County West Midlands Major settlements Dudley European Parliament constituency West Midlands Major settlement Dudley Replaced by Dudley East, Dudley West | Electorate 61,714 (December 2010) Created 1997 Member of parliament Ian Austin Number of members 1 | |
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Created from Dudley East
Dudley West | ||
Dudley North is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Ian Austin of the Labour Party.
Contents
Boundaries
1997-2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley wards of Castle and Priory, Coseley East, Coseley West, Gornal, St James's, St Thomas’s, and Sedgley.
2010-present: The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley wards of Castle and Priory, Gornal, St James’s, St Thomas’s, Sedgley, and Upper Gornal and Woodsetton.
Dudley North is one of four constituencies presently covering the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, encompassing the northern part of the borough, including the town centre.
History
Before the 1997 election, Dudley was divided into East and West constituencies, rather than the current North and Dudley South. Dudley North covers much of the area previously covered by Dudley East, which included Netherton but excluded the western part of Sedgley, which was part of Dudley West.
The earlier Dudley constituency, consisting of central Dudley, Netherton, and Stourbridge, was more prominent before 1974. Colonel George Wigg (later Lord Wigg), Prime Minister Harold Wilson's adviser on security matters and later a Minister of State, held the seat for many years until elevated to the peerage in 1968. At the Dudley by-election in March of that year, Donald Williams, the Conservative candidate, gained the seat with a swing of 20%. In 1970, however, the seat was regained by Labour with the election of Dr John Gilbert, who subsequently represented Dudley East from February 1974 until its abolition at the 1997 general election. Gilbert served as a Minister of State under both James Callaghan and (as a peer) Tony Blair. Dudley West meanwhile was represented, until his death in 1994, by Conservative MP Dr John Blackburn. At the subsequent Dudley West by election the seat was a Labour gain with Ian Pearson elected. After boundary changes, Pearson became the MP for the newly created Dudley South seat at the 1997 election
Ross Cranston (Labour) was the first MP for the new Dudley North seat after winning it at the 1997 election; he remained the constituencies MP until the 2005 general election, when it was retained by his successor Ian Austin.
In 2010, Austin held onto his seat with 38.7% of the vote, a narrow 1.7% ahead of Conservative candidate Graeme Brown, at the first general election in 36 years which resulted in a hung parliament.
Elections in the 2010s
The original Conservative candidate Afzal Amin was suspended after allegations he persuaded the English Defence League to announce a march against a mosque in the constituency.