All six parliamentary seats are currently held by Conservatives, having came from holding no seats in 1997, 2001 and 2005, to gaining three of the six from the Liberal Democrats in 2010, to gaining the remaining three to hold all six Cornish seats in 2015. All six MPs were re-elected in 2017. In that election, several previous Liberal Democrat candidates, including previous MPs Andrew George and Steve Gilbert re-stood in their old seats, but failed to be re-elected. In all six seats, the Labour vote surged, pushing the Liberals into third place in four of the six seats. The last Labour MP for a Cornish constituency was Candy Atherton, who held the seat of Falmouth and Camborne between 1997 and 2005.
Constituencies
Proposed boundary changes
The Boundary Commission for England submitted their final proposals in respect of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies in September 2018. Although the proposals were immediately laid beforeParliament they were not brought forward by the Government for approval. Accordingly, they didnotcome 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. Under the terms of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, the Sixth 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. 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. They propose to bring forward primary legislation to remove the statutory obligation to implement the 2018 Boundary Review recommendations, as well as set the framework for future boundary reviews in time for the next review which is due to begin in early 2021 and report no later than October 2023. It is proposed that the number of constituencies now remains at the current level of 650, rather than being reduced to 600, while retaining the requirement that the electorate should be no more than +/- 5% from the electoral quota.
