County Kent Created 1997 European Parliament constituency South East England Number of members 1 Replaced by Faversham, Mid Kent | Electorate 68,521 (December 2010) Created from Faversham and Mid Kent Member of parliament Helen Whately Major settlements Faversham, Shepway | |
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Faversham and Mid Kent is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Since 2015, its MP has been Helen Whately, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
1997-2010: The Borough of Swale wards of Abbey, Boughton, Courtenay, Davington Priory, East Downs, St Ann's, Teynham and Lynsted, and Watling, and the Borough of Maidstone wards of Bearsted, Boxley, Detling, Harrietsham and Lenham, Headcorn, Hollingbourne, Langley, Leeds, Park Wood, Shepway East, Shepway West, Sutton Valence, and Thurnham.
2010-present: The Borough of Swale wards of Abbey, Boughton and Courtenay, Davington Priory, East Downs, St Ann’s, and Watling, and the Borough of Maidstone wards of Bearsted, Boughton Monchelsea and Chart Sutton, Boxley, Detling and Thurnham, Downswood and Otham, Harrietsham and Lenham, Headcorn, Leeds, North Downs, Park Wood, Shepway North, Shepway South, and Sutton Valence and Langley.
Faversham and Mid Kent covers sections of the Swale and Maidstone boroughs. The constituency includes the easternmost outlying residents of the county town, Maidstone. This caused minor confusion among a large minority of residents of the Maidstone electoral wards when the boundaries were first changed in 1997 as a constituency named Maidstone and The Weald was also created at the same time (largely replacing the former Maidstone constituency), but residents in the Shepway and Park Wood areas of the town found themselves in Faversham and Mid Kent instead.
History
In 1997 this constituency was formed when the previous Faversham seat was abolished and split into Sittingbourne and Sheppey and the town of Faversham which was then merged with Mid Kent to form this constituency.