County Greater Manchester Created 1918 Member of parliament Jonathan Reynolds | Electorate 70,691 (December 2010) European Parliament constituency North West England Number of members 1 | |
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Created from Stalybridge, Hyde and Mossley Major settlements Hyde, Mossley, Stalybridge Replaced by Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley | ||
Stalybridge and Hyde is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Jonathan Reynolds, a member of the Labour Party and the Cooperative Party.
Contents
History
The seat was created under the Representation of the People Act 1918. During its first 37 years it was held by Conservatives for 34 of these, and for the other three years by the other two main parties, the Liberal Party and the Labour Party. In 1945 the seat was won by Rev. Gordon Lang who was honorary secretary of the United Europe Movement and a leading member of the Proportional Representation Society but who retired on ill health in 1951.
The area is a safe seat for Labour, which has held it since the 1945 general election. James Purnell, a former 10 Downing Street special advisor, who was first elected at the 2001 general election resigned his cabinet position as Work and Pensions Secretary on 4 June 2009, citing concerns over Prime Minister Gordon Brown's leadership. On 19 February 2010, he announced that he would not contest the 2010 election. Senior Labour Party officials were concerned that Unite was strategically attempting to have Peter Wheeler, a senior Unite official, selected as the Labour candidate, as one of a series of seats, leading to the National Executive Committee putting forward Jonathan Reynolds on the selection shortlist who, as widely expected, won the election.
Boundaries
1918-1950: The Municipal Boroughs of Dukinfield, Hyde, and Stalybridge, the Urban Districts of Hollingworth and Mottram in Longdendale, and the Rural District of Tintwistle.
1950-1983: The Municipal Boroughs of Dukinfield, Hyde, and Stalybridge, the Urban District of Longdendale, and the Rural District of Tintwistle.
1983-1997: The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside wards of Dukinfield, Dukinfield Stalybridge, Hyde Godley, Hyde Newton, Hyde Werneth, Longdendale, Stalybridge North, and Stalybridge South.
1997-present: The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside wards of Dukinfield Stalybridge, Hyde Godley, Hyde Newton, Hyde Werneth, Longdendale, Mossley, Stalybridge North, and Stalybridge South.
The constituency covers the areas of the former municipal boroughs of Stalybridge, Hyde and Mossley, as well as the former urban districts of Hollingworth and Mottram in Longdendale. Until 1997 it also included the area of the former municipal borough of Dukinfield, most of which since that date mostly forms part of the Denton and Reddish constituency.
Constituency profile
The constituency lies on the lower slopes of the Pennines and beginning of the plain below, on the cusp of Greater Manchester and has three broad settlements, the largest of which are Hyde which is bordered by the River Tame and Peak Forest Canal, and Stalybridge which similarly has several parks and recreation grounds and leads up the Tame Valley to Mossley. The geographic features include the footpaths from both towns on neighbouring promontories, Harridge and Wild Bank. Stamford Golf Club and Werneth Low Country Park are in the seat.
The area has been susceptible to a major downturn in all but the most affluent and productive areas and workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 higher than the national average of 3.8%, and regional average of 4.4%, at 5.0% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
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;