PLANS to make major changes to Bolton’s parliamentary constituencies have come under fire, as doubt was cast over whether the controversial proposals will be approved by MPs.

The Boundary Commission’s latest plans to redraw constituency borders would abolish the Bolton South East seat, as well as moving the Labour stronghold of Halliwell into the marginal Bolton West seat.

However, it appears that the proposals could struggle to pass through the House of Commons, due to opposition from other major parties and disgruntled Tories who stand to lose their seats.

The boundary review is being undertaken to reduce the the number of constituencies in the UK to 600 from 650, and to ensure that the number of voters in each constituency is within five per cent of the UK average of 74,769.

Yasmin Qureshi MP, who could seek selection to stand in a newly-created Farnworth and Radcliffe seat, said: “I think reducing the number of constituencies to 600 was wrong in the first place.

“Saying it is about having the constituencies be the same size is misleading because of the number of unregistered voters.

“I know that there are more than 80,000 adults in my constituency, but that is not reflected in these proposals.”

Experts have estimated that Theresa May would have won a majority at the last election if it had taken place under the newly-designed boundaries.

Ivan Lewis MP, who could see the Bury South constituency he has represented for 20 years abolished, said: “Obviously I remain disappointed that Bury South is being abolished entirely, but I also question whether the Government will press ahead with these proposals now that they have a such a narrow majority.

“It is very unclear at this stage whether they will go ahead and far too early to say what I might do if they did. These proposals were always about the interests of the Conservative Party and that is what the remit given to the Boundary Commission was designed around.”

John Walsh, Conservative councillor for Astley Bridge, said he felt the boundary changes are ‘important’ but that the commission had ‘missed a trick or two’ in the North West.

He added: “I think there are some anomalies. I am glad that the whole of the Radcliffe township is now within one constituency, but there are other issues.

“It is interesting that the committee did not support my proposal to include Atherton in Bolton South East, which it has more links to. There are things that I think are unhelpful in these proposals and we should be looking at a response.”

A fresh eight-week consultation on the boundary plans will now get under way with final proposals due to be submitted for Parliament’s approval in September, 2018.