Penrith and The Border (UK Parliament constituency)

Penrith and the Border
County constituency
for the House of Commons

Boundary of Penrith and the Border in Cumbria.

Location of Cumbria within England.
County Cumbria
Electorate 65,234 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created 1950 (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

History

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.

Boundaries

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

Boundary review

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;

Members of Parliament

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

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

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

Elections in the 2000s

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

Elections in the 1990s

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

Elections in the 1980s

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

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 "P" (part 2)
  3. ^ BBC - Election 2010 - Penrith & The Border
  4. ^ http://www.eden.gov.uk/democracy/elections/general-election-2010/declaration-of-result-of-poll/
  5. ^ "Politics Resources". Election 1997. Politics Resources. 1 May 1997. http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/constit/302.htm. Retrieved 5 Jan 2011. 
  6. ^ C. Rallings & M. Thrasher, The Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies, p.132 (Plymouth: LGC Elections Centre, 1995).
  7. ^ The 1997 election result has swings relative to the notional, not the actual, 1992 result.
  8. ^ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. http://www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge92/ge92index.htm. Retrieved 6 Dec 2010. 
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