County Somerset Created 2010 Created from Frome Member of parliament Liam Fox | Electorate 78,223 (December 2010) Created from Woodspring European Parliament constituency South West England Number of members 1 | |
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Major settlements Clevedon, Nailsea, Portishead Replaced by Woodspring, Frome, Wansdyke, Wells | ||
North Somerset is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Liam Fox, a Conservative who has served as Secretary of State for International Trade, a new position in the Cabinet, since 13 July 2016.
Contents
History
Earlier versions of the seat existed between 1885–1918 and 1950–1983.
Parliament passed the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 creating the larger constituency of North Somerset from the 1885 general election, which was later abolished for the 1918 general election.
North Somerset was re-established for the 1950 general election, and abolished again for the 1983 general election.
The seat is currently represented by Liam Fox, former Secretary of State for Defence.
Following the review of parliamentary representation in the North Somerset district by the Boundary Commission for England, the former Woodspring constituency has been renamed as North Somerset without substantial boundary changes from its predecessor.
Boundaries
1885–1918: The Sessional Divisions of Keynsham, Long Ashton, and Temple Cloud, and the civil parishes of Binegar, Chilcompton, and Midsomer Norton.
1950–1983: The Urban Districts of Keynsham, Norton Radstock, and Portishead, the Rural Districts of Bathavon and Clutton, and part of the Rural District of Long Ashton.
2010–present: The District of North Somerset wards of Backwell, Clevedon Central, Clevedon East, Clevedon North, Clevedon South, Clevedon Walton, Clevedon West, Clevedon Yeo, Easton-in-Gordano, Gordano, Nailsea East, Nailsea North and West, Pill, Portishead Central, Portishead Coast, Portishead East, Portishead Redcliffe Bay, Portishead South and North Weston, Portishead West, Winford, Wraxall and Long Ashton, Wrington, and Yatton.
Constituency profile
This is essentially the old Woodspring seat with a new name. A coastal strip between the Severn Estuary and the M5 motorway includes the towns of Clevedon and Portishead, while inland from the motorway is the town of Nailsea and a predominantly rural area dotted with villages. This is a fairly affluent constituency with average incomes and low proportion of unemployment claimants — about a third of the population commute to work, mostly in Bristol and Bath. The old seat returned Conservative MPs; Fox won the new constituency by nearly 15 percentage points over the Liberal Democrats in 2010.
Elections in the 1910s
General Election 1914/15:
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;