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A deal in the House of Lords could pave the way for electoral changes.

So it seems their board games and sleeping bags can be packed away.

which the Lords have endured for days on end.

The stalemate was over the Government's plans to change the country's voting system and cut the size of the House of Commons.

should now pass through the committee stage in the Lords this week.

It follows a string of all-night sittings which has seen our peers holed up overnight at Westminster (the board games were apparently provided for their entertainment).

The Bill will still have to come back to the Commons, but the deal should clear the way for a referendum on 5 May on whether to introduce the Alternative Vote into the General Election.

It will also move forward the plan to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

But that does raise the prospect of an interesting few years for our MPs.

If the Commons is cut down to size, then around four seats are likely to disappear in the North East and Cumbria.

There will also be a big redrawing of boundaries to make the constituencies contain roughly the same number of voters.

It is likely to be an unsettling time then for our MPs.

Most know they will probably survive - but they will have to be reselected for seats that could look very different.

A reduction in the number of MPs mean some will have to compete against their colleagues to secure a seat at the next election.

There will though be some worrying about whether they will make the cut.

Retirements might help, but there won't be an avalanche of them because so many of our MPs are relative newcomers.

And of course there is the potential for these boundary changes to make what is now a safe seat into something far more marginal.

In Northumberland, where four seats could well become three, and in Cumbria, where six could become five, there may well be some interesting battles.

Imagine a seat which encompasses parts of Berwick and Hexham. Who would be favourite there, Lib Dems or Conservatives?

And the changes might prove to have unintentionally positive consequences for us the voters.

Of course, all MPs should already be working hard to ensure they are re-selected as even in the currrent system there are no guarantees.

But in reality to be deselected, you have to have done something pretty appalling.

So it might just focus minds further if you know that you might actually be competing with your colleagues in a game of constituency musical chairs.

Any MP wanting to stay on will want to look as active and dynamic as possible to impress their local parties and constituents.

Even politicians in safe seats might not feel as secure, knowing that it could be one of those to disappear.

And this will continue for some time.

The new boundaries won't be finalised until 2013, and only then will the race for selection begin.

So even though an election may well be more than four years away, our MPs might just be keener than usual to be at our service.

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