How will changes to the political map affect the next general election?

Tories would have won even larger majority in 2019 under Britain's new constituency boundaries, ITV News' Political Correspondent Romilly Weeks

We know the UK general election is almost certainly coming our way this year and, according to the prime minister, more likely than not in the Autumn.

But for many of us it's going to look a little different. The seat you are used to voting in may well have disappeared, re-emerging with a new name and new boundaries.

It's the first time the political map of the UK has been redrawn since 2010 - previous attempts to do it met too much opposition.

This time, 585 of the total 650 constituencies in the UK will find themselves altered in some way.

So, if for example, you have recently voted in the Selby and Ainsty by-election, the new MP (Keir Mather) is going to have a very short time sitting pretty there.

Come the election, Selby and Ainsty will be split between four new seats. And it's a pattern replicated up and down the country, as constituencies expand or contract to ensure all constituencies have roughly the same number of voters.

Why does this matter?

Well, the main effect is that Labour are going to require an even bigger swing from the Tories in order to achieve a majority - up from 12% to 12.7%.

Professor Colin Rallings, who has crunched the data for broadcasters and the Press Association (PA), has calculated that if the boundary changes had been in place at the last election then the Tories would have benefitted to the tune of seven seats, while Labour would have lost two.

With other parties' losses factored in, overall, Boris Johnson's majority would have been increased from 80 to 94.

That would have been significant then, but a lot has changed since Mr Johnson's heyday.

Labour seem pretty resigned about the changes. They see it as yesterday's fight.

Given they are consistently around 18 points clear in the polls, they can afford to be.

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