Penrith and the Border | |
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County constituency | |
for the House of Commons | |
Boundary of Penrith and the Border in Cumbria. |
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Location of Cumbria within England. |
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County | Cumbria |
Electorate | 65,234 (December 2010)[1] |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1950 |
Member of Parliament | Rory Stewart (Conservative) |
Number of members | One |
Created from | Penrith & Cockermouth North Cumberland |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | North West England |
Penrith and The Border is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is represented by one Member of Parliament (MP) elected by the first past the post system of election. This Cumbrian constituency was first contested in 1950.
Contents |
The constutuency is a safe Conservative seat, and has only ever been represented by Conservative MPs. However, the Conservatives came close to losing the seat in a 1983 by-election when the former cabinet minister William Whitelaw became the leader of the House of Lords: the by-election took place a mere seven weeks after the 1983 general election.
The constituency was created in 1950 by merging part of Penrith and Cockermouth with North Cumberland. The constituency was enlarged in the 1980s by taking first most of the northern part of the former Westmorland constituency and later the Kirkby Stephen/Tebay area of the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency.
In the 1990s a small part of Penrith and The Border was transferred to the Carlisle borough constituency.
The constituency corresponds to the Eden district, along with parts of the City of Carlisle district outside Carlisle itself and a small part of Allerdale borough around the town of Wigton.
Penrith and The Border is the largest constituency by area in England. Despite the name it only includes part of the English border with Scotland. The neighbouring constituency of Hexham (together with Berwick-upon-Tweed) also takes in the border area. The name stems from the fact that when the constituency was first created it consisted of the Penrith Rural and Urban Districts, the Border Rural District and also the Alston with Garrigill Rural District
Following their review of parliamentary representation in Cumbria, the Boundary Commission for England have created a modified Penrith seat to reflect population changes.
The electoral wards used in the creation of this seat, fought for the first time at the general election of 2010 are;
The seat was represented for nearly three decades by William Whitelaw, who served as a cabinet minister in various capacities during Conservative governments of the 1970s and 1980s and later joined the House of Lords. His successor the former Conservative Chief Whip and junior minister, David Maclean sat as MP from 1983 to 2010 when he stood down due to the state of his health; he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996. He was succeeded by the Conservative MP, Rory Stewart.
Election | Member[2] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
1950 | Robert Scott | Conservative | |
1955 | William Whitelaw | Conservative | |
1983 by-election | David Maclean | Conservative | |
2010 | Rory Stewart | Conservative |
General Election 2010: Penrith and The Border[3][4] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | Rory Stewart | 24,071 | 53.4 | +2.0 | |
Liberal Democrat | Peter Thornton | 12,830 | 28.5 | +2.6 | |
Labour | Barbara Cannon | 5,834 | 12.9 | −6.1 | |
UKIP | John Stanyer | 1,259 | 2.8 | +0.3 | |
BNP | Chris Davidson | 1,093 | 2.4 | N/A | |
Majority | 11,241 | 24.9 | −0.6 | ||
Turnout | 45,087 | 69.9 | +3.2 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | −0.3 |
General Election 2005: Penrith and The Border | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | David Maclean | 24,046 | 51.3 | –3.6 | |
Liberal Democrat | Geyve Walker | 12,142 | 25.9 | +4.1 | |
Labour | Michael Boaden | 8,958 | 19.1 | +0.6 | |
UKIP | William Robinson | 1,187 | 2.5 | +0.4 | |
Legalise Cannabis | Mark Gibson | 549 | 1.2 | –0.8 | |
Majority | 11,904 | 25.4 | |||
Turnout | 46,882 | 66.1 | +1.6 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | –3.9 |
General Election 2001: Penrith and The Border | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | David Maclean | 24,302 | 54.9 | +7.3 | |
Liberal Democrat | Geyve Walker | 9,625 | 21.8 | –4.9 | |
Labour | Michael Boaden | 8,177 | 18.5 | –3.1 | |
UKIP | Thomas Lowther | 938 | 2.1 | N/A | |
Legalise Cannabis | Mark Gibson | 870 | 2.0 | N/A | |
Independent | John Moffat | 337 | 0.8 | N/A | |
Majority | 14,677 | 33.1 | |||
Turnout | 44,249 | 64.5 | –9.1 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing |
General Election 1997: Penrith and The Border[5][6][7] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | David Maclean | 23,300 | 47.6 | −11.1 | |
Liberal Democrat | K. Geyve Walker | 13,067 | 26.7 | −2.3 | |
Labour | Margaret Meling | 10,576 | 21.6 | +10.6 | |
Referendum Party | C Pope | 2,018 | 4.1 | ||
Majority | 10,233 | 20.9 | −8.8 | ||
Turnout | 48,961 | 73.6 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | −4.4 |
General Election 1992: Penrith and The Border[8] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | David Maclean | 33,808 | 57.5 | −2.7 | |
Liberal Democrat | K. Geyve Walker | 15,359 | 26.1 | −2.6 | |
Labour | John Metcalfe | 8,871 | 15.1 | +4.0 | |
Green | Robert A. Gibson | 610 | 1.0 | +1.0 | |
Natural Law | Ian Docker | 129 | 0.2 | +0.2 | |
Majority | 18,449 | 31.4 | −0.2 | ||
Turnout | 58,777 | 79.7 | +2.2 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | −0.1 |
General Election 1987: Penrith and The Border | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | David Maclean | 33,148 | 60.3 | +1.5 | |
Liberal | D.J. Ivison | 15,782 | 28.7 | +0.8 | |
Labour | John Hutton | 6,075 | 11.0 | -2.3 | |
Majority | 17,366 | 31.6 | +1.5 | ||
Turnout | 55,005 | 77.5 | +4.4 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +0.8 |
Penrith and The Border by-election, 1983 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | David Maclean | 17,530 | 46.0 | –12.8 | |
Liberal | Michael A. Young | 16,978 | 44.6 | +16.7 | |
Labour | Lindsay Williams | 2,834 | 7.4 | –5.8 | |
Monster Raving Loony | Screaming Lord Sutch | 412 | 1.1 | N/A | |
Retired Naval Officer | Eric Morgan | 150 | 0.4 | N/A | |
Death off Roads: Freight on Rail | Helen Anscomb | 72 | 0.2 | N/A | |
Independent Socialist | John Connell | 69 | 0.2 | N/A | |
New Britain | Peter Smith | 35 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Majority | 552 | 1.4 | –29.5 | ||
Turnout | 38,080 | 55.9 | –17.2 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | –14.8 |
General Election 1983: Penrith and The Border | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | William Whitelaw | 29,304 | 58.8 | –2.4 | |
Liberal | Michael A. Young | 13,883 | 27.9 | +11.4 | |
Labour | Lindsay Williams | 6,612 | 13.3 | –9.1 | |
Majority | 15,421 | 30.1 | –8.7 | ||
Turnout | 49,799 | 73.1 | –3.9 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing |