CONTROVERSIAL plans to wipe out one of the district’s Westminster seats will be dropped, Tories now believe.
David Cameron is poised to abandon a pledge to cut the number of constituencies by 50.
The proposal - put on hold in the last parliament - would probably have cut the number of seats in the Bradford district from five to four.
An original Boundary Commission blueprint culled Shipley. That proposal was rewritten, but would have axed Bradford South.
The Conservative election manifesto vowed to forge ahead with a “long overdue” reduction to seats, to “make votes of more equal value”.
The plan is deeply unpopular on the Tory benches, where nervous MPs fear for their seats and oppose new constituencies that ignore natural boundaries.
Now the influential chairman of the Conservative 1922 backbench committee, Graham Brady, has called for the Commons to remain as it is for now.
Tory whips have told MPs the shake-up is thought too contentious when the Government has majority of just 12.
Shipley Conservative MP Philip Davies said: "I hope these reports are right. The previous plans reduced the number of MPs, but not the number of Government ministers - therefore giving the Government more control over Parliament, which I believe was unacceptable."
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