County City of Bristol Created 1885 Member of parliament Thangam Debbonaire Party Labour Party | Electorate 91,236 (December 2015) European Parliament constituency South West England Number of members 1 | |
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Bristol West is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It covers the central and western parts of Bristol.
Contents
Boundaries
1885-1918: The Municipal Borough of Bristol wards of Clifton, St Augustine's, St Michael's, and Westbury, and the local government district of Horfield.
1918-1950: The County Borough of Bristol wards of Clifton North, Clifton South, Horfield, Redland, St Michael, and Westbury-on-Trym.
1950-1955: The County Borough of Bristol wards of Bishopston, Clifton, Redland, St Augustine, St James, and St Michael.
1955-1974: The County Borough of Bristol wards of Bishopston, Cabot, Clifton, Durdham, and Redland.
1974-1983: The County Borough of Bristol wards of Bishopston, Cabot, Clifton, District, Durdham, and Redland.
1983-1997: The City of Bristol wards of Ashley, Bishopston, Cabot, Clifton, Cotham, Henleaze, Redland, and Stoke Bishop.
1997-2010: The City of Bristol wards of Ashley, Bishopston, Cabot, Clifton, Cotham, Henleaze, Redland, Stoke Bishop, and Westbury-on-Trym.
2010-present: The City of Bristol wards of Ashley, Bishopston, Cabot, Clifton, Clifton East, Cotham, Easton, Lawrence Hill, and Redland.
Following the review into parliamentary representation in Bristol by the Boundary Commission for England, Bristol West was subject to significant boundary changes at the 2010 general election. Easton and Lawrence Hill wards were transferred from Bristol East, while Henleaze, Stoke Bishop and Westbury-on-Trym wards were lost to Bristol North West. During the review, a proposal to rename the constituency as "Bristol Central" was rejected.
History
Traditionally this was the safest Conservative seat in Bristol, covering its most middle-class areas. It was held by the party continuously for a century and was represented by a series of Conservative cabinet ministers including Michael Hicks-Beach, Oliver Stanley, Walter Monckton and William Waldegrave. The seat was held by the Conservatives for 112 years before Labour's Valerie Davey won it at the 1997 general election; Labour had been third in 1992.
At the 2005 election the seat was Liberal Democrat target number 18, and Conservative target number 50; it had been frequently described in the media as a "three-way marginal", and all parties fought hard for the constituency. The seat was taken by Liberal Democrat Stephen Williams with a large majority, thought to have been aided by the large student electorate, hostile to Labour's top-up fees policy. This Liberal Democrat success was similar to those in other seats with a large student population, such as Cambridge, Manchester Withington, Leeds North West and Cardiff Central. In the 2010 election, Stephen Williams held the seat with an increased majority. In the 2015 general election, however, the Liberal Democrat vote fell by 29.2% and Williams came third, over 10,000 votes behind the winning Labour candidate Thangam Debbonaire and more than 5,000 behind the Green Party candidate, who achieved the greatest increase in the Green vote (+23%) in any seat that election, albeit not enough to gain the seat.
Elections in the 2010s
(Note that the vote-share changes for 2010 are from the notional results on the new boundaries, not the actual 2005 results))
Elections in the 2000s
[1] [2]
Elections in the 1910s
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;