County West Yorkshire Major settlements Keighley, Ilkley Number of members One | Electorate 66,967 (December 2010) Created 1885 | |
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Member of parliament Kris Hopkins (Conservative) | ||
Keighley /ˈkiːθli/ is a constituency in West Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Kris Hopkins of the Conservative Party.
Contents
Boundaries
1885-1918: The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 provided that the constituency was to consist of the civil parishes in the Wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewecross of Cowling, Glusburn, Keighley, Steeton with Eastburn, and Sutton; and the parishes of Haworth, Thornton, and Wilsden.
1918-1950: The Municipal Borough of Keighley, the Urban Districts of Denholme, Haworth, Oakworth, Oxenhope, and Silsden, and the Rural District of Keighley.
1950-1983: The Municipal Borough of Keighley, the Urban Districts of Denholme and Silsden, and in the Rural District of Skipton the civil parishes of Steeton with Eastburn, and Sutton.
1983-2010: The City of Bradford wards of Craven, Ilkley, Keighley North, Keighley South, Keighley West, and Worth Valley.
2010-present: The City of Bradford wards of Craven, Ilkley, Keighley Central, Keighley East, Keighley West, and Worth Valley.
Unlike many constituencies, Keighley was unaffected by the boundary changes for the 2010 general election; indeed its boundaries have remained unchanged since the 1983 redistribution.
Constituency profile
This constituency covers the town and outskirts of Keighley in West Yorkshire. It comprises the Labour area of Keighley itself, the Conservative spa town of Ilkley, and the rural areas of Craven and Worth Valley which are also Conservative. The seat has a large minority with Asian heritage, especially from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Members of Parliament
Since the 1950s, Keighley has been a marginal seat between Labour and the Conservatives. The MP from 1997 was Labour's Ann Cryer, widow of Bob Cryer who was MP for the same seat from 1974-1983 (and then for Bradford South, 1987–1994). She retired at the 2010 general election.
Elections in the 1940s
General Election 1939/40:
Another general election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected: