County West Yorkshire Created 1950 Created from Pudsey and Otley | Electorate 70,533 (May 2015) Number of members One | |
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Member of parliament Stuart Andrew (Conservative) | ||
Pudsey is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Stuart Andrew, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 provided that the constituency should consist of:
1950-1983: The Municipal Borough of Pudsey, and the Urban Districts of Aireborough and Horsforth.
1983-2010: The City of Leeds wards of Aireborough, Horsforth, Pudsey North, and Pudsey South.
2010-present: The City of Leeds wards of Calverley and Farsley, Guiseley and Rawdon, Horsforth, and Pudsey.
History
The Pudsey constituency was first created in 1885 by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and was first used in the general election that year. The seat had formerly been part of Eastern West Riding of Yorkshire constituency. On 1 June 1908 George Whiteley voluntarily resigned from Parliament resulting in a by-election in the constituency.
The constituency was abolished in 1918 and replaced by the constituency of Pudsey and Otley until 1950.
The constituency was recreated for contesting in the 1950 general election and has existed ever since.
In their Third Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies (1976–1983) the Boundary Commission initially suggested renaming the constituency Leeds West, with the existing Leeds West constituency in turn being renamed Leeds West Central. This was opposed at local enquiries where the current name was retained.
Constituency profile
Since 1979 the constituency has been a bellwether. The constituency covers suburban settlements to the upland west and north-west of Leeds, including Pudsey, Farsley, Horsforth, Yeadon and Guiseley with low dependency on social housing, average workers' income close to the British average and low unemployment. This was from its 1950 recreation a win for candidates who were members of the Conservative Party before a member of the Labour Party gained it in the New Labour landslide of 1997.