THE future of Bury's MPs remains in doubt after proposed changes to their constituency boundaries moved a step closer.

Under new proposals published today, the Boundary Commission is pressing ahead with plans to abolish both the existing Bury North and Bury South seats.

Ivan Lewis' seat in the south of the borough would be split between three newly-formed constituencies.

The three wards in Radcliffe will become part of a Farnworth and Radcliffe seat, which also includes five wards from Bolton South East.

These new plans have been amended from initial proposals, published a year ago, that would have instead split Radcliffe between two constituencies.

Pilkington Park, which it was first suggested could join the Farnworth seat, will instead become part of Prestwich and Middleton — which also includes Besses, Holyrood, Sedgley, St Mary's, and five Rochdale wards.

The remaining Bury wards would all be contained within a single Bury constituency.

Under Labour Party rules, MPs are entitled to seek selection in a new constituency if it contains 40 per cent of their existing seat.

That would not apply to Mr Lewis in Farnworth and Radcliffe — where five of the eight wards are currently represented by Bolton South East's Yasmin Qureshi — but would in Prestwich and Middleton.

However, half of the Prestwich and Middleton wards are represented by Liz McInnes, who could also seek selection there.

Mr Lewis said: “I think that the fact that Radcliffe is back together in one constituency is a good thing and I welcome that.

“Obviously I remain disappointed that Bury South is being abolished entirely, but I also question whether the Government will press ahead with these proposals now that they have a such a narrow majority.

“It is very unclear at this stage whether they will go ahead and far too early to say what I might do if they did.

“These proposals were always about the interests of the Conservative Party and that is what the remit given to the Boundary Commission was designed around.”

James Frith would be entitled to be selected in Bury as it contains all of his existing wards, plus Unsworth.

The boundary review is being undertaken to reduce the the number of constituencies in the UK to 600

from 650, and to ensure that the number of voters in each constituency is equal.

An initial 12-week consultation was held in the autumn last year, and comments on the latest plans can now be made at bce.org.uk until December 11.

Final recommendations will be made to Parliament in September 2018 and the new constituencies are planned to be in use at the next scheduled General Election in 2022.