Boundary changes could impact Cornwall-Devon border

The Boundary Commission has chosen to cross the Cornwall-Devon border in the shallow upper reaches of the Tamar.

Under the new law on constituency sizes, the Boundary Commission says Cornwall will inevitably have to share an MP with Devon in some form.

Setting aside the emotive issue of the "Devonwall" seat, both counties would gain strikingly new whole constituencies.

In Devon, the Tavistock and Plympton seat would stretch from the fringes of Plymouth - up through Tavistock and Okehampton - to just south of Holsworthy.

Radical redrawing

On the Cornish side, the constituency of Bodmin and Newquay would sprawl along the north coast all the way from Port Isaac to Portreath.

But this radical re-ordering of the map may not have a dramatic impact on electoral outcomes.

If we project the votes from last year's general election onto the new boundaries, very little changes in terms of the balance of power.

However, instead of one Labour MP, Plymouth would probably have none.

And the proposed seat of Bideford and Bude looks like being Liberal Democrat.