County Buckinghamshire Electorate 75,320 (December 2010) Created 1974 (1974) | Population 99,387 (2011 census) Major settlements Beaconsfield, Marlow | |
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Member of parliament Dominic Grieve (Conservative) | ||
Beaconsfield /ˈbɛkənzfiːld/ is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Dominic Grieve QC of the Conservative Party, the former Attorney General of England and Wales.
Contents
Boundaries
1974-1983: The Urban District of Beaconsfield, the Rural District of Eton, and in the Rural District of Wycombe the civil parishes of Hedsor and Wooburn.
1983-1997: The District of South Bucks, and the District of Wycombe wards of Bourne End-cum-Hedsor, Flackwell Heath, Loudwater, The Wooburns, and Tylers Green.
1997-2010: The District of South Bucks, and the District of Wycombe wards of Bourne End-cum-Hedsor, Flackwell Heath, Little Marlow, Loudwater, The Wooburns, and Tylers Green.
2010-present: The District of South Bucks, and the District of Wycombe wards of Bourne End-cum-Hedsor, Flackwell Heath and Little Marlow, Marlow North and West, Marlow South East, and The Wooburns.
The seat consists of Beaconsfield, most of Burnham (including Burnham Beeches forest), Denham, Dorney, Farnham Common, Farnham Royal, Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Hedgerley, Iver, Stoke Poges, Taplow and Wexham (excluding Wexham Court); Hedsor, Little Marlow, Marlow, Wooburn and Bourne End and the Flackwell Heath settlement of Chepping Wycombe.
History
The constituency was created in 1974, mostly from the former seat of South Buckinghamshire, since which date the area has formed the southernmost part of Buckinghamshire — before 1974 the notable settlements of Slough and Eton, and less well-known Langley, Wraysbury, Sunnymeads and Datchet were in the county. This leads to the unusual shape of the constituency, further accentuated in irregularity by the Thames meander containing Cookham, Berkshire to the west and southwest. It is traditionally one of the safest Conservative seats in Britain.
2010 election
The Conservative incumbent's win in 2010, Dominic Grieve, with 61.1% of the vote, was the second highest share of the vote in the general election after William Hague in Richmond, North Yorkshire.
1982 candidates
In the Beaconsfield by-election, 1982 caused by the death of Sir Ronald Bell, the third-placed candidate was Tony Blair for the Labour party. Tim Smith was the first and only person ever to have beaten Blair in an election. Paul Tyler was in second place; he later became an MP for North Cornwall, meaning that, most unusually, the three main-party candidates subsequently served in the House of Commons at the same time.