County Leicestershire Number of members One European Parliament constituency East Midlands | Electorate 77,412 (December 2010) Number of members Two Member of parliament Alberto Costa | |
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Major settlements Lutterworth, Whetstone, Braunstone Town, Narborough, Blaby Replaced by Leicestershire, Blaby, Harborough, Bosworth Created from Leicestershire, Blaby, Harborough | ||
South Leicestershire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Alberto Costa, a member of the Conservative Party.
Contents
- Boundaries from the 2010 general election
- Constituency profile
- 1832 1885
- Elections in the 2010s
- References
The current constituency has similar boundaries to the previous Blaby constituency. Historically the "Southern Division of Leicestershire", was a county constituency, less formally known as South Leicestershire. From 1832 to 1885 it elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) by the bloc vote system of election.
Boundaries from the 2010 general election
Following its review of parliamentary representation in Leicestershire, the Boundary Commission for England recommended replacing the Blaby constituency with a new South Leicestershire seat, with some boundary changes. This change occurred for the 2010 general election.
The electoral wards used to create the new constituency are;
Constituency profile
The current South Leicestershire is a slice of Leicestershire to the south west of Leicester, with most of the population in commuter towns and villages clustered close to Leicester itself, both in the suburb of Braunstone Town, including the large modern development of Thorpe Astley, and commuter villages like Whetstone, Blaby and Narborough. Further south it is more rural, with the largest settlement the old market town of Lutterworth. Nearby is the former site of RAF Bitteswell, since redeveloped as Magna Park, one of the largest distribution centres in Europe.
The constituency name of South Leicestershire was new for 2010, but the seat was not massively changed from the old seat of Blaby. Both this as its predecessor are safe Tory seats held by the party since Blaby's creation in 1974. The best known MP to represent the area is the former Chancellor Nigel Lawson.
1832-1885
The constituency was created by the Reform Act 1832 for the 1832 general election, when the two-seat Leicestershire constituency was replaced by the Northern and Southern divisions, each of which elected two MPs.
Both divisions of the county were abolished by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 for the 1885 general election, when they were replaced by four new single-seat constituencies: Bosworth, Harborough, Loughborough and Melton.
Prominent members in this period included Thomas Paget (Jnr) (1807–1892) who followed the footsteps of his father in this role (his father having represented Leicestershire) and as partner in Leicester Bank, and Albert Pell, a member of a group of MPs, which included Henry Chaplin, Sir Massey Lopes and Clare Sewell Read, who supported farming interests. He was also a member of the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.