South Swindon MP Sir Robert Buckland will be facing off against Labour challenger Heidi Alexander at the next general election.

But they will both be campaigning to win a ‘new’ seat.

Sir Robert has been adopted to fight what is still, for the moment, South Swindon for the sixth time.

He said: “I’m very pleased to have been selected as the candidate and I’m looking forward to my sixth campaign.

“I want to carry on serving the people of South Swindon as I have done for the last 13 years.”

But should proposed boundary changes come about before the next election there will be significant changes to the constituency: it will lose large swathes of its southern reaches, including Wanborough, Wroughton and Chiseldon, to a new constituency of East Wiltshire.

And the constituency will be renamed, from South Swindon to Swindon South.

Sir Robert said: “There’s still one more round of consultation going on, but it’s likely that the changes will be finalised by about October this year.”

If persistent rumours that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is planning the next general election for October or November 2024 are correct, that means there will be time for the new constituency boundaries and name to be in force.

Sir Robert said: “The change in name is because the new constituency will be classified as a borough constituency, and with those the name of the town comes first. At the moment both Swindon constituencies are classified as ‘county constituencies’ and they are named the other way round.”

It’s the loss of the southern reaches of the constituency which has changed it from ‘county’ to ‘borough’ - the Boundary Commission for England said: "As a general principle, where constituencies contain more than a small rural element they should normally be designated as county constituencies. Otherwise, they should be designated as borough constituencies."

Another result of the changes, which were mandated by this government in 2020 in order to equalize the size of constituencies at between 70,000 to 77,000 people – is that Sir Robert himself will find himself living outside Swindon South, as he lives in Wroughton.

He said: “It’s just a quirk of the changes- but I’ve been here for more than 20 years, I was first selected as a candidate in 2004.

“And like a lot of people who come to Swindon, I’ve become very proud of it – it’s our home and I want to continue to work for the people of a place that means so much to me and my family.”

As well as Labour’s Heidi Alexander, the Green Party’s Rod Hebden will be standing in South Swindon, or Swindon South, at the next election.