County Devon European Parliament constituency South West England Number of members 1 Created from Tiverton, Honiton | Electorate 75,839 (December 2010) Member of parliament Neil Parish Replaced by Tiverton, Honiton | |
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Major settlements Tiverton, Honiton, Axminster, Seaton, Cullompton | ||
Tiverton and Honiton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Neil Parish, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
1997-2010: The District of Mid Devon except the wards of Taw, Taw Vale, and West Creedy, and the District of East Devon wards of Broadclyst, Clystbeare, Clyst Valley, Exe Valley, Honiton St Michael's, Honiton St Paul's, Otterhead, Ottery St Mary Rural, Ottery St Mary Town, Patteson, and Tale Vale.
2010-present: The District of Mid Devon wards of Canonsleigh, Castle, Clare and Shuttern, Cranmore, Cullompton North, Cullompton Outer, Cullompton South, Halberton, Lower Culm, Lowman, Upper Culm, and Westexe, and the District of East Devon wards of Axminster Rural, Axminster Town, Beer and Branscombe, Coly Valley, Dunkeswell, Feniton and Buckerell, Honiton St Michael’s, Honiton St Paul’s, Newbridges, Otterhead, Seaton, Tale Vale, Trinity, and Yarty.
The constituency is in east Devon, covering the towns of Tiverton and Honiton and their surrounding villages (which include extensive farmland, rivers popular with kayakers and part of the Blackdown Hills) These settlements are in the Mid Devon and East Devon districts.
Boundary changes for 2010
Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which slightly altered this constituency for the 2010 general election, and gave Devon 12 seats instead of 11. Some wards of Mid Devon District in this seat were transferred to the new Central Devon constituency; however, parts of the East Devon constituency, including the towns of Axminster and Seaton, were gained in return.
History
The seat came about when the town of Honiton from the Honiton constituency was added to the Tiverton constituency in 1997. Both were long-established seats, with the former having existed from 1640 and the latter from 1615. Both elected two Members of Parliament until the 1884 Reform Act reduced the number for both to one and their area was widened to cover two divisions of the county under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.
Prominent holders of the seats in the 19th century included Whig politician Joseph Locke, a railway pioneer, who was MP for Honiton, and Lord Palmerston, who, while MP for Tiverton, served as the first Prime Minister from the newly formed Liberal Party (1855-1858 and 1859-1865).
The seat can be regarded as a safe Conservative seat, if including either of its predecessors, the area served by the constituency has not been represented by another party in Westminster since 1923.
Constituency profile
Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.0% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.