Post by Pete Whitehead on Dec 5, 2022 22:02:16 GMT
Berkshire is entitled to nine seats and a new seat is created in the centre of the county, in the Reading suburbs. Most of the remaining constituencies remain more or less intact but with varying degrees of changes to accomodate the new seat.
In the case of Reading East the changes are significant and the name is changed to just 'Reading' but this is recognisably the succesor seat. It loses the largely Conservative voting suburn of Woodley in Wokingham district to the new Earley & Woodley constituency as well as the safe Labour ward of Church in South Reading. Replacing these are three wards from Reading West - Battle, Minster and Southcote - all safe Labour wards.
In as much as Reading East could be considered marginal, these boundary changes transform it into a safe Labour seat. Labour might regret the concentration of so much of their support in Reading into a single seat as while Reading West was eminently winnable, the two 'new' seats dominated by Reading suburbia will be much tougher nuts to crack.
Notional result 2019 on the proposed new boundaries - Reading
In the case of Reading East the changes are significant and the name is changed to just 'Reading' but this is recognisably the succesor seat. It loses the largely Conservative voting suburn of Woodley in Wokingham district to the new Earley & Woodley constituency as well as the safe Labour ward of Church in South Reading. Replacing these are three wards from Reading West - Battle, Minster and Southcote - all safe Labour wards.
In as much as Reading East could be considered marginal, these boundary changes transform it into a safe Labour seat. Labour might regret the concentration of so much of their support in Reading into a single seat as while Reading West was eminently winnable, the two 'new' seats dominated by Reading suburbia will be much tougher nuts to crack.
Notional result 2019 on the proposed new boundaries - Reading
| Lab | 27338 | 52.6% |
| Con | 18434 | 35.5% |
| LD | 3805 | 7.3% |
| Grn | 1750 | 3.4% |
| BxP | 476 | 0.9% |
| Oth | 139 | 0.3% |
| Majority | 8904 | 17.1% |