The plans will see 59 Scottish MPs in London

Revised plans published to redraw the electoral map in Labour's traditional heartland have now been published.

The commission's country-wide proposals, unveiled in February 2002, would result in 59 Scottish seats - 13 fewer than the present 72.

The Scottish Labour Party and Mr Reid himself had argued against the proposals at a public inquiry into the plans held last September.

New constituencies

It raises the prospect of in-party machinations as the same number of MPs, mainly Labour, chase a smaller number of seats.

Under the plans five new constituencies would be created in North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire.

The area currently has five constituencies and parts of two others - one of those two being the Hamilton North & Bellshill seat held by Mr Reid.

The move is designed to bring the size of Scottish constituencies more closely into line with English seats, at about 69,000 electors per constituency.

Mr Reid argued for the creation of a new Hamilton & Bellshill seat which he said would offer a higher degree of historical continuity and produce a constituency which more closely matched the electoral population target of 69,000 per area.

Mr Reid "will be a Labour candidate in Lanarkshire"

But the commission's latest proposals make only minor alterations to the initial plan, including the renaming of a proposed Bearsden, Bishopbriggs & Kirkintilloch West constituency simply as East Dunbartonshire.

The other constituencies in the designated area would be Airdrie & Shotts; Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill; Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East and Motherwell & Wishaw.

A Scottish Labour source said Mr Reid would not be moving far, when standing at the next election, but refused to comment on speculation about who might make way.

The source said: "John will be a Labour candidate in Lanarkshire for the next election."

Labour's other sitting MPs in the area include Helen Liddell, the former Scots Secretary, and Rosemary McKenna.

A spokesman for the Boundary Commission said a final proposal had yet to be submitted to the Secretary of State for Scotland, and the latest revisions were open to public consultation.