Luton (UK Parliament constituency)

Luton
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Bedfordshire
Major settlements	Luton
1950–1974 (1974)
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Luton East and Luton West
1885–1950
Number of members	One
Type of constituency	County constituency
Created from	Bedfordshire

Luton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Luton in Bedfordshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

The Bedfordshire Southern or Luton constituency^[1] was created for the 1885 general election as a county division of Bedfordshire, when the former Bedfordshire county constituency was abolished.

Luton became a borough constituency in 1950 ().

At the February 1974 general election the Borough constituency was abolished, and replaced by two new borough constituencies: Luton East and Luton West.

Boundaries

1885-1918: The Boroughs of Dunstable and Luton, the Sessional Divisions of Leighton Buzzard, Luton, and Woburn, and part of the Sessional Division of Ampthill.

1918-1950: The Boroughs of Dunstable and Luton, and the Rural District of Luton.

1950-1974: The Borough of Luton wards of Central, Crawley, Dallow, High Town, Icknield, Lewsey, South, Stopsley, Sundon Park, and Wardown.

The 1885 county constituency was created under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, when the former two-seat constituency of Bedfordshire was divided into two single-member seats of Biggleswade and Luton.

Members of Parliament

	Member	Party
1885	Cyril Flower	Liberal
1892 by-election	Samuel Howard Whitbread	Liberal
1895	Thomas Gair Ashton	Liberal
1911 by-election	Cecil Bisshopp Harmsworth	Liberal
1922	Sir John Prescott Hewett	Unionist
1923	Geoffrey William Algernon Howard	Liberal
1924	Terence James O'Connor	Unionist
1929	Edward Leslie Burgin	Liberal
1931	Edward Leslie Burgin	National Liberal
1945	Will Warbey	Labour
1950	Charles Hill	National Liberal and Conservative
1963 by-election	Will Howie	Labour
1970	Charles Simeons	Conservative
Feb 1974	constituency abolished: see Luton East and Luton West

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

Gedge

General Election 1885: Luton ^[2]^[3]^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Cyril Flower	6,080	61.1	n/a
	Conservative	Sydney Gedge	3,871	38.9	n/a
Majority			2,209	22.2	n/a
Turnout				82.2	n/a
	Liberal win (new seat)

General Election 1886: Luton ^[2]^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Cyril Flower	4,275	54.3
	Conservative	Walter Barttelot	3,602	45.7
Majority			673	8.6
Turnout				65.1
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1892: Luton ^[2]^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Cyril Flower	5,296	55.3	+1.0
	Liberal Unionist	Oliver Thomas Duke	4,277	44.7	-1.0
Majority			1,019	10.6	+2.0
Turnout				75.7	+10.6
	Liberal hold		Swing	+1.0

Luton by-election, 1892 ^[2]^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Samuel Whitbread	4,838	51.3
	Liberal Unionist	Oliver Thomas Duke	4,596	48.7
Majority			242	2.6
Turnout				74.6
	Liberal hold		Swing

Thomas Ashton

General Election 1895: Luton ^[2]^[3]^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Thomas Ashton	5,430	50.9	-0.4
	Liberal Unionist	Oliver Thomas Duke	5,244	49.1	+0.4
Majority				1.8	-0.8
Turnout				83.7	+9.1
	Liberal hold		Swing	-0.4

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1900: Luton ^[2]^[3]^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Thomas Ashton	5,474	50.5
	Liberal Unionist	George Elliott	5,371	49.5
Majority			103	1.0
Turnout				81.4
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election 1906: Luton ^[2]^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Thomas Ashton	7,240	57.3	+6.8
	Conservative	Alfred Peter Hillier	5,387	42.7	-6.8
Majority				14.6
Turnout				87.3	+5.9
	Liberal hold		Swing	+6.8

Elections in the 1910s

General Election January 1910: Luton ^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Thomas Ashton	7,946
	Liberal Unionist	George Elliott	7,080
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election December 1910: Luton ^[2]^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Thomas Ashton	7,601	53.4	+0.5
	Conservative	John Owen Hickman	6,623	46.6	-0.5
Majority				6.8
Turnout				85.9
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.5

Harmsworth

Luton by-election, 1911^[2]^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Cecil Harmsworth	7,619	52.1	-1.3
	Conservative	John Owen Hickman	7,006	47.9	+1.3
Majority			613	4.2
Turnout				85.1
	Liberal hold		Swing	-1.3

General Election 1914/15:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1914 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

Liberal: Cecil Harmsworth
Unionist: John Owen Hickman^[10]

General Election 1918: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Cecil Harmsworth	13,501	69.4
	Labour	Willet Ball	5,964	30.6
Majority			7,537	38.8
Turnout				62.5
	Liberal hold		Swing

Harmsworth was endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Elections in the 1920s

Percy Alden

General Election 1922: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	John Prescott Hewett	13,301	43.5	n/a
	Liberal	Harry Arnold	10,137	33.2	-36.2
	Labour	Percy Alden	7,107	23.3	-7.3
Majority			3,164	10.3	49.1
Turnout				81.0	+18.5
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	n/a

Geoffrey Howard

General Election 1923: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Geoffrey Howard	15,569	51.4	+18.2
	Unionist	John Prescott Hewett	11,738	38.7	-4.8
	Labour	Willet Ball	2,998	9.9	-13.4
Majority			3,831	12.7	23.0
Turnout				78.1
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+11.5

General Election 1924: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Unionist	Terence O'Connor	15,443	47.1
	Liberal	Geoffrey Howard	11,495	35.1
	Labour	Philip L Millwood	5,850	17.8
Majority			3,948	12.0
Turnout				82.6
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1929: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Leslie Burgin	20,248	45.5	+10.4
	Unionist	Terence O'Connor	16,930	38.0	-9.1
	Labour	Florence Harrison Bell	7,351	16.5	-1.3
Majority			3,318	7.5	19.5
Turnout				81.5	-1.1
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+9.8

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal National	Leslie Burgin	32,015	80.2
	Labour	James H MacDonnell	7,897	19.8
Majority			24,118	60.4
Turnout			39,912	67.8
	Liberal National hold		Swing

General Election 1935: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal National	Leslie Burgin	28,809	65.5
	Labour	F. L. Kerran	15,181	34.5
Majority			13,628	31.0
Turnout			43,990	63.2
	Liberal National hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1939/40: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

Liberal National: Leslie Burgin
Labour: F. L. Kerran

General Election 1945: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	William Warbey	39,335	55.2
	Liberal National	Bruno Brown	31,914	44.8
Majority			7,421	10.4
Turnout				74.9
	Labour gain from Liberal National		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1950: Luton^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	National Liberal and Conservative	Charles Hill	22,946	46.59
	Labour	William Warbey	21,860	44.38
	Liberal	Wilfred G Matthews	4,447	9.03
Majority			1,086	2.20
Turnout				87.07
	National Liberal and Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1951: Luton^[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	National Liberal and Conservative	Charles Hill	26,554	52.69
	Labour	William Warbey	23,842	47.31
Majority			2,712	5.38
Turnout				87.59
	National Liberal and Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Luton^[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	National Liberal and Conservative	Charles Hill	24,722	51.33
	Labour	Morris Janis	20,304	42.15
	Liberal	Jean Henderson	3,140	6.52
Majority			4,418	9.17
Turnout				83.14
	National Liberal and Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1959: Luton^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	National Liberal and Conservative	Charles Hill	27,153	55.09
	Labour Co-op	Cyril Rawlett Fenton	22,134	44.91
Majority			5,019	10.18
Turnout				82.46
	National Liberal and Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

Luton by-election, 1963
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	William Howie	21,108	48.02	+3.11
	Conservative	John Fletcher-Cooke	17,359	39.49	-15.60
	Liberal	M A Benjamin	5,001	11.38	+11.38
	Communist	Tony Chater	490	1.11	+1.11
Majority			3,749	8.53
Turnout			43,958	N/A
	Labour gain from National Liberal and Conservative		Swing

General Election 1964: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	William Howie	23,751	50.16	+5.25
	Conservative	Charles Simeons	23,028	48.64	-6.45
	Communist	Tony Chater	567	1.20	N/A
Majority			723	1.53
Turnout				79.84
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Luton^[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	William Howie	23,069	48.76
	Conservative	Charles Simeons	20,605	43.55
	Liberal	Thomas H Daniels	3,049	6.44
	Communist	Tony Chater	586	1.24
Majority			2,464	5.21
Turnout				79.21
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970: Luton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Charles Simeons	23,308	50.99
	Labour	William Howie	21,959	48.04
	Communist	Tony Chater	447	0.98
Majority			1,349	2.95
Turnout				73.17
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

References

↑ "Vision of Britain".
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The Liberal Year Book, 1907
↑ Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1886
↑ Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
↑ Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
↑ Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916
↑ Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916
↑ Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916
↑ Luton Times and Advertiser 15 May 1914
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Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 4)

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