County Kent Major settlements Dartford Number of members One | Electorate 74,756 (December 2010) Created 1885 | |
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Member of parliament Gareth Johnson (Conservative) | ||
Dartford is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Gareth Johnson of the Conservative Party. The constituency is currently the longest serving 'bellwether' constituency in the UK Parliament as the party of the winning candidate has gone on to form the government in every General Election since 1964.
Contents
History
The seat was created under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885. This Act added a net 18 seats, but its main purpose was to correct the over-representation of minor, often still old boroughs and depopulated county divisions. In their place were created new seats with a larger population. In Kent the Act finally abolished the Sandwich constituency, which sent two MPs until 1885. It also halved the representation of no fewer than four other historic towns. In contrast a seat for Dartford, the North-Western Division of Kent or North West Kent, was created.
In the early 20th century, the Dartford constituency was very much a bellwether: Dartford's results later shifted towards the left: in 1938 and then in 1951 (as well as the two intervening general elections) a Labour MP was elected, on those two occasions in opposition.
This was the first seat contested by Margaret Thatcher (then Margaret Roberts), at the 1950 and 1951 general elections. From 1945 until 2010, Dartford has been a Labour-Conservative marginal seat and thus a "bellwether" again: since 1964 the party winning the seat has gone on to form the government.
Boundaries
1885-1918: The Sessional Division of Dartford, the Parliamentary Boroughs of Greenwich and Woolwich, and part of the Sessional Division of Bromley.
1918-1945: The Urban Districts of Bexley, Dartford, and Erith, and in the Rural District of Dartford the civil parishes of Crayford, Stone, and Swanscombe.
1945-1955: The Municipal Boroughs of Dartford and Erith, and the Urban District of Crayford.
1955-1974: The Municipal Borough of Dartford, the Urban District of Swanscombe, and the Rural District of Dartford.
1974-1983: The Municipal Borough of Dartford, the Urban District of Swanscombe, and in the Rural District of Dartford the civil parishes of Darenth, Southfleet, Stone, Sutton-at-Hone, and Wilmington.
1983-1997: The Borough of Dartford, and the District of Sevenoaks wards of Ash-cum-Ridley, Fawkham and Hartley, Horton Kirby, and Longfield.
1997-2010: The Borough of Dartford, and the District of Sevenoaks wards of Fawkham and Hartley, and Horton Kirby.
2010–present: The Borough of Dartford, and the District of Sevenoaks ward of Hartley and Hodsoll Street.
Constituency profile
As its name suggests, the main settlement in the constituency is the town of Dartford, but it also includes a number of other towns and villages, including Swanscombe, Longfield, Greenhithe and Wilmington. These all add up to create a diverse constituency which covers urban and rural areas.
The population of the constituency currently stands at around 90,000, around 8,000 of whom live in the borough of Sevenoaks, with the remainder living in the borough of Dartford. The constituency is on the border with the London Borough of Bexley, with which at one time it shared an MP.
Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.9% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
Election in the 1940s
Elections in the 1920s
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;