County Northamptonshire Created 1918 | Electorate 76,848 (December 2010) European Parliament constituency East Midlands | |
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Major settlements Wellingborough, Rushden, Higham Ferrers and Irchester Member of parliament Peter Bone (Conservative Party) | ||
Wellingborough is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Peter Bone, a Conservative.
Contents
History
This seat was created under the Representation of the People Act 1918.
Wellingborough's earliest years were left-leaning. Since the 1964 the seat has kept on producing examples of bellwether results and rarely showed itself to be safe for more than one government term. Departing from this are two years where the result has defied the most common result nationwide, by leaning towards the Conservative Party, in 1974 (twice) and in 2005.
Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare was a Lloyd-Georgist National Liberal who served in junior minister roles through much of World War II including, briefly as the Secretary for Overseas Trade in 1940.
The lack of other senior positions is assisted by no majority having been gained by the winner which is in national terms generally shown to be insurmountable, see marginal seat.
Boundaries
1918-1950: The Municipal Borough of Higham Ferrers, the Urban Districts of Finedon, Irthlingborough, Raunds, Rushden, and Wellingborough, the Rural District of Wellingborough, and in the Rural District of Thrapston the civil parishes of Chelveston-cum-Caldecott, Hargrave, and Stanwick.
1950-1974: The Municipal Borough of Higham Ferrers, the Urban Districts of Irthlingborough, Raunds, Rushden, and Wellingborough, the Rural District of Wellingborough, and in the Rural District of Oundle and Thrapston the civil parishes of Chelveston-cum-Caldecott and Hargrave.
1974-1983: The Municipal Borough of Higham Ferrers, the Urban Districts of Irthlingborough, Oundle, Raunds, Rushden, and Wellingborough, and the Rural Districts of Oundle and Thrapston, and Wellingborough.
1983-2010: The Borough of Wellingborough, and the District of East Northamptonshire wards of Higham Ferrers, Rushden East, Rushden North, Rushden South, and Rushden West.
2010-present: The Borough of Wellingborough wards of Brickhill, Castle, Croyland, Finedon, Great Doddington and Wilby, Hemmingwell, Irchester, North, Queensway, Redwell East, Redwell West, South, Swanspool, and Wollaston, and the District of East Northamptonshire wards of Higham Ferrers, Rushden East, Rushden North, Rushden South, and Rushden West.
The constituency is named after the town of Wellingborough and covers most of the Borough of Wellingborough local government district. The constituency also includes Rushden (a broad town) and Higham Ferrers, a large village in the neighbouring local government district of East Northamptonshire.
Higham Ferrers was itself a former borough constituency until its abolition as one of the rotten boroughs in 1832.
Constituency profile
Strengths in local industries here or in neighbouring Northampton and Kettering include in printing, logistics and distribution, automotive (assembly and design), construction, food processing and advanced engineering sectors. Despite this a decline in the traditional local industries such as quarrying, furniture making and textiles pushes workless claimants who were registered jobseekers in November 2012 higher than the national (and regional) average of 3.8%, at 4.5% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
Elections in the 2010s
1: After nominations were closed, Garvie was suspended from the Labour Party after he was convicted of fraud after buying £900 of train tickets with a closed bank account. He still appeared on ballot papers as Labour.