List of Parliamentary constituencies in Leicestershire and Rutland

A small county slightly, located in the centre of a country. It is completely bounded by other counties.
The county of Leicestershire in relation to England

The ceremonial county of Leicestershire, (which includes the unitary authority of Leicester), is divided into 10 Parliamentary constituencies - 3 Borough constituencies and 7 County constituencies. One of these also includes the small county of Rutland.

Finalised proposals by the Boundary Commission for England retain these 10 constituencies, with changes to realign constituency boundaries with the boundaries of current local government wards, and to reduce the electoral disparity between constituencies. These changes were implemented at the United Kingdom general election, 2010. They have confirmed that the new constituency which almost corresponds to the existing Blaby is renamed South Leicestershire on the grounds that it does not match the borders of Blaby district, and the village of Blaby itself is not one of the major population centres.

Historic constituencies

In the unreformed House of Commons, Leicestershire and Rutland were represented by two Knights of the Shire each, and the only parliamentary borough was Leicester, which sent two burgesses.

Under the Reform Act 1832, Leicestershire was split into two divisions, North and South, which each elected two members. The Reform Act 1885 redistributed these seats in four single-member divisions: Melton, or Eastern, Loughborough, or Mid, Harborough, or Southern, and Bosworth, or Western.

At the 1918 general election, the four divisions of the county were retained, and the borough of Leicester was split into three single-member constituencies, Leicester East, Leicester South, and Leicester West. From 1948 to 1970 Leicester had four constituencies, these being Leicester North East, Leicester North West, Leicester South East and Leicester South West: the three seat arrangement of South, East and West was reverted to thereafter.

Rutland constituted a constituency on its own until the 1918, when it became part of the Rutland and Stamford constituency, with nearby Stamford in Lincolnshire.

In 1983, seats in Leicestershire were shaken up. Rutland was associated with Melton to form Rutland and Melton, with Loughborough, Bosworth, and Harborough remaining as seat names. Two new seats were created: Blaby in the south-west, and in the north-west the North West Leicestershire constituency. A further constituency, Charnwood was created in the north for the 1997 election.

2010 constituencies

      † Conservative       ‡ Labour       ¤ Liberal Democrat

(part) signifies that only part of a ward is located in the constituency.

Name[nb 1] Electorate[1] Majority[nb 2] Member of Parliament Nearest opposition Electoral wards[2][3] Map
Bosworth CC 72,948 5,032 David Tredinnick Michael Mullaney
A medium-sized constituency located in the south east of the county.
Charnwood CC 70,869 15,029 Stephen Dorrell Robin Webber-Jones
A medium-sized constituency, located to the north of the centre of the county. It is entirely bounded by other constituencies in the county.
Harborough CC 72,881 9,797 Edward Garnier Zuffar Haq¤
A medium-to-large constituency, located in the southeast of the county.
Leicester East BC 66,176 14,082 Keith Vaz Jane Hunt†
A small constituency, located in the centre of the county, to the east of two other small constituencies.
Leicester South BC* 78,433 12,078 Jon Ashworth Zuffar Haq¤
A small constituency, located in the centre of the county to the south of two equally small constituencies.
Leicester West BC 64,301 4,017 Elizabeth Kendall‡ Celia Harvey†
A small constituency, situated in the centre of the county to the west of two similarly-sized constituencies.
Loughborough CC 70,983 3,744 Nicky Morgan Andy Reed
A small-to-medium sized constituency in the north of the county.
North West Leicestershire CC 67,534 7,511 Andrew Bridgen Ross Willmott
A medium sized constituency situated in the north west of the county.
Rutland and Melton CC 72,214 14,000 Alan Duncan Grahame Hudson
A very large constituency. It consists of the eastern portion of the county. It also includes the entirety of a second, smaller county, located to the east of the larger county.
South Leicestershire CC 72,731 15,524   Andrew Robathan   Aladdin Ayesh
A large constituency in the south of the county.

Results

2005 2010

Changes for the 2010 general election

No. on map Constituency 2005 boundaries 2010 boundaries
1 Bosworth
A map of a large county and an adjacent small county, to the east. The two counties are divided into a total of ten constituencies
A map of the same two counties. The borders of the constituencies are slightly different. The border between the two counties remains unchanged.
2 Charnwood
3 Harborough
4 Leicester East
5 Leicester South
6 Leicester West
7 Loughborough
8 North West Leicestershire
9 Rutland and Melton
10 South Leicestershire (previously Blaby)

See also

Footnotes

  1. BC denotes borough constituency, CC denotes county constituency.
  2. The majority is the number of votes the winning candidate receives more than their nearest rival.

References

General
Specific
  1. Boundary Commission for England pp. 677–689.
  2. "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 2007". Office of Public Sector Information. Crown copyright. 13 June 2007. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  3. Boundary Commission for England pp. 1004–1007