How the New Boundary Changes Could Wipe Whole Communities Off the Political Map

Six weeks ago, Siobhian McDonagh, the 56-year-old Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, was driving home from a youth meeting in her constituency when she began to get texts from friends saying how sorry they were. "I knew by the time I got home that it was going to be pretty shocking but I didn't see this coming," she says. "I never thought that they would try and divide a constituency up into four and get rid of it all together. I just felt stunned. It's like a form of social vandalism."

Commiserations were coming in fast because, that evening, the Boundary Commission had put forward their proposals to redraw the UK's parliamentary constituencies. Tory plans to ensure that the distribution of population sizes between seats is fair mean the number of MPs in Parliament will be reduced from 650 to 600. The net effect will be that Labour will lose seats and Conservatives will gain. If the plans go ahead, McDonagh's Mitcham and Morden constituency will be wiped out. Mitcham town centre will be cut in two. One half of the high street will be in Sutton, the other half will go to Wimbledon and Merton.

McDonagh, one of the original Blair's Babes, has been the MP for the safe Labour seat since 1997. Her majority has increased at every election and currently stands at 37.5 percent. This is partly because she's popular and partly because of demographics. Mitcham is situated on the border of "Saarf" London and Surrey. You've got Wimbledon on one side, a very affluent constituency, and then there's Mitcham just next door – one of the most deprived parts of south west London. In 2014 32 percent of children there were living in poverty, more than double that of neighbouring Wimbledon.

Since becoming the MP, McDonagh, who was born and bred in the area, has devoted herself to trying to improve the lives of her constituents. She managed to get the first suburban train station opened since the second world war, Mitcham Eastfield. "Since 1984 we was asking for a station to be put in Mitcham and we were told there was never enough room," says Allan Barley, 80, chair of the local Royal British Legion, who has lived in the area all his life. "Then all of a sudden we got a local MP that was really prepared to go to town on the issue. Without knocking any buildings down, they found room to put a station there. She's done an awful lot."

One of her other big achievements has been managing to keep the local hospital open. "That might not sound like much but we've been fighting its closure every year for the last 18 years," says McDonagh. "We've also encouraged the Harris Academy chain to come to the constituency because we were having particular problems with our secondary schools and now they are doing a great deal better."

Located at the end of the Northern Line, Mitcham and Morden is a constituency that has been kept in more or less the same form since 1918. There would be a reason all the previous boundary commissions would have looked at it and kept it together. Residents say they are breaking up a long established and distinct community just to make the numbers work. Andrew Wakefield is a local vicar and chair of Merton chamber of commerce. He thinks the borough is being treated poorly. "Because of the way London has been filled in it looks like it's not a distinctive place, but there are longstanding families who've been here for years. Families stay here. It's changing but there's still that commitment to a town with an industrial base," he says.

Christine Kelley, a elderly person from Mitcham, thinks that cutting the community into bits is a tragedy for local people. "It's taken us years to get to where we are – we've always been the poor relation in our borough and we've always taken second place to Wimbledon and surrounding areas. Thanks to our MP we've got solid, we've come together as a community. To think that they're going to rip it away from us is scary," she says.

Others seats (mostly inner city Labour ones) have been hit by the proposed boundary changes. Even Corbyn's Islington North is up for grabs. Except for Labour's Ilford South, in north London, none seem to have been dismantled quite as brutally as McDonagh's. "I think the whole reduction in constituencies is about gerrymandering," she says. "I think the particular boundary issue in the case of Mitcham and Morden is that we got unlucky, however I think it's interesting that poorer communities seem to be getting a less good deal."

For those who sat through the independent Boundary Commission's hearing, a review process taking place near Westminster earlier this month, it's beginning to feel that way. In comparison to other more well-known places, it seems like no one gives a shit about this corner of south west London, and boundaries are being redrawn to suit a Tory agenda. "We listened to contributions from Kensington and Chelsea and they were delighted with the plans and we heard about other areas that were very satisfied. None of those areas were going to see the current constituency being split into four or five boroughs so it does make you think perhaps those who can't or don't shout loudest get ignored," says McDonagh.

You can't help but wonder if McDonagh is an easy target. Once a member of the Blairite elite, she's unlikely to get much support from the Corbyn side of party who have their own battles to fight in any case. (Her sister, with whom she lives, is Margaret McDonagh, former general secretary of the Labour Party and so-called "queen of the stitch-up"). Would this have happened in Maidenhead, in Theresa May's constituency? Probably not.

Wiping out safe Labour seats like Mitcham and Morden is a dream come true for the Tories, but the fact that they are using their majority in parliament to change the rules of the game is concerning.

With Labour in wider disarray, these changes could help ensure that the party is set for years – if not decades – out of power. But the way McDonagh sees it, this is about more than just politics. It's about communities. "For me, it's not about whether I stay the MP, it's about this area, the community ties and feelings and the boundaries that have been there before," she says. "Do they count for absolutely nothing?"

@tessreidy

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