Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency)

Barrow and Furness
County constituency
for the House of Commons

Boundary of Barrow and Furness in Cumbria for the 2007 general election.

Location of Cumbria within England.
County Cumbria
(Lancashire until 1974)
Electorate 69,148 (December 2010)[1]
Major settlements Barrow-in-Furness, Ulverston
Current constituency
Created 1885 (1885)
Member of Parliament John Woodcock (Labour Co-op)
Number of members One
Created from North Lancashire
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency North West England

Barrow and Furness (previously Barrow-in-Furness) is a parliamentary constituency in Cumbria, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Contents

History

The seat of Barrow and Furness, tucked away in the west of Cumbria beyond the Lake District, is the location for one of Britain's most important industrial centres. The largest town in the constituency, Barrow-in-Furness, grew on the back of the ship building industry and is now the site of the BAE Systems nuclear submarine and ship building operation. This reliance on a single industry associated with controversial defence policies has, in the past, proved politically volatile in a constituency the Labour Party would consider its own backyard. Labour Cabinet member Albert Booth represented Barrow from 1966 but suffered a shock defeat in 1983. Many put this down to widespread fears of job losses because the Labour Party was then signed up to doing away with all its nuclear capabilities including the submarines. The Conservative Party Member of Parliament through the eighties was a Manchester lawyer, Cecil Franks.

As Labour moved back towards the retention of Britain's nuclear capability and following massive job losses in the town's ship building industry, Labour's fortunes revived in Barrow. John Hutton took the seat back for Labour in 1992 and retained it until the 2010 General Election when he was replaced as MP by the Labour candidate John Woodcock. In 2001 he had the support of more than half of all those who voted. There are other industries in the constituency including engineering and chemicals and more than a quarter of all jobs are in manufacturing. Surrounding this industrial mass is some wild and beautiful countryside, a sweeping mix of moors, hills, peaks and coast, including the towns of Ulverston and Dalton-in-Furness.

Boundaries

This constituency contains the southern half of the Furness peninsula, South Cumbria in the north-west of England.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Cumbria, the Boundary Commission for England created a modified Barrow and Furness constituency, which took the seat further north than currently into a lobster-claw shape taking Lake District areas to the north.

The newly shaped seat is formed from the following electoral wards:

These boundaries were first contested in 2010.

Members of Parliament

The current MP is John Woodcock of the Labour and Co-operative Parties. He replaced John Hutton a former lecturer. Hutton had taken the seat from Cecil Franks of the Conservative Party in the 1992 general election. He held the cabinet posts of Secretary of State for Defence, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Election Member[2] Party
1885 David Duncan Liberal
1886 by-election William Sproston Caine Liberal
1886 Liberal Unionist
1890 by-election James Duncan Liberal
1892 Sir Charles Cayzer, Bt Conservative
1906 Charles Duncan Labour
1918 Robert Chadwick Conservative
1922 Daniel Somerville Conservative
1924 John Bromley Labour
1931 Sir Jonah Walker-Smith Conservative
1945 Walter Monslow Labour
1966 Albert Booth Labour
1983 Constituency renamed "Barrow and Furness"
1983 Cecil Franks Conservative
1992 John Hutton Labour
2010 John Woodcock Labour Co-operative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Barrow and Furness[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Co-op John Woodcock 21,226 48.1 +2.9
Conservative John Gough 16,018 36.3 +3.7
Liberal Democrat Barry Rabone 4,424 10.0 -7.9
UKIP John Smith 841 1.9 -0.2
BNP Mike Ashburner 840 1.9 N/A
Green Chris Loynes 530 1.2 N/A
Independent Brian Greaves 245 0.6 N/A
Majority 5,208 11.8
Turnout 44,124 63.7 +4.8
Labour hold Swing -0.4

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Barrow and Furness
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John Hutton 17,360 47.6 -8.1
Conservative William Dorman 11,323 31.0 +0.7
Liberal Democrat Barry Rabone 6,130 16.8 +4.6
UKIP Alan Beach 758 2.1 +0.3
Build Duddon and Morecambe Bridges Timothey Bell 409 1.1 +1.1
Veritas Brian Greaves 306 0.8 +0.8
Independent Helene Young 207 0.6 +0.6
Majority 6,037 16.5
Turnout 36,493 59.0 -1.3
Labour hold Swing -4.4
General Election 2001: Barrow and Furness
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John Hutton 21,724 55.7 -1.6
Conservative James Airey 11,835 30.3 +3.1
Liberal Democrat Barry Rabone 4,750 12.2 +3.3
UKIP John Smith 711 1.8 N/A
Majority 9,889 25.4
Turnout 39,020 60.3 -11.7

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Barrow and Furness
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John Hutton 27,630 57.3 +9.6
Conservative R Hunt 13,133 27.2 -14.1
Liberal Democrat A Metcalfe 4264 8.8 -2.1
Independent J Hamezeian 1,995 4.1 N/A
Referendum Party D Mitchell 1,208 2.5 N/A
Majority 14,497 30.1
Turnout 48,232 72.0 -10.1
Labour hold Swing +11.9
General Election 1992: Barrow and Furness[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John Hutton 26,568 47.7 +8.5
Conservative Cecil Franks 22,990 41.3 −5.1
Liberal Democrat Clive J. Crane 6,089 10.9 −3.3
Majority 3,578 6.4 −0.7
Turnout 55,647 82.0 +3.0
Labour gain from Conservative Swing +6.8

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Barrow and Furness
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Cecil Franks 25,431 46.5 +2.9
Labour P Phizacklea 21,504 39.3 +4.6
SDP–Liberal Alliance R W Phelps 7,799 14.3 -7.4
Majority 3,927 7.2
Turnout 54,731 79.0 +3.8
Conservative hold Swing -0.9
General Election 1983: Barrow and Furness
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Cecil Franks 22,284 43.6
Labour A E Booth 17,707 34.7
SDP–Liberal Alliance D Cottier 11,079 21.7
Majority 4,577 9.0
Turnout 51,070 75.2
Conservative gain from Labour Swing

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Barrow in Furness

Electorate 49,669, Turnout 79.7, Voters 39,587
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Walter Monslow 25,939 65.5 gain
Conservative Jonah Walker-Smith 13,648 34.5 loss
Majority 12,291 31.0

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. http://www.boundarycommissionforengland.org.uk/electoral-figures/electoral-figures.htm. Retrieved 13 March 2011. 
  2. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)
  3. ^ "Barrow & Furness". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/a14.stm. Retrieved 2010-05-08. 
  4. ^ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge92/ge92index.htm. Retrieved 6 Dec 2010. 
Constituencies in North West England (75)
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