A FINAL report which will decide the future of Bolton’s constituency boundaries has been submitted to the Government.

But it could be quite a wait before the full implications are known.

As part of its recommendations, the Boundary Commission for England (BCE) was looking at abolishing MP Yasmin Qureshi's Bolton South East seat.

And Conservative MP Chris Green could also be at risk because the plan contains a small but significant change that could leave him facing a fight to hold on to his marginal Bolton West constituency.

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The Commission began the 2018 Boundary Review in February 2016. It issued its initial proposals in September 2016, and consulted on them for 12 weeks. This included hosting public hearings across England. Two further consultation periods were held in 2017. Over 35,000 public comments were received during these consultations.

The report and the final recommendations contained within it cannot be published until the Government lays the report in Parliament. However, there is no prescribed timetable for this to happen and it is entirely up to the Government when it chooses to do so.

A new Farnworth and Radcliffe constituency could replace Bolton South East and be made up of the Bolton wards of Farnworth, Harper Green, Hulton, Kearsley and Little Lever and Darcy Lever, as well as Radcliffe North, West, and East.

Rumworth and Great Lever could move to the Bolton North East constituency, while that constituency would lose Halliwell to Bolton West.

Under Labour Party rules, Ms Qureshi will have the right to seek election in Farnworth and Radcliffe if she chooses to, as it contains more than 40 per cent of her previous constituency.

She opposed the break-up of her existing wards, stating that residents of Rumworth and Great Lever ‘have relatives and families who have gone out into Harper Green, Farnworth and even parts of Kearsley’.

The commission's proposal to take the strong Labour ward of Halliwell to Bolton West would spell trouble for Mr Green, who has a majority of just 936.

He said: "I think there are a variety of common-sense options that could be done in designing a new Bolton West constituency. But, unfortunately, the rules set out in terms of the size of the constituencies are quite poorly thought out.

"They restrict the size and therefore the nature of the constituency, which means it may not represent areas of common interest.

"A Member of Parliament needs to speak with a voice that reflects the entire constituency and sometimes the Boundary Commission puts forward proposals that don't reflect local concerns.

"With a growing population, it will mean that MPs will be further removed from their constituents."

The new constituencies are planned to be in use at the next scheduled General Election in 2022.

Secretary to the BCE, Sam Hartley, said, “We’re confident that the new map of constituencies best reflects the rules set for us by Parliament and we’re especially pleased that our recommendations are based heavily on what members of the public have told us about their local areas. It is now up to the Government to present our report to Parliament, and we look forward to being able to publish our recommendations once that has happened.”

The BCE is an independent and impartial advisory body. The Act required it to base its review on electorate data from December 2015. At December 2015, England’s total electorate was 37,399,942. It was therefore entitled to 501 constituencies for this review, a reduction of 32 from the current total.

The rules stated that every constituency must be within 5pc of the electoral quota (the average number of electors, which, for this review, is 74,769), meaning constituencies must have no fewer than 71,031 and no more than 78,507 electors.