Preston

Preston
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Preston in Lancashire.
Location of Lancashire within England.
County	Lancashire
Electorate	61,025 (December 2010)[1]
Major settlements	Preston
Current constituency
Created	1983 (1983)
Member of Parliament	Mark Hendrick (Labour Co-op)
Number of members	One
Created from	Preston North, Preston South
1529 (1529)–1950 (1950)
Number of members	Two
Replaced by	Preston North, Preston South
1295 (1295)–unknown (unknown)
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	North West England

Preston is a borough 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 current seat of Preston was confirmed in time for the United Kingdom general election, 2010. While previously the seat crossed the River Ribble to include Bamber Bridge and Walton-le-Dale from South Ribble District Council, the seat is now within the Preston city council boundaries.

From the 1950 to the 1983 general elections, Preston was divided into the constituencies of Preston North and Preston South. In time for the 1983 general election, the boundaries on which the current seat is drawn were confirmed. The northern, Fulwood area, was divided between Fylde and Ribble Valley.

In the late 19th Century, the boundaries of the 2-member Preston constituency were described as comprising^[2].

...[T]he old Borough of Preston, the township of Fishwick, so much of the Municipal Borough as is not included in the Parliamentary Borough, the Local Government District of Fulwood, and so much of the parishes of Lea, Ashton, Ingol, and Cotham {sic}, and Penwortham, as will be added to the Municipal Borough of Preston on June 1st, 1889

For the 2010 general election, the electoral wards used to create the constituency of Preston were:

• Ashton, Brookfield, Deepdale, Fishwick, Ingol, Larches, Moor Park, Ribbleton, Riversway, St George's, St Matthew's, Town Centre, Tulketh and University. These are all within the City of Preston.

The ward of Lea is within the constituency of Fylde.

The wards of Preston Rural North, Preston Rural East and the Fulwood wards (Cadley, College, Garrison, Greyfriars and Sharoe Green) are within the constituency of Wyre and Preston North. By the end of the review, the newly recommended Preston constituency had the smallest number of voters of an English constituency based on 2006 electorates.^[3].

Proposed changes

At the launch of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies Preston constituency had an electorate of just over 61,000, significantly below the electoral quota ^[4]. As part of that review, which commenced in 2011, the Boundary Commission for England has recommended expanding the Preston constituency so that is almost coterminous with the council area.

The proposed expanded constituency would incorporate almost the whole of the city area, excluding the civil parish of Lea and Cottam, the electoral ward of Fishwick, and the civil parishes of Woodplumpton, Broughton, Barton, Goosnargh, Whittingham, Haighton and Grimsargh^[5].

Members of Parliament

MPs 1295-1640

MPs 1640-1950

MPs since 1983

History

The borough and presently city of Preston has been represented by Labour MPs since 1983. Representatives have sat in Parliament for Preston for nearly 800 years, the first recorded names being Willielmus fil’ Pauli and Adam Russel. Prior to being reformed as "Preston" in 1983, the former Preston North and Preston South seats were amongst the most marginal in the country - in 1979, Conservative Robert Atkins won Preston North by 29 votes.

With the suburban,middle class former Fulwood Urban District area within Ribble Valley (and from 2010 Wyre and Preston North), the southern portion has awarded MPs with much healthier and secure majorities. Almost all of Preston's representatives up to the creation of two constituencies in 1949, and since its recreation as a single constituency in 1983, have been Labour candidates.

Between 1918 and 1949, the two-seat constituency of Preston was formed by the County Borough of Preston and the Urban District of Fulwood. For the 1950 election, the division of Preston North and Preston South occurred, which continued until 1983.

In 1997, Audrey Wise secured a majority of over 18,000. The collapse of the Conservative vote - 10 percentage points down from 1992 - was firmly with the pattern of the Tory fortunes in that year.

The death of Audrey Wise in 2000 triggered a by-election. At that Preston by-election, Mark Hendrick, former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Lancashire Central constituency with Preston at its heart, secured a victory with a 4,400 majority. The surprise of the night was the result of the fledgling Socialist Alliance, for whom Terry Cartright saved his deposit.

Less than a year later, the 2001 general election returned Mark Hendrick with a much healthier 12,200 majority, up against South Ribble councillor Graham O'Hare for the Conservatives and local Liberal Democrat leader Bill Chadwick. In real terms, all three main parties lost support from 1997 - Labour down by over 8,000 votes, Conservatives reduced by over 2,200 and LibDems 2,300 lower. One notable candidate in 2001 was David Braid, also a candidate in a number of other seats that year, who had been the "Battle for Britain" candidate in the previous year's by-election.

The 2005 general election election was notable for the changes in share of the vote of the minor parties. The first ever Respect candidate, local councillor Michael Lavalette, firmly saved his deposit with nearly 7% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats, who had chosen former Conservative County Councillor William Parkinson, had their best result since 1997. Fiona Bryce, for the Conservatives, remained in second place and saw her share of the vote remain stable despite the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) polling over 1,000 votes. These results meant that Mark Hendrick secured another term as MP, but his vote number was 3,000 less than 2001 and 12,000 less than Audrey Wise in 1997.

Labour continued its representation of Preston at the United Kingdom general election, 2010 although Mark Hendrick secured less than 50% of the votes cast, the first time this has occurred at a Preston election since 1983. For the first time since their formation the Liberal Democrats finished in second place, with the Conservatives in third.

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections of the 1980s

Elections in the 1940s

At the by-election in September 1940, Conservative candidate Randolph Churchill was election unopposed on the death of Conservative MP A.C Moreing

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1920s

=Elections in the 1880s

Elections in 1810s

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Lancashire

Notes and references

Sources

• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [2]
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [3]
• The Constitutional Year Book for 1913 (London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1913)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949 (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
• Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
• J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)