LETTER : Tory boundaries of common sense

Sir: Brian Mawhinney is engaging in a game of make-believe in claiming that the Tories would have achieved an overall majority of 41 instead of 21 had the new boundaries been in place at the last election (report, 14 March).

The only serious independent academic study, undertaken for the BBC and ITN by Thrasher and Rallings from Plymouth University, indicates the government majority would have been 27. That was a rigorous exercise that included consultation with all political parties including the Conservatives.

Labour does indeed face a momentous challenge to gain the 56 seats necessary to win an overall majority at the general election. It represents the largest number of Labour gains since its 1964 victory.

But to argue that boundary changes have delivered a 20-seat bonus for the Tory majority while Dr Mawhinney's colleagues have been searching around the country on the chicken run for safer seats because of the very same changes defies intelligent analysis.

David L Gardner

London SE7

The writer was the Labour Party's boundaries strategy co-ordinator 1989- 95