Electorate 70,864 (December 2010) Created from Beverley, Boothferry Number of members 1 | Created 1997 Member of parliament David Davis Replaced by Beverley, Boothferry | |
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County East Riding of Yorkshire European Parliament constituency Yorkshire and the Humber | ||
Haltemprice and Howden is a constituency in the East Riding of Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by David Davis, a Conservative and current Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. The seat mainly consists of suburbs of Hull that lie outside the city boundaries. Including middle class areas like Willerby, and Kirk Ella, and less affluent areas such as Anlaby and Cottingham (which also includes most of the Halls of Residence for Hull University). Beyond that it stretches out westwards along the A63 to take in smaller, rural towns and villages like Bubwith and Howden itself. Overall, area is affluent and has one of the highest proportions of owner-occupiers in the country.
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Constituency profile
The Electoral Reform Society considers it to be historically the second safest seat in the country, after North Shropshire. Taking into account the previous seats roughly covering its boundaries, the Society considers that the seat has been held continuously by the Conservative Party since the 1837 general election.
Boundaries and local government
1997–2010: The Borough of Boothferry wards of East Derwent, East Howdenshire, Gilberdyke, Holme upon Spalding Moor, Howden, Mid Howdenshire, and North Cave, and the East Yorkshire Borough of Beverley wards of Anlaby, Brough, Castle, Kirk Ella, Mill Beck and Croxby, Priory, Skidby and Rowley, South Cave, Springfield, Swanland, and Willerby.
2010–present: The District of East Riding of Yorkshire wards of Cottingham North, Cottingham South, Dale, Howden, Howdenshire, South Hunsley, Tranby, and Willerby and Kirk Ella.
The constituency covers a wide area stretching from the border of Hull in the east to the outskirts of Goole in the west and northwards to Holme-on-Spalding-Moor in the Yorkshire Wolds. The bulk of the population is centred in the villages of Willerby, Kirk Ella, Anlaby and Cottingham. Rural Howdenshire forms the bulk of the geographical area of the constituency but provides only a small part of the total electorate.
The constituency includes many towns and villages along the A63 corridor including, Brough, Elloughton, South Cave, North Ferriby, Swanland, Gilberdyke, Newport, Welton and Melton.
There are currently Conservative councillors in Howden, Howdenshire, Dale, South Hunsley, Cottingham North, Cottingham South, and Willerby and Kirk Ella Wards. The Liberal Democrats, who previously enjoyed relatively strong support in the constituency, suffered heavy losses in the 2011 local elections, losing their seats to the Conservatives in the Cottingham South and Willerby & Kirk Ella wards. As a result of the 2011 local elections, the Liberal Democrats now only hold one seat in Tranby ward (Anlaby & Anlaby Common), after losing their other seat there to Labour candidate Josh Newlove, who was 19 years of age at the time of the election. This was the first time a Labour candidate had been elected in the constituency, the party recording a 27% swing in its favour to win just four years after it came fourth in the same ward.
History
The constituency was created for the 1997 general election, covering an area previously part of the Beverley and Boothferry constituencies. In 1997, it returned the Conservative David Davis, who had previously been the member for Boothferry; he was re-elected in the 2001, 2005 and 2010 general elections.
The area was placed as 10th most affluent in the country in the 2003 Barclays Private Clients survey.
2008 by-election
On 12 June 2008, a day after a vote on the extension of detention of terror suspects without charge, in an unexpected move, Davis took the Chiltern Hundreds, effectively resigning his seat as the constituency's MP. He stated this was to force a by-election, in which he intended to provoke a wider public debate on the single issue of the perceived erosion of civil liberties. Over the course of the following week, the campaign was launched on the theme of David Davis for Freedom.
Davis formally resigned as an MP on 18 June 2008, and the by-election took place on 10 July 2008, which Davis won.