Welwyn Hatfield (UK Parliament constituency)
Welwyn Hatfield | |
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County constituency for the House of Commons |
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Boundary of Welwyn Hatfield in Hertfordshire.
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Location of Hertfordshire within England.
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County | Hertfordshire |
Electorate | 71,766 (December 2010)[1] |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1974 |
Member of parliament | Grant Shapps (Conservative) |
Number of members | One |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | East of England |
Welwyn Hatfield is a constituency[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Grant Shapps, a Conservative.[n 2]
Contents
History
The seat was called for by the second periodic review of Westminster seats (the first periodic review led by the Boundary Commission was in 1945 and followed that of the Representation of the People Act 1918). Its changes were made in time for the first 1974 general election which resulted in a temporary minority administration on a hung parliament.
- Political history
Despite its short history, the seat has seen two parties serve it, with two Labour periods of representation, during the longer part of the Labour Government 1974-1979 and during the first two terms of the Blair ministry. Other than this the seat has elected a Conservative as its MP.
The present majority more than tripled on the second election of Grant Shapps, in 2010, from a historically breakable (in the constituency) majority of 5,946 votes to the 26th largest Conservative share of the vote,[2] which on standard uniform swing seen in elections since 1931 represents a safe seat.
- Prominent frontbenchers
The first MP ended his term in the Commons as the member for Welwyn Hatfield before which he was Defence Minister from 1970 to 1972 then a Foreign Office Minister until February 1974 - later that year Lord Balniel was awarded a life peerage,[n 3] accelerating and safeguarding his right to sit in the Lords. The second MP later became the politically neutral Lord Speaker, Baroness Hayman.
Melanie Johnson during five years of the Blair-Brown government was a frontbench minister: Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Minister for Competition and Consumers and the Minister for Public Health.
Grant Shapps was appointed the Minister of State for Housing and Local Government for the first two years of the UK coalition government 2010 before being appointed to chair his party. Following the Conservative victory in 2015, he was appointed Minister of State at the Department for International Development.[3]
Boundaries
1974-1983: The Urban District of Welwyn Garden City, and the Rural Districts of Hatfield (the civil parishes of Bishops Hatfield, Essendon, Hatfield, Northaw, and North Mimms) and Welwyn.
1983-1997: The District of Welwyn Hatfield wards of Brookmans Park and Little Heath, Haldens, Handside, Hatfield Central, Hatfield East, Hatfield North, Hatfield South, Hollybush, Howlands, Peartree, Sherrards, Welham Green and Redhall, Welwyn East, and Welwyn West, and the City of St Albans ward of Wheathampstead.
1997-present: All the wards of the District of Welwyn Hatfield except Northaw (which is in the Broxbourne constituency).
Constituency profile
The area has a higher than average proportion of the managers, professionals and of the retired than much of Greater London[4] with a strong local economy, retail and industrial/commercial premises are particularly in Hatfield and two of the four largest Hertfordshire economic towns, Stevenage and St Albans are close by. Accordingly, workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.4% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.[5]
Members of Parliament
Elections
Elections in the 2010s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Grant Shapps | 25,281 | 50.4 | -6.6 | |
Labour | Anawar Miah | 13,128 | 26.1 | +4.8 | |
UKIP | Arthur Stevens[9] | 6,556 | 13.1 | +9.7 | |
Liberal Democrat | Hugh Annand | 3,140 | 6.3 | -10.1 | |
Green | Marc Scheimann[10] | 1,742 | 3.5 | +1.8 | |
Independent | Michael Green[11] | 216 | 0.4 | N/A | |
TUSC | Richard Shattock | 142 | 0.3 | N/A | |
Majority | 12,153 | 24.2 | |||
Turnout | 68.5 | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing | -5.7 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Grant Shapps | 27,894 | 57.0 | +7.4 | |
Labour | Mike Hobday | 10,471 | 21.4 | -14.9 | |
Liberal Democrat | Paul Zukowskyj | 8,010 | 16.4 | +2.2 | |
UKIP | David Platt | 1,643 | 3.4 | N/A | |
Green | Jill Weston | 796 | 1.9 | N/A | |
Independent | Nigel Parker | 158 | 0.3 | N/A | |
Majority | 17,423 | 35.6 | |||
Turnout | 48,972 | 68.0 | −0.2 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +11.1 |
Elections in the 2000s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
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Conservative | Grant Shapps | 22,172 | 49.6 | +9.2 | |
Labour | Melanie Johnson | 16,226 | 36.3 | −6.9 | |
Liberal Democrat | Sara Bedford | 6,318 | 14.1 | 0.0 | |
Majority | 5,946 | 13.3 | |||
Turnout | 44,716 | 68.1 | +4.2 | ||
Conservative gain from Labour | Swing | +8.0 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
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Labour | Melanie Johnson | 18,484 | 43.2 | −3.9 | |
Conservative | Grant Shapps | 17,288 | 40.4 | +3.9 | |
Liberal Democrat | Daniel Cooke | 6,021 | 14.1 | +0.5 | |
UKIP | Malcolm Biggs | 798 | 1.9 | N/A | |
ProLife Alliance | Fiona Pinto | 230 | 0.5 | +0.0 | |
Majority | 1,196 | 2.8 | |||
Turnout | 42,821 | 63.9 | −14.7 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | -3.9 |
Elections in the 1990s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Melanie Johnson | 24,936 | 47.1 | +11.1 | |
Conservative | David Evans | 19,341 | 36.5 | −11.0 | |
Liberal Democrat | Rodney S. Schwartz | 7,161 | 13.5 | −2.5 | |
Residents Association | V. Ernest Cox | 1,263 | 2.4 | N/A | |
ProLife Alliance | Helen T. Harrold | 267 | 0.5 | N/A | |
Majority | 5,595 | 10.6 | |||
Turnout | 52,968 | 78.6 | |||
Labour gain from Conservative | Swing | +11.05 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | David Evans | 29,447 | 48.4 | +2.7 | |
Labour | RA Little | 20,982 | 34.5 | +8.1 | |
Liberal Democrat | Robin G. Parker | 10,196 | 16.7 | −10.6 | |
Natural Law | Ms. ET Lucas | 264 | 0.4 | N/A | |
Majority | 8,465 | 13.9 | −4.4 | ||
Turnout | 60,889 | 84.3 | +3.4 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | −2.7 |
Elections in the 1980s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | David Evans | 27,164 | 45.63 | ||
Social Democratic | LP Granshaw | 16,261 | 27.32 | ||
Labour | Christopher Richard Pond | 15,699 | 26.37 | ||
Independent Conservative | BI Dyson | 401 | 0.67 | ||
Majority | 10,903 | 18.32 | |||
Turnout | 80.87 | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
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Conservative | Christopher Murphy | 27,498 | 47.70 | ||
Social Democratic | L Granshaw | 15,252 | 26.46 | ||
Labour | J France | 14,898 | 25.84 | ||
Majority | 12,246 | 21.24 | |||
Turnout | 79.36 | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing |
Elections in the 1970s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
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Conservative | Christopher Murphy | 28,892 | 48.59 | ||
Labour | Helene Hayman | 25,418 | 42.75 | ||
Liberal | J Hurd | 4,688 | 7.88 | ||
National Front | P Ruddock | 459 | 0.77 | ||
Majority | 3,474 | 5.84 | |||
Turnout | 84.99 | ||||
Conservative gain from Labour | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Helene Hayman | 23,339 | 42.76 | ||
Conservative | Lord Balniel | 22,819 | 41.81 | ||
Liberal | PH Robinson | 8,418 | 15.42 | ||
Majority | 520 | 0.95 | |||
Turnout | 81.28 | ||||
Labour gain from Conservative | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
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Conservative | Lord Balniel | 22,581 | 39.85 | ||
Labour | CW Sewell | 21,166 | 37.35 | ||
Liberal | P Robinson | 12,923 | 22.80 | ||
Majority | 1,415 | 2.50 | |||
Turnout | 85.32 | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing |
See also
Notes and references
- Notes
- ↑ A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
- ↑ As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
- ↑ Balniel joined his father, the Earl of Crawford, who from 1963 no longer had to be regularly elected as a representative peer
- References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ The Electoral Commission 2010 results
- ↑ https://www.gov.uk/government/people/grant-shapps
- ↑ 2011 Census
- ↑ Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 2)[self-published source][better source needed]
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/welwynhatfield/
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- Accuracy disputes from March 2012
- Articles lacking reliable references from March 2012
- Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters
- Parliamentary constituencies in Hertfordshire
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies established in 1974
- Politics of Welwyn Hatfield