THE full absurdities of Boundary Commission plans have been revealed amid claims the Angel of the North would be counted as part of a Sunderland constituency under proposed changes.

A Conservative party bid to reduce the number of MPs from 650 down to 600 will see three North East seats go and many more redrawn under proposals discussed in Newcastle.

MPs and concerned individuals lined up to show Boundary Commission officials that plans created in London have little or no consideration for the geographical realities of where people live, shop and work in the North East.

Labour’s Blaydon MP Dave Anderson, whose constituency would be abolished under current proposals, told the Commission during a public inquiry at Newcastle’s Civic Centre that the changes ignored all that places such as Gateshead had proudly achieved.

Listing the borough’s cultural achievements over the last 10 years, Mr Anderson said: “It was the Angel which was the first and I would argue the best of these changes, and yet sadly under these proposals it would no longer be under the purview of a Gateshead MP. It would, in parliamentary terms, effectively be in Sunderland.”

He also warned that scrapping Blaydon would “remove from the Parliamentary lexicon the word Blaydon” a constituency which, he said, has given the “Geordie nation its unofficial anthem”.