County Buckinghamshire Created from Wycombe | Type of constituency County constituency Number of members 1 | |
Replaced by Wycombe, Slough, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead | ||
Eton and slough uk parliament constituency top 6 facts
Eton and Slough was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post voting system.
Contents
The constituency was created in 1945 as part of an interim redistribution of seats in areas which had experienced large population growth since the last redistribution had taken effect in 1918. The 1945 redistribution preceded the first general review of constituencies by a permanent Boundary Commission for England which had been established in 1944. Before 1945 the area had formed part of the Wycombe constituency.
The constituency had some nationally known MPs: Fenner Brockway was a noted internationalist; Anthony Meyer, who later became MP for a constituency in Flintshire, Wales, challenged Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as a "stalking horse" leadership candidate in 1989; and Joan Lestor, who later served as MP for Eccles, Greater Manchester, was a government minister and a founder of anti-fascist newsletter Searchlight. The seat contained a prestigious public school (Eton College), yet ironically had Labour MPs for most of its history, mostly because of the inclusion of the new town of Slough, which mainly voted for Labour. The sole occasion a Conservative MP won the seat in 1964, was represented by an Old Etonian, Anthony Meyer.
Boundaries
1945–1950: Eton and Slough was established as a County Constituency comprising part of the administrative county of Buckinghamshire. It comprised the southernmost part of that county, consisting of the Municipal Borough of Slough, the Eton Urban District and the Eton Rural District.
1950–1983: As a result of the first general review Eton and Slough became a borough constituency. The Municipal Borough of Slough and the Eton Urban District continued to be in the constituency, but Eton Rural District was transferred to the new South Buckinghamshire constituency.
There were considerable changes in English local government in 1974 with the areas forming the constituency being transferred from Buckinghamshire to Berkshire. However, there were no changes to parliamentary boundaries until 1983. In that year the constituency was abolished, with Eton becoming part of the Windsor and Maidenhead seat and Slough forming the new Slough constituency.