ASHTON and Failsworth MP, Angela Rayner has swiped at the Conservative Government’s rigid criteria for constituency size that will “lead to historic community ties being broken.”

It comes as constituencies in Oldham are set to be redrawn under initial proposals by the Boundary Commission for England, which aims to make Parliament fairer by giving each MP a roughly similar number of voters.

Under the initial plans, Stalybridge in Tameside will be split across two constituencies and a new a Failsworth and Droylsden constituency will form, meaning Ms Rayner will no longer represent constituents in Oldham.

The Ashton MP criticised the Government’s “one size fits all approach” at the “expense of respecting historic township boundaries” and said the “rigidity” of the criteria for constituency size will “inevitably lead to historic community ties being broken to make the numbers add up.”

“Locally we have seen this manifest itself in the splitting of towns like Stalybridge across two constituencies and the creation of a new 'Failsworth and Droylsden' seat that straddles three Council areas,” she added.

Ms Rayner’s existing Ashton-under-Lyne constituency currently has an electorate that is below the permitted range with proposals by the Boundary Commission advising that the wards Mossley, Stalybridge North and Dukinfield Stalybridge are added to the constituency, as well as the Dukinfield ward.

Bolstered by the four wards Ashton-under-Lyne’s electorate would be pushed above the permitted range. By law, the commission is required to draw up seats with 69,724 to 77,062 electors.

The commission therefore proposes that the Failsworth East and Failsworth West wards and the Droylsden East and Droylsden West wards are no longer included within the constituency and instead the four wards, along with the Audenshaw ward, form a Failsworth and Droylsden constituency.

The Failsworth and Droylsden constituency would also include the Clayton & Openshaw, and Gorton & Abbey Hey wards from the City of Manchester. The Miles Platting & Newton Heath ward would also be divided between this constituency and the proposed Manchester Central constituency.

The review also proposes that the existing Stalybridge and Hyde constituency no longer includes the Mossley, Stalybridge North and Dukinfield Stalybridge wards and is renamed Denton and Hyde.

The Denton and Hyde constituency will include the Denton North East, Denton West and Denton South wards and remain within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, uniting the communities of Denton and Hyde.

Minister for the Constitution and Devolution, Chloe Smith, said: "Equal and updated boundaries are sensible and necessary. They make sure everyone’s vote carries more equal weight in Parliament, across the whole United Kingdom.

"The current constituency boundaries are based on data that is already 20 years old, disregarding significant changes in demographics, house building and migration.”

The commission has meanwhile stressed that the proposals, which open for an initial eight-week public consultation period, were provisional.

It is not due to make its final recommendations to Parliament until July 2023.