The FT is reporting that a cross-party consensus on a 400 member senate (80-100% elected using STV or list) is near with proposals to be published before the summer recess. ‘Senators’ will be paid but will not receive office allowances and serve for terms of 12 to 15 years. While the article is somewhat short on detail the proposals for a phased replacement of the existing Lords and described areas of consituency (80 to 100 constituencies) could raise issues for smaller parties including in Northern Ireland. To reach those levels NI and Scotland would have to be treated as one constituency, making it difficult for local parties to get elected in their own right or have to make some interesting alliances. In rough population terms NI should have 11/12 senate seats, leaving some scope for a smaller regional constituency. this would work out at 3/4 senate constituencies (depending on the number of multiple members 3 or 4). However with 80 to 100 multi-member constituencies across the UK, Northern Ireland has scope for 2.1 or 2.7 such constituencies. Thus 3 constituencies is probably the most likely although the phasing could still cause issues with representativeness. (H/T Beano)
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