COLONEL WYNDHAM MURRAY (Bath)To ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, in view of the proposal of the Redistribution scheme as affecting the county of Somerset that Taunton with a population of about 20,000 shall be represented by a † See (4) Debates, cxlviii., 1134.
182 Member, he will arrange that the city of Bath, with already about 50,000 inhabitants, shall have its Parliamentary boundaries extended if required to enable it to continue to return two Members, if necessary in separate Divisions, to Parliament, as has been the case by charter since the thirteenth century.
(Answered by Mr. A. J. Balfour.) The population in 1901 of the municipal -borough of Taunton was 21,087. It includes the Parliamentary borough, the population of which in 1901 was 19,723, and hence, under Rule 7, the Parliamentary borough would be extended so as to be made co-extensive with the municipal borough. As the scheme stands it would not be disfranchised. The population of the Parliamentary borough of Bath in 1901 was 52,773. It has two Members, and consequently, under Rule 5, it would lose one. To enable it to retain two Members it must under the rule have had in 1901 a population of 75,000. The Parliamentary borough includes, and is larger than, the municipal borough, the population of which in 1901 was 49,839. The Government scheme does not contemplate that a Parliamentary borough should be extended except where it is necessary to make it co-extensive with the municipal borough. It will be observed that in order to prevent its losing a Member under Rule 5, an area with a population of 75,000,52,773, or 22,227 would have to be added.