County Cumbria Major settlements Whitehaven Created from Whitehaven Major settlement Whitehaven Replaced by Whitehaven | Electorate 63,696 (December 2010) Created 1983 European Parliament constituency North West England Number of members 1 | |
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Member of parliament Trudy Harrison (Conservative Party) | ||
Copeland is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament created in 1983. The seat has been represented by Trudy Harrison of the Conservative Party since the February 2017 by-election.
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History
The sole forerunner to the constituency was the abolished seat Whitehaven. Copeland had consistently returned Labour Party candidates since its 1983 creation until the by-election of 23 February 2017, when Trudy Harrison gained it for the Conservatives. Prior to that (save for the total landslide in 1931 when part of the parliamentary Labour Party remained in government with the Conservative Party in 1931, under Ramsey Macdonald), the last Conservative elected for the area was in 1924.
The 2015 result gave the seat the 31st most marginal majority of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.
Boundaries
Following the renaming of Whitehaven as Copeland, Jack Cunningham, who had previously been the member for Whitehaven, stood for and won the seat. Its boundaries remained unchanged, being coterminous with the local government district of Copeland.
Boundary change
Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies by making changes to this constituency for the 2010 general election, namely the addition of the wards Crummock, Dalton, Derwent Valley and Keswick in the Allerdale District.
The four new wards thus extend the constituency beyond the district of Copeland. They include the town of Keswick, which has a larger electorate than the other three new and sparsely populated wards, despite their extensive area. The new wards are in the Lake District, like much of Copeland district. The inclusion of Keswick in the constituency was the main topic in public consultations regarding the changes.