List of Parliamentary constituencies in Leicestershire and Rutland

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
Charnwood CC	70,869	15,029		Stephen Dorrell†		Robin Webber-Jones
Harborough CC	72,881	9,797		Edward Garnier†		Zuffar Haq¤
Leicester East BC	66,176	14,082		Keith Vaz‡		Jane Hunt†
Leicester South BC*	78,433	12,078		Jon Ashworth‡		Zuffar Haq¤
Leicester West BC	64,301	4,017		Elizabeth Kendall‡		Celia Harvey†
Loughborough CC	70,983	3,744		Nicky Morgan‡		Andy Reed†
North West Leicestershire CC	67,534	7,511		Andrew Bridgen		Ross Willmott
Rutland and Melton CC	72,214	14,000		Alan Duncan†		Grahame Hudson
South Leicestershire CC	72,731	15,524		Andrew Robathan†		Aladdin Ayesh

• Result of Leicester South by-election, 2011

Results

2005	2010

Changes for the 2010 general election

No. on map	Constituency	2005 boundaries	2010 boundaries
1	Bosworth
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

• East Midlands (European Parliament constituency)
• Leicestershire County Council
• Rutland County Council

Footnotes

References

General

• "Boundary Commission for England: Fifth Periodical Report". Boundary Commission for England. Crown Copyright. Retrieved 6 November 2009. 
• Craig, Frederick Walter Scott (1972). Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972. Chichester, Sussex: Political Reference Publications. ISBN 0-900178-13-2. 

Specific