County Northumberland Type of constituency County constituency European Parliament constituency North East England Major settlement Morpeth | Major settlements Morpeth Member of parliament Ian Lavery Electorate 62,395 (December 2010) Number of members 1 | |
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Replaced by South Northumberland, Morpeth, Blyth Valley, Bedlington, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea Created from South Northumberland, Morpeth, Blyth Valley | ||
Wansbeck is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Ian Lavery, a member of the Labour Party.
Contents
Boundaries
1983–present: The District of Wansbeck, and the Borough of Castle Morpeth wards of Hebron Hepscott and Mitford, Morpeth Central, Morpeth Kirkhill, Morpeth North, Morpeth South, Morpeth Stobhill, and Pegswood.
Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies did not alter this constituency for the 2010 general election, thus since 1997 it has electoral wards:
1885-1950
The seat alternated in accordance with the national trend in mining-strong communities outside of South Yorkshire, which as such saw significant early Labour support, and led to, in the 1931 and 1935 elections, a general transfer of loyalty to the Conservative Party, and ushered in a return to Labour support in the next contested election in 1945.
Alfred Robens represented the area in the Attlee ministry and towards the end of the year of Attlee's more marginal victory (1950–51) served as Minister of Labour and National Service. He then in 1951 won instead the newly created Blyth seat to the immediate south. In 1955 he became Shadow Foreign Secretary until an unimpressive performance in predicting and reacting to events in the Suez Crisis in 1956. However, in a position which would span the period 1961 until 1971, he became Chairman of the National Coal Board (and Lord Robens) and oversaw substantial cuts in the mining industry. During this period he co-authored the Robens Report that followed his difficult but practical risk management of the coal mining sector, including accepting some culpability in the Aberfan Disaster. This led, with the ministry of Barbara Castle's adjustments, to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 which set up the Health and Safety Executive and remains the foundation of this area of English law.
1983-date
The constituency has been held solely by Labour since its recreation, during which time its history presents a safe seat. The most marginal majority was in 2010, in a similar result to 1983 when the runner-up candidate was a Liberal Democrat.
Constituency profile
The seat has the visitor attractions of a historic main town with a castle, Morpeth and the traditional seaside town of Newbiggin. Workless claimants as registered jobseekers, with high male unemployment, which is widespread but exacerbated in the area, in November 2012, was higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 6.2% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian. This was marginally higher than the then regional average of 5.9%.
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 the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;