Oldham West and Royton | |
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Borough constituency | |
for the House of Commons | |
Boundary of Oldham West and Royton in Greater Manchester. |
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Location of Greater Manchester within England. |
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County | Greater Manchester |
Electorate | 72,402 (December 2010)[1] |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1997 |
Member of Parliament | Michael Meacher (Labour) |
Number of members | One |
Created from | Oldham West and Oldham Central & Royton |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | North West England |
Oldham West and Royton is a borough constituency 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 |
The constituency is one of three covering the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. It covers most of the western part of the borough, including Chadderton and Royton, but not Failsworth which is in the Ashton-under-Lyne constituency.
In July 2006 fourteen representations were received by the Boundary Commission for England, which called for the inclusion of Chadderton in the name of the Oldham West and Royton parliamentary constituency. Many of the objectors pointed out that Chadderton was much larger and more populous than Royton.
However the commission rejected the proposed alternative name (Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton) because it was too long and they did not believe that there was a significant amount of support for a name change.[2]
The present constituency was formed in 1997, from parts of the former Oldham Central and Royton and Oldham West constituencies. It is a safe seat for the Labour Party, having been held by Michael Meacher since the 1997 general election. Meacher had previously been the MP for Oldham West since 1970.
The constituency gained a level of notoriety at the 2001 general election when the leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP), Nick Griffin, stood as a candidate. Griffin received 6,552 votes (a 16.4% share), beating the Liberal Democrats to third place, and finishing narrowly behind the Conservatives in second. This was widely interpreted to be a reaction to the serious race riots that had occurred in Oldham (and other northern towns) a few months earlier. Because of the heightened tension, the Returning Officer took the decision not to allow any candidates to make speeches after the declaration of the results. This led to Griffin and fellow BNP candidate Michael Treacy, who ran in the neighbouring constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth, symbolically gagging themselves on the platform wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan "Gagged for Telling the Truth".[3]
In the immediate aftermath of the riots, the BNP have received considerable support in the two wards of Royton North and Royton South. However, the BNP share of the vote has sharply declined since then, with BNP and former BNP candidates coming in third or fourth in Royton North and other Oldham West and Royton Wards.[4]
At the 2005 election, the BNP's share of the vote declined (although they still retained their deposit), and Labour's Michael Meacher still won comfortably.
There has never been a BNP councillor in the constituency, nor on Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council as a whole.
Election | Member[5] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
1997 | Michael Meacher | Labour |
General Election 2010: Oldham West and Royton[6] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Michael Meacher | 19,503 | 45.5 | -2.9 | |
Conservative | Kamran Ghafoor | 10,151 | 23.7 | +2.6 | |
Liberal Democrat | Mark Alcock | 8,193 | 19.1 | -2.1 | |
BNP | Dave Joines | 3,049 | 7.1 | +0.3 | |
UKIP | Helen Roberts | 1,387 | 3.2 | +0.7 | |
Respect | Shahid Miah | 627 | 1.5 | N/A | |
Majority | 9,352 | 21.8 | -5.3 | ||
Turnout | 42,910 | 59.1 | +5.1 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | -2.7 |
General Election 2005: Oldham West and Royton | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Michael Meacher | 18,452 | 49.1 | -2.1 | |
Conservative | Sean Moore | 7,998 | 21.3 | +3.6 | |
Liberal Democrat | Stuart Bodsworth | 7,519 | 20.0 | +7.6 | |
BNP | Anita Corbett | 2,606 | 6.9 | -9.5 | |
UKIP | David Short | 987 | 2.6 | +2.6 | |
Majority | 10,454 | 27.8 | |||
Turnout | 37,562 | 53.3 | -4.3 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | -2.8 |
General Election 2001: Oldham West and Royton | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Michael Meacher | 20,441 | 51.2 | -7.6 | |
Conservative | Duncan Reed | 7,076 | 17.7 | -5.7 | |
BNP | Nick Griffin | 6,552 | 16.4 | N/A | |
Liberal Democrat | Marc Ramsbottom | 4,975 | 12.4 | +0.6 | |
Green | David Roney | 918 | 2.3 | N/A | |
Majority | 13,365 | 33.5 | |||
Turnout | 39,962 | 57.6 | -8.5 | ||
Labour hold | Swing |
General Election 1997: Oldham West and Royton | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Michael Meacher | 26,894 | 58.8 | +9.7 | |
Conservative | Jonathan Lord | 10,693 | 23.4 | -14.7 | |
Liberal Democrat | Howard Cohen | 5,434 | 11.9 | +0.4 | |
Socialist Labour | Gias Choudhury | 1,311 | 2.9 | N/A | |
Referendum Party | Peter Etherden | 1,157 | 2.5 | N/A | |
Natural Law | Sheila Dalling | 249 | 0.5 | N/A | |
Majority | 16,201 | 35.4 | |||
Turnout | 66.1 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing |