Newark

Newark County constituency
Newark shown within Nottinghamshire, and Nottinghamshire shown within England
Created:	1673
MP:	Patrick Mercer
Party:	Conservative
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Nottinghamshire
EP constituency:	East Midlands

Newark is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Since 1885, it has elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

The constituency covers large parts of the Newark and Sherwood district in the east of Nottinghamshire, including the towns of Newark-on-Trent and Southwell, and the villages of Collingham and Sutton-on-Trent. It also covers the south-east of the Bassetlaw district, including Retford and Markham Moor.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Nottinghamshire, the Boundary Commission for England have modified the existing Newark constituency to be fought at the 2010 general election. The Newark constituency will lose the town of Retford to the Bassetlaw constituency (although it will still cover a smaller part of the Bassetlaw district), but will gain the area around Bingham from the Rushcliffe constituency.

The electoral wards used in the formation of this modified seat are:

• From the district of Bassetlaw - East Markham, Rampton, and Tuxford and Trent
• From the district of Newark and Sherwood - Balderton North, Balderton West, Beacon, Bridge, Castle, Caunton, Collingham and Meering, Devon, Farndon, Lowdham, Magnus, Muskham, Southwell East, Southwell North, Southwell West, Sutton-on-Trent, Trent and Winthorpe
• From the borough of Rushcliffe - Bingham East, Bingham West, Cranmer, Oak and Thoroton.

History

Newark was the last borough seat to be created in the Unreformed House of Commons in 1673, prior to the Reform Act of 1832. It returned two representatives to Parliament from 1673 until 1885. The future Prime Mininster, W.E. Gladstone, began his elected career as Member of Parliament for Newark from 1832 until 1845, later moving to other constituencies.

More recently, the Labour Party held Newark from 1950 until 1979, when it was taken by the Conservatives' Richard Alexander. Alexander lost his seat during Labour's landslide victory at the 1997 general election. The victorious Labour candidate, Fiona Jones, was convicted of electoral fraud and expelled from the House of Commons in 1999 over misrepresented election expenses. The conviction was later overturned upon appeal, and she returned to Parliament. However, Jones lost her seat at the 2001 general election to Patrick Mercer of the Conservatives, who has held it since.

Mercer held the position of Shadow Minister for Homeland Security from June 2003 until March 2007, when he was forced to resign following racially contentious comments made to The Times.^[1]

Members of Parliament

Election results

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Nottinghamshire

References

Coordinates: 53°06′N 0°54′W / 53.10°N 0.90°W / 53.10; -0.90