INVERCLYDE'S Alba politicians have insisted the council should ignore a key consultation on UK Parliament constituency boundaries - because of the Scottish Government’s plan to hold an independence referendum in 2023.

During the final full council meeting of the year, elected members discussed proposals to expand the Inverclyde constituency into Renfrewshire.

In its 2023 review, the Boundary Commission for Scotland (BCS) has suggested the seat should also include Bridge of Weir and Houston.

The new seat would increase the size of the electorate and would be known as ‘Inverclyde and Bridge of Weir’.

As councillors debated how they should reply to a consultation on the plans, father and son Jim and Chris McEleny put forward a motion asking the council not to respond at all and branded the process as “irrelevant”.

Their argument came on the back of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announcing she would “initiate the process necessary” to enable an independence referendum in 2023.

Councillor Chris McEleny told the chamber: “Scotland aims to be an independent country and the government wishes to have a vote in 2023 and so this consultation is an irrelevant process that wastes officers’ time.”

His dad added: “I would like to suggest that due to the Scottish Government’s intention to hold a referendum in 2023, Inverclyde Council does not submit a response to this consultation.”

The Boundary Commission’s recommended change is one of dozens proposed, which would see the number of UK parliamentary seats in Scotland reduced from 59 to 57.

The move would ensure each constituency has roughly the same number of electors.

Other political groups on the council all put forward differing views on the plans.

The Labour and SNP groups agreed their preference would be for the boundary to remain as it is but equally said they would accept the proposals if that case was rejected.

The SNP Group did suggest, however, that their second preference would be for the constituency to instead cover Langbank and Skelmorlie and, failing that, for the current proposals to also take in Langbank.

Labour councillors said there could be a “special case” made for Inverclyde to remain as a smaller electorate given the high levels of deprivation in the area, while Conservative councillors were in favour of the BCS blueprint.

When the issue was put to a vote, elected members agreed by majority the council should respond to the survey and express the views of each political group.

No councillors backed the view of the Alba Party duo.

Council leader Stephen McCabe said: “We believe there is a case for Inverclyde to remain as a separate constituency.

“If that case was rejected by the BCS then we would support the current proposals.

“Rather than us have a tortured debate trying to come to a common position on this, I think it’s best if officers respond setting out the views of the individual groups.”