County Kent Electorate 85,177 (December 2015) | Population 112,940 (2011 census) Created 1885 | |
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Major settlements Tenterden and Ashford, Kent Member of parliament Damian Green (Conservative) | ||
Ashford is a constituency created in 1885 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Damian Green, a Conservative, who has served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since 14 July 2016.
Contents
Boundaries
1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Tenterden, the Sessional Divisions of Ashford and Cranbrook, the corporate towns of Lydd and New Romney, and part of the Liberty of Romney Marsh.
1918–1950: The Municipal Boroughs of Lydd, New Romney, and Tenterden, the Urban District of Ashford, and the Rural Districts of Cranbrook, East Ashford, Romney Marsh, Tenterden, and West Ashford.
1950–1974: The Municipal Borough of Tenterden, the Urban District of Ashford, and the Rural Districts of Cranbrook, East Ashford, Tenterden, and West Ashford.
1974–1983: The Municipal Borough of Tenterden, the Urban District of Ashford, and the Rural Districts of East Ashford, Tenterden, and West Ashford.
1983–2010: The Borough of Ashford.
2010–present: The Borough of Ashford wards of Aylesford Green, Beaver, Biddenden, Bockhanger, Boughton Aluph and Eastwell, Bybrook, Charing, Downs North, Downs West, Godinton, Great Chart with Singleton North, Highfield, Isle of Oxney, Kennington, Little Burton Farm, Norman, North Willesborough, Park Farm North, Park Farm South, Rolvenden and Tenterden West, St Michael's, Singleton South, South Willesborough, Stanhope, Stour, Tenterden North, Tenterden South, Victoria, Washford, Weald Central, Weald East, Weald North, Weald South, and Wye.
Ashford constituency has the large town of Ashford which has Ashford International railway station and the smaller town of Tenterden, one of the area's 46 villages, towns or town suburbs which are organised communities into civil parishes. Ashford town centre, its north and its west are the only unparished areas.
Constituency profile
Created under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, Ashford has been won by a Conservative at every election except that of 1929 when it was won by a Liberal, after that party's turn towards the left marked by the People's Budget in 1911, who won with a majority of less than 1% of the vote.
The most marginal victory since 1929 occurred in 1997 when its voters returned a Conservative who won by a 9.7% majority. The 2015 result made the seat the 106th safest of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority.
The constituency has its express-enabled station to London, Paris and Brussels leading to a considerable use including by local international employers supporting local shops, leisure facilities and attractions. Its use increased by over a million per year in the seven years to 2012, to 3.3 million entries and exits that year. At the end of 2012 the unemployment rate in the constituency stood as 2.0% of the population claiming jobseekers allowance, compared to the regional average of 2.4% and national average of 3.8%.
Members of Parliament
Elections in the 1910s
General Election 1914/15:
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;