Two MPs could be lost under major reforms

Labour believes the new majority Tory government will try to resurrect its plans to cut 50 MPs and revise boundaries of constituencies.

The review, carried out by the independent Boundary Commission, was shelved under the coalition government when the Liberal Democrats withdrew their support for it.

Under the changes, Wolverhampton North East would be carved up between the two remaining Wolverhampton constituencies and one of the Walsall seats.

The effect would have meant one of the three Labour MPs representing the city would have been lost.

The north east seat is held by Emma Reynolds, who has just become Labour's shadow local government secretary.

Sandwell, which returned Labour MPs in all three of its seats, would lose one of them under the changes.

West Bromwich East and West Bromwich West would be merged to form a new Wednesbury constituency, potentially pitting MPs Tom Watson and Adrian Bailey against one another.

Mr Watson is currently running a campaign to become Labour's deputy leader.

Some parts of West Bromwich West would be merged with the current Dudley North, held by Labour's Ian Austin.

Stone in Staffordshire, held by Tory Sir Bill Cash, is rock solidly Conservative.

It is to go into a new West Staffordshire seat, along with part of Stafford and Staffordshire Moorlands. But the new seat would also contains a large chunk of Labour-held Stoke-on-Trent South.

Other Staffordshire seats such as South Staffs, Lichfield, Cannock Chase and Stafford would have a few minor changes.

But it means the incumbent Conservative MPs would be fighting the next election on largely the same turf as last week, when they all increased their majorities.

Warley would become a new Smethwick constituency and take on parts of West Bromwich.

Halesowen and Rowley Regis will stay a constituency in its own right. It was a key battleground of the election but the Tories held on with an increased majority for MP James Morris.

Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden said: "I think the Tories will want to bring the boundary changes back.

"The original proposals cut Bilston up like a pizza with absolutely no regard for local identity.

"We campaigned very hard on this and we managed to get the Boundary Commission to agree to significant changes to their proposals.

"But the real reason for this is the Tories think it will give them an advantage.

"It will make it much harder for Labour to recover from its defeat last week."

An analysis by the Electoral calculus website suggested the Conservative majority would have been much larger had the boundary changes taken effect in 2013 as was originally planned.

The Tories would have won 314 seats out of 600, as opposed to 331 out of 650.

That would have given them 52.3 per cent of the Commons, rather than 50.9 per cent as they won last week with the present system.

Labour would have had 211 out of 600 seats, 35.1 per cent as opposed to the 35.7 per cent they actually won.

The changes would not have spared the Liberal Democrats, who collapsed to just eight seats.

They would have been left with only seven in the new Parliament. However, it would have been a larger share of the Commons.

Labour's fortunes in Scotland would also have been just as bad. Under the new model the SNP would still have had 49 out of the 52 new constituencies.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg forced the plans to be shelved by withdrawing Liberal Democrat support for the changes.

It came after the Conservatives refused to agree to his plans to reform the House of Lords.