County Cheshire Electorate 68,280 (December 2010) Created 1918 | Population 92,995 (2011 census) Major settlements Chester | |
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Member of parliament Chris Matheson (Labour) | ||
The City of Chester is a constituency created in 1545 (turned into a county division in 1885 and reformed in narrowed geographical guise in 1918) and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Chris Matheson of the Labour Party.
Contents
Boundaries
The constituency covers the English city of Chester on the border of Wales and parts of the surrounding Cheshire West and Chester unitary authority, including the villages of Aldford, Capenhurst, Christleton, Guilden Sutton, Mollington, Newtown, Pulford and Saughall.
Much of the city of Chester itself is residential of varying characteristics, with more middle-class areas such as Upton and the large rural former council estate of Blacon which is, except where purchased under the right to buy, owned and managed by the local housing association, Chester And District Housing Trust.
Boundary review
In its 2007 review of parliamentary representation the Boundary Commission for England made minor boundary changes as a consequence of population changes, its selected wards being:
The changes were approved in 2007 and came into effect at the 2010 general election.
History
As part of a county palatine with a parliament of its own until the early 16th century Chester was not enfranchised (sent no MPs) until an Act of 1543 since which it returned two MPs to Parliament as a parliamentary borough until 1885, when the representation was reduced to one. For most of the 19th century, the seat was held by the Whigs and (later) the Liberals until 1900 when results were initially in line with the landslide victories of the first decade of the century and then more marginal.
From 1910 until 1997, Chester was held by Conservative Party MPs. In most elections majorities were in relative terms medium but the party's MPs won marginal majorities at the 1929 general election over the Liberal candidate (when Labour formed a minority government) and at the 1992 election over the Labour candidate, when the Conservatives had a small parliamentary majority.
Labour's Christine Russell gained the seat easily at the 1997 election and held it until 2010. Her majority over the Conservatives had been reduced to under 1,000 at the 2005 election.
The Conservative Stephen Mosley regained the seat in 2010. Labour's Chris Matheson was returned by the seat's electorate in 2015. The 2015 result gave the constituency the most marginal majority (0.2%) of Labour's 232 seats won that year. m
MPs 1545 to 1660
† Smith and Gamull were Both disabled from serving in 1644.MPs 1660–1880
Elections in the 1910s
Elections 1832-1900
Appointment of J G Dodson as President of the Local Government Board
Succession of Earl Grosvenor to the peerage as Marquess of Westminster
Resignation of Lord Robert Grosvenor to contest Middlesex
Appointment of Lord Robert Grosvenor to H M Household
Appointment of John Jervis as Solicitor General