County Derbyshire Electorate 72,866 (December 2010) Created 1885 Member of parliament Toby Perkins Number of members 1 | Population 93,248 (2011 census) Major settlements Chesterfield Created from Derbyshire East Major settlement Chesterfield Replaced by East Derbyshire | |
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Chesterfield is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since the 2010 general election by Toby Perkins of the Labour Party.
Contents
Boundaries
The current boundaries include the town of Chesterfield, together with areas to the north towards Dronfield and to the east towards Bolsover, comprising the Borough of Chesterfield wards: Brimington North, Brimington South, Brockwell, Dunston, Hasland, Hollingwood and Inkersall, Holmebrook, Linacre, Loundsley Green, Middlecroft and Poolsbrook, Moor, Old Whittington, Rother, St Helen’s, St Leonard’s, Walton, and West. The other two Borough of Chesterfield wards (Barrow Hill and New Whittington; Lowgates and Woodthorpe) fall within the neighbouring North East Derbyshire seat. Boundary changes before the 2010 general election, when the Mid Derbyshire constituency was created, meant that Chesterfield lost New Whittington to North East Derbyshire but otherwise retained its shape.
The town of Chesterfield lies just outside the Peak District southwest of Sheffield. Its best known landmark is the Church of St Mary and All Saints, commonly known as the 'Crooked Spire'. The constituency borders the constituencies of Bolsover and Derbyshire North East.
History
Chesterfield has mainly been a Labour seat with periods when it has been held by other parties, and was gained by the Liberal Democrats in 2001 and held by them until 2010. Chesterfield was a Labour Party safe seat from 1935 until 2001. Andrew Cavendish, later the Duke of Devonshire, was the National Liberal candidate at the 1945 and 1950 elections.
The seat was held in succession by two prominent Labour politicians for over 35 years. The former Labour cabinet minister Eric Varley held the seat from October 1964 to January 1984 and was succeeded by his ex-government colleague Tony Benn, who held the seat following a by-election in March 1984 and remained the town's MP until his retirement in 2001 to "spend more time involved in politics." Benn had been a Labour Cabinet Minister between 1966–70 and 1974-1979. while Varley was in the Wilson and Callaghan cabinets in the later period. Paul Holmes gained the seat for the Liberal Democrats at the 2001 general election, the party's first seat in the East Midlands in the House of Commons, but narrowly lost the seat in 2010 to the Labour candidate Toby Perkins; one of only three seats the Labour Party gained in the 2010 election. In 2015, a collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote had them fall to fourth place and the Conservatives moving into second, with Labour having their largest majority in the seat since 1979.
Elections in the 2010s
At the 2015 general election, this seat was the 25th most marginal constituency in Great Britain, the Liberal Democrats requiring a swing from Labour of 0.6% to take the seat (based on the result of the 2010 general election).
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; *Labour: George Benson,