MPs will be breathing a sigh of relief later on as Guido can reveal a Written Ministerial Statement will confirm the heavily a rumoured and lobbied for change of remit for the Boundary Commission. As Guido pointed to in January, the Government has now officially decided to maintain the number of seats in the Commons at 650, rather than Cameron’s 2010 promise of reducing the number to 600. The statement will justify the retention of 50 extra seats on the basis of the 73 UK MEPs losing theirs, and an alleged increased workload on MPs. This, of course, dubiously rests on the assumption that the work MEPs did was consequential…

UPDATE: The statement has now been published:

“This is a change in policy from the position previously legislated for under the Coalition Government. Since that policy was established in the Coalition Agreement, the United Kingdom has now left the European Union. The UK Parliament will have a greater workload now we are taking back control and regaining our political and economic independence. It is therefore sensible for the number of parliamentary constituencies to remain at 650.”