Failed sixth periodic review

Under the terms of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies (the 2018 review) was based on reducing the total number of MPs from 650 to 600 and a strict electoral parity requirement that the electorate of all constituencies should be within a range of 5% either side of the electoral quota.

The Boundary Commission for Wales submitted their final proposals in respect of the Sixth Review in September 2018. Although the proposals were immediately laid before Parliament they were not brought forward by the Government for approval. Accordingly, they did not come into effect for the 2019 election which took place on 12 December 2019, and which was contested using the constituency boundaries in place since 2010.

On 24 March 2020, the Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, Chloe Smith, issued a written statement to Parliament setting out the Government's thinking with regard to parliamentary boundaries.^[6] Subsequently, the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020^[7] was passed into law on 14 December 2020 which formally removed the duty to implement the 2018 review and set out the framework for future boundary reviews.

2023 periodic review

The Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020 was passed in December 2020, and the publication of the most recent data of electorate sizes of constituencies on 5 January 2021, lead the Boundary Commission for Wales to begin its review of the parliamentary constituencies in Wales, with the commission required to publish its final recommendations for boundary changes by 1 July 2023. By December 2021, the commission published the responses collected during the consultation period, and then conducted a six-week 'secondary consultation. Unlike the previous periodic review, the total UK constituencies was kept at 650.

When proportionally dividing the total 2021 electoral population of the United Kingdom using a statutory formula between the constituent countries of the UK, it results in England having 543 constituencies, Scotland having 57, Wales having 32 and Northern Ireland with the remaining 18. Each constituency recommended to have no more than 77,062 electors and no less than 69,724.^[8] The figure from Wales is calculated to be 8 seats lower from the total constituencies used for the 2019 UK general election when there were 40 constituencies, the largest decrease of any UK country or region. Wales has one 'protected constituency' not subject to UK electoral quotas, Ynys Môn on the Isle of Anglesey, where boundary changes are not applied. The decrease in constituencies in Wales has been described by the commission to represent "the most significant change to Wales's constituencies in a century", and the commission has no control over the number of constituencies in Wales. The final proposal published by the commission no longer required parliamentary approval and the recommendations in the final report were implemented automatically, however the second consultation period allowed public hearing about the proposals. The commission stated that it tried wherever possible to use existing local government boundaries, such as those of existing constituencies and principal areas.

2019

The numbers of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Wales in the 2019 general election were as follows:

More information Party, Votes ...

Party	Votes	%	Change from 2017	Seats	Change from 2017
Labour	632,035	40.9%	8.0%	22	6
Conservative	557,234	36.1%	2.5%	14	6
Plaid Cymru	153,265	9.9%	0.5%	4	0
Liberal Democrats	92,171	6.0%	1.5%	0	0
Brexit	83,908	5.4%	new	0	0
Greens	15,828	1.0%	0.7%	0	0
Others	9,916	0.6%	1.6%	0	0
Total	1,544,357	100.0		40

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Percentage votes

Key:

CON – Conservative Party, including National Liberal Party up to 1966

LAB – Labour Party

LIB – Liberal Party up to 1979; SDP-Liberal Alliance 1983 & 1987; Liberal Democrats from 1992

PC – Plaid Cymru

UKIP/Br – UK Independence Party 2010 to 2017 (included in Other up to 2005 and in 2019); Brexit Party in 2019

Green – Green Party of England and Wales (included in Other up to 2005)

Seats

CON – Conservative Party, including National Liberal Party up to 1966

LAB – Labour Party

LIB – Liberal Party up to 1979; SDP-Liberal Alliance 1983 & 1987; Liberal Democrats from 1992

OTH – 1970 – Independent (S. O. Davies); 2005 – Independent (Peter Law)

PC – Plaid Cymru

Maps

• 2010
• 2015
• 2017
• 2019 by-elections
• December 2019

These are maps of the results of the last four general elections in Wales and changes in 2019 following a by-election and a change of affiliation.

• Red represents the Labour Party's MPs.
• Blue represents the Conservative Party's MPs.
• Amber represents the Liberal Democrats' MPs.
• Green represents Plaid Cymru's MPs.
• Grey represents Independent MPs.

2019 by-elections

Two by-elections were held in 2019:

• 2019 Newport West by-election
• 2019 Brecon and Radnorshire by-election