County Northamptonshire Created 1918 | Electorate 69,610 (December 2010) Number of members One | |
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Major settlements Kettering, Desborough, and Rothwell Member of parliament Philip Hollobone (Conservative) | ||
Kettering is a constituency in Northamptonshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Philip Hollobone, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
1918-1950: The Urban Districts of Desborough, Kettering, and Rothwell, the Rural Districts of Brixworth, Kettering, and Oxendon, and in the Rural District of Northampton the civil parishes of Great Billing, Little Billing, and Weston Favell.
1950-1974: The Municipal Borough of Kettering, the Urban Districts of Burton Latimer, Corby, Desborough, and Rothwell, and the Rural Districts of Brixworth and Kettering.
1974-1983: The Municipal Borough of Kettering, the Urban Districts of Burton Latimer, Corby, Desborough, and Rothwell, and the Rural District of Kettering.
1983-1997: The Borough of Kettering, and the District of Daventry wards of Boughton and Pitsford, Brixworth, Clipston, Moulton, and Overstone and Walgrave.
1997-2010: The Borough of Kettering, and the District of Daventry wards of Boughton and Pitsford, Brixworth, Clipston, Guilsborough, Moulton, Overstone and Walgrave, Spratton, and Welford.
2010-present: The Borough of Kettering.
This constituency covers the major town of Kettering, the smaller towns of Desborough and Rothwell, the small town of Burton Latimer and rural settlements. A semi-rural seat, the preponderance of constituents live in the towns and a minority of the wards form a wide array of rural communities that have civil parish or hamlet status.
The constituency created in 1918 included the generally (in the late 20th century) Labour-majority industrial town of Corby until before the 1983 general election, when Corby gained its own constituency.
The Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies proposed an additional seat due to population growth in the county. Parliament approved its recommendations for 2010 which made way for the new constituency of South Northamptonshire therefore the constituency lost some wards in these boundary changes.
Constituency profile
Economically, it is predominantly middle-class, well within managerial/directorial commuter zones for London and the West Midlands. Industry continues in some sectors ranging from, for example, lingerie, food production, rigid containers, abattoirs, to the Weetabix factory in Burton Latimer, but the industrial activity of the area, as with the rest of the county, is reduced whereas the wider area's headline gross value added for the area per head has been mostly consistently higher, from £11,667 in 1997 in North Northamptonshire to £17,835.
In 2005 The Guardian described it as:
'[A] mixed industrial town in Northamptonshire with good links to London.'
Members of Parliament
The current member of Parliament is Philip Hollobone of the Conservative Party. He was elected in 2005 when he defeated the sitting Labour MP, Phil Sawford, in an election which nationally saw a reduced majority for the Blair Ministry.
Mid Northamptonshire Constituency (1885-1918)
Prior to boundary changes in 1918, at least the majority of modern-day Kettering Constituency lay within the Mid Northamptonshire constituency.
North Northamptonshire Constituency (1832-1885)
Prior to boundary changes in 1885, at least the majority of modern-day Kettering Constituency lay within the North Northamptonshire constituency, which elected two members to Parliament.