Bassetlaw

Bassetlaw
County constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire for the 2010 general election.
Location of Nottinghamshire within England.
County	Nottinghamshire
Electorate	78,306 (December 2010)[1]
Major settlements	Worksop and Retford
Current constituency
Created	1885 (1885)
Member of Parliament	John Mann (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	North Nottinghamshire
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	East Midlands

Bassetlaw is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

The Bassetlaw constituency covers the north of Nottinghamshire, including the towns of Worksop and Retford. It shares the name of the Bassetlaw district.

Following their review of parliamentary boundaries in Nottinghamshire, the Boundary Commission for England made minor changes to the constituency for the 2010 general election to allow for population changes.

The constituency includes these 22 electoral wards of Bassetlaw District Council:

• Beckingham, Blyth, Carlton, Clayworth, East Retford East, East Retford North, East Retford South, East Retford West, Everton, Harworth, Langold, Misterton, Ranskill, Sturton, Sutton, Welbeck, Worksop East, Worksop North, Worksop North East, Worksop North West, Worksop South, Worksop South East.

History

The constituency was created in 1885 by the Redistribution of Seats Act.

Boundaries' history

The Bassetlaw Division (named after one of the ancient Wapentakes of the county) as originally constituted included the borough of East Retford, the petty sessional divisions of Retford and Worksop and part of Mansfield petty sessional division.

In 1918, the number of parliamentary divisions in Nottinghamshire was increased from four to five, with resulting changes in boundaries. Bassetlaw Division was now defined as containing the Borough of East Retford, the Urban Districts of Warsop and Worksop and the Rural Districts of Blyth & Cuckney, Misterton and East Retford, with the civil parish of Sookholme from the Skegby Rural District.

In 1948, the five Parliamentary Divisions of Nottinghamshire were reorganised as six County Constituencies. The boundaries of Bassetlaw County Constituency were virtually unchanged, though local government changes in the 1930s now meant that it was defined as comprising the Boroughs of East Retford and Worksop, the Urban District of Warsop and the Rural Districts of East Retford and Worksop.

The constituency's boundaries then remained unchanged until 1983. In that year, the town of East Retford and the neighbouring areas were transferred to the Newark constituency. Bassetlaw constituency then comprised Worksop and surrounding areas in the Bassetlaw district as well as the town of Warsop in the Mansfield district. There were only minor boundary changes in 1997.

From the 1997 General Election to the 2010 General Election, the constituency included the following wards of the Bassetlaw district:

• Beckingham, Blyth, Carlton, Clayworth, Everton, Harworth East, Harworth West, Hodsock, Misterton, Rampton, Ranskill, Sturton, Sutton, Welbeck, Worksop East, Worksop North, Worksop North East, Worksop North West, Worksop South, Worksop South East.

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  Constituency boundary in 1885, shown within the county of Nottinghamshire.

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  Constituency boundary in 1950, shown within the county of Nottinghamshire.

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  Constituency boundary in 2005, shown within the county of Nottinghamshire.

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  Current constituency boundary, shown within the county of Nottinghamshire.

Electoral history

A graph showing the election results for Bassetlaw.

Bassetlaw is a safe seat for the Labour Party, with them having held it since 1935. In fact, Labour first won the seat in the 1929 general election. However its Member of Parliament Malcolm MacDonald was one of the few Labour MPs to join his father Ramsay MacDonald's National Government. MacDonald held the seat as a National Labour candidate in the 1931 election, but was defeated at the next election in 1935 by Labour's Frederick Bellenger.

Bellenger held his seat until his death in 1968. The subsequent by-election was won by Joe Ashton, who served as MP until his retirement at the 2001 general election. The current MP, since 2001, is John Mann.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

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Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Election in the 1930s

Election in the 1920s

Election in the 1910s

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Nottinghamshire

Notes and references

Sources

• UK General Election 1945 results
• UK General Election 1950 results
• UK General Election 1951 results
• UK General Election 1955 results
• UK General Election 1959 results
• UK General Election 1964 results
• UK General Election 1966 results
• UK General Election 1970 results
• UK General Election February 1974 results
• UK General Election October 1974 results
• UK General Election 1979 results
• UK General Election 1983 results
• UK General Election 1987 results
• UK General Election 1992 results
• UK General Election 1997 results
• UK General Election 2001 results
• UK General Election 2005 results
• UK General Election 2010 results (BBC)

Coordinates: 53°24′N 0°57′W / 53.40°N 0.95°W / 53.40; -0.95