will be studying the map very carefully indeed over the next week or two to see whether they’ve come up with the best possible configuration overall for Surrey.

“One piece of good news has already become clear, however. Surrey will, in future, have twelve constituencies and MPs rather than the current eleven.”

He expected the Conservatives to be “broadly supportive” of the proposals, though they had not yet formally responded.

“The mood music I’m getting is that they’ve done a pretty good job,” he said.

“It’s a very long and thorough process but quite right too because this is our democracy we’re talking about.”

Runnymede and Weybridge would be replaced by a constituency called Weybridge and Chertsey which would include Cobham, currently part of Dominic Raab’s Esher and Walton seat.

Egham would move into the Windsor constituency, over the county boundary.

The only constituency where no changes at all are proposed is Spelthorne.

In addition to losing Ripley and the Horsleys, Mole Valley – to be renamed Dorking and Horley – would also lose Gomshall and Albury to the new Godalming and Ash constituency, as well as Leatherhead to an expanded Epsom and Ewell.

However, as its new name suggests, it would gain Horley from East Surrey and Salfords from Reigate, while Reigate would extend upwards to take the Epsom Downs area.

The independent Boundary Commission for England (BCE) is consulting on its initial proposals until August 2.

Tim Bowden, Secretary to the BCE, said: “During the last review, we changed over half of our proposals to reflect the local knowledge submitted by the public during the consultation process.

“It is now over to you to tell us whether your area is best represented in the boundaries and constituency names we have proposed; and if not, how these can be improved.”

A plan to reduce cost by reducing the number of UK MPs from 650 to 600, was abandoned in 2020 and attributed to a greater workload expected after Brexit.

See the BCE’s full map of existing and proposed boundaries and comment here.