Electorate 53,882 (December 2010) European Parliament constituency Wales Number of members 1 | Population 69,197 (2011 census) Created 1918 Member of parliament Christopher Davies Welsh assembly Mid and West Wales | |
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Created from BreconshireRadnorshire Major settlements | ||
Brecon and Radnorshire (Welsh: Brycheiniog a Sir Faesyfed) is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created in 1918, it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election; until 1997 its name was simply Brecon and Radnor.
Contents
The Brecon and Radnorshire Welsh Assembly constituency was created with the same boundaries in 1999.
Boundaries
The boundaries of the constituency correspond broadly with the ancient counties of Brecknockshire and Radnorshire. Radnorshire is included in full, and the only significantly populated area from Brecknockshire not in this constituency is Brynmawr, which is in Blaenau Gwent. This is the largest constituency in England and Wales by area. No town in the constituency exceeds a population of 10,000, the largest being Ystradgynlais at roughly 9,000. Other towns in the constituency are Brecon, Knighton, Crickhowell and Llandrindod Wells. The remainder of the constituency is largely made up of small villages and land used for farming sheep: sheep outnumber humans in Powys as a whole by around ten to one.
Under constituency changes announced in September 2016 ahead of the next general election it is proposed to merge this seat with the southern half of Montgomeryshire including Newtown to form a new seat called Brecon, Radnor and Montgomery.
History
The constituency was created in the boundary changes of 1918 by merging Breconshire and Radnorshire, both previously constituencies in their own right. While once a Labour stronghold, the constituency was captured from the Conservative government by the SDP-Liberal Alliance at a dramatic by-election in 1985. It was regained by the Conservatives in 1992, but has been in Liberal Democrat hands since 1997. It was the Conservative Party's fifteenth target seat at the 2005 election, but their share of the vote fell, leaving it as the Conservatives' 95th target seat in 2010, requiring a swing of 5.09%. In the event, the swing to the Conservatives was 0.3%, and the Liberal Democrats retained the seat, with Roger Williams remaining the MP. In 2015 the seat was reclaimed for the Conservatives by Chris Davies whose majority of 5102 was the largest in the constituency since Tom Hooson won the seat, also for the Conservatives, in 1983. Roger Williams stood for the Liberal Democrats once again but shed over 6500 votes from his 2010 result, a loss of 17.8%.
Elections in the 1990s
The Labour candidate Chris Mann, won the selection over future AMs Carwyn Jones, Jeffrey Cuthbert and future AM and MP Peter Law
Elections in the 1940s
General Election 1939/40:
Another general election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;
Elections in the 1910s
*endorsed by the Coalition Government