Staffordshire Moorlands (UK Parliament constituency)

Staffordshire Moorlands
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Staffordshire Moorlands in Staffordshire.
Location of Staffordshire within England.
County	Staffordshire
Electorate	62,457 (December 2010)[1]
Major settlements	Leek and Biddulph
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of parliament	Karen Bradley (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Leek
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	West Midlands

Staffordshire Moorlands is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Karen Bradley, a Conservative.^{[n 2]}

History

Political history

The forerunner seat, Leek existed for nearly a century until 1983 and in its more recent history alternated between the Labour Party and Conservative parties three times after a Liberal had held the seat from 1910 until 1918. Despite the changes in member, it was far from a bellwether (that is, a reflection of the national result), as Leek leaned more towards one party more than the other in two phases: in the first, longer part of this period the seat was held mainly by William Bromfield (Lab), secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Textile Workers and Kindred Trades (ASTWKT), whose membership covered Staffordshire and South Cheshire and then by the future Lord Davies of Leek who as the main aide to the Prime Minister, was tasked with secret talks with Ho Chi Minh at which he failed due to a leak; in the second part of this period David Knox (Con), a pro-European, toward the left of his party, and a supporter of Ted Heath when he faced Margaret Thatcher's leadership challenge, helped to establish Tory Reform Group and during his long tenure as MP until 1997 held the seat even during the Wilson-Callaghan government.

Since Charlotte Atkins's win in 1997 the seat has been a bellwether for the national result.

Boundaries

1983-1997: The District of Staffordshire Moorlands.

1997-2010: The District of Staffordshire Moorlands wards of Biddulph East, Biddulph Moor, Biddulph North, Biddulph South, Biddulph West, Caverswall, Cheddleton, Horton, Ipstones, Leek North East, Leek North West, Leek South East, Leek South West, Leekfrith, Longnor, Warslow, Waterhouses, Werrington, and Wetley Rocks; and the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme wards of Butt Lane, Kidsgrove, Newchapel, and Talke.

2010-present: The District of Staffordshire Moorlands wards of Alton, Bagnall and Stanley, Biddulph East, Biddulph Moor, Biddulph North, Biddulph South, Biddulph West, Brown Edge and Endon, Caverswall, Cellarhead, Cheddleton, Churnet, Dane, Hamps Valley, Horton, Ipstones, Leek East, Leek North, Leek South, Leek West, Manifold, and Werrington; and the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme ward of Newchapel.

History of boundaries

The constituency succeeded the former constituency of Leek for the 1983 general election. The boundary changes which took effect for the 1997 general election proved to be among the most controversial of all those proposed by the Boundary Commission.^[2] Initially only minor changes were to be made: two rural wards to transfer to Stone (newly created).^[2] However in the same proposed boundary changes, the neighbouring community of Kidsgrove had been split between two constituencies, with two wards remaining in the constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North and two wards transferring to Newcastle-under-Lyme. At the local enquiry into the changes, it was argued that this division of Kidsgrove was unacceptable and the assistant commissioner consequently recommended that all four Kidsgrove wards be transferred instead to Staffordshire Moorlands.^[2] To make way for the 19,000 voters in Kidsgrove (to that date shown to be heavily Labour-supporting,^[2] two wards, Endon & Stanley and Brown Edge, were transferred to Stoke-on-Trent North, while two more rural wards were transferred to the Stone constituency. It was estimated that if the constituency had been fought on the pre-1997 Ms Atkins would have gained the seat by a majority of about 1,500 votes.^[3]

The boundary changes which took effect at the 2010 general election effectively reversed these changes: Four of the five Kidsgrove wards transferred to Stoke-on-Trent North with only one mainly rural ward, Newchapel remaining in Staffordshire Moorlands. Brown Edge and Endon & Stanley returned to Staffordshire Moorlands. It was estimated that if the constituency had been fought at the 2005 election, Labour would have lost the seat by 1,035 votes as opposed to the 2,438 votes that Charlotte Atkins won on that occasion.^[4][5]

Constituency profile

The constituency covers a good deal of rural areas of north-east Staffordshire, northeast of Stoke-on-Trent, having a Derbyshire border. The largest towns are Leek in the Churnet valley and Biddulph. The area also includes the wooded, hillside village of Rudyard with its long man-made lake and miniature railway, and about 30% is in a scarcely populated part of the Peak District of small villages, one of which, Wetton, features Old Hannah's Cave. The southern part of Dove Dale on the border itself features rock climbing as well as Jacob's Ladder and Bertram's cave and well.

Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.1% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.^[6]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[7]	Party
	1983	Sir David Knox	Conservative
	1997	Charlotte Atkins	Labour
	2010	Karen Bradley	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Staffordshire Moorlands[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Karen Bradley
	Labour	Trudie McGuinness[9]
	UKIP	George Langley-Poole[10]
	Liberal Democrat	John Redfern[11]
	Green	Brian Smith[12]

General Election 2010: Staffordshire Moorlands[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Karen Bradley	19,793	45.2	+5.4
	Labour	Charlotte Atkins	13,104	29.9	−6.0
	Liberal Democrat	Henry Jebb	7,338	16.7	−0.8
	UKIP	Steve Povey	3,580	8.2	+1.4
Majority			6,689	15.3
Turnout			43,815	70.6	+2.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+5.7

The vote share change and hold status in 2010 comes from the notional, not actual, 2005 results because of boundary changes. Calculations of notional results (an estimate of how the seat would have voted in 2005 if it had existed then on the 2010 boundaries) suggested that the Conservatives would have won the seat, so the result in 2010 was classed as a Conservative "hold" by most sources.^[14][15]

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Staffordshire Moorlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Charlotte Atkins	18,126	41.0	−8.0
	Conservative	Marcus Hayes	15,688	35.5	+0.2
	Liberal Democrat	John Fisher	6,927	15.7	+1.8
	UKIP	Stephen Povey	3,512	7.9	+6.1
Majority			2,438	5.5	−8.2
Turnout			44,253	64.0	+0.1
	Labour hold		Swing	−4.1

General Election 2001: Staffordshire Moorlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Charlotte Atkins	20,904	49.0	−3.2
	Conservative	Marcus Hayes	15,066	35.3	+2.8
	Liberal Democrat	John Redfern	5,928	13.9	+1.8
	UKIP	Paul Gilbert	760	1.8	N/A
Majority			5,838	13.7	−6.0
Turnout			42,658	63.9	−13.9
	Labour hold		Swing	−3.0

Source:^[16]

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Staffordshire Moorlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Charlotte Atkins	26,686	52.21
	Conservative	A Ashworth	16,637	32.55
	Liberal Democrat	CR Jebb	6,191	12.11
	Referendum Party	D Stanworth	1,603	3.14
Majority			10,049	19.66
Turnout				77.75
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

General Election 1992: Staffordshire Moorlands[17]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Knox	29,240	46.6	−6.3
	Labour	JE Siddelley	21,830	34.8	+6.0
	Liberal Democrat	CR Jebb	9,326	14.9	−3.5
	Anti-Federalist League	MC Howson	2,121	3.4	N/A
	Natural Law	P Davies	261	0.4	N/A
Majority			7,410	11.8	−12.3
Turnout			62,778	83.7	+3.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	−6.2

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Staffordshire Moorlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Knox	31,613	52.91
	Labour	V Ivers	17,186	28.76
	Social Democratic	JP Corbett	10,950	18.33
Majority			14,427	24.15
Turnout				80.41
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1983: Staffordshire Moorlands
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Knox	30,079	53.8	N/A
	Labour	B Campbell	13,513	24.2	N/A
	Social Democratic	P Gubbins	12,370	22.1	N/A
Majority			16,566	29.6	N/A
Turnout				77.2	N/A
	Conservative win (new seat)

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Staffordshire

Notes and references

Notes

References

Constituencies in the West Midlands (59) Conservative (33) Aldridge-Brownhills Bromsgrove Burton Cannock Chase Dudley South Halesowen and Rowley Regis Hereford and South Herefordshire Kenilworth and Southam Lichfield Ludlow Meriden Mid Worcestershire North Herefordshire North Shropshire North Warwickshire Nuneaton Redditch Rugby Shrewsbury and Atcham South Staffordshire Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Stone Stourbridge Stratford-on-Avon Sutton Coldfield Tamworth The Wrekin Warwick and Leamington West Worcestershire Wolverhampton South West Worcester Wyre Forest Labour (24) Birmingham, Edgbaston Birmingham, Erdington Birmingham, Hall Green Birmingham, Hodge Hill Birmingham, Ladywood Birmingham, Northfield Birmingham, Perry Barr Birmingham, Selly Oak Coventry North East Coventry North West Coventry South Dudley North Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke-on-Trent Central Stoke-on-Trent North Stoke-on-Trent South Telford Walsall North Walsall South Warley West Bromwich East West Bromwich West Wolverhampton North East Wolverhampton South East Liberal Democrats (2) Birmingham, Yardley Solihull West Midlands European constituency: Conservative (2) Labour (2) UKIP (3)

Coordinates: 53°4′N 1°59′W / 53.067°N 1.983°W / 53.067; -1.983