Newbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Newbury is a UK parliamentary constituency consisting of Newbury, Thatcham, Hungerford and a large part of the surrounding area of West Berkshire. To the east, parts of West Berkshire have been incorpoated into the Wokingham or Reading West constituencies. It is part of the South East region of England.

It is currently represented by Richard Benyon, Conservative, who won the seat in the 2005 general election from David Rendel of the Liberal Democrats.

Boundaries

As West Berkshire is a unitary authority and not a county, as is the rest of Berkshire, the Boundary Commission treats Berkshire as a whole, they are not constrained by the borders of West Berkshire.

The Boundary Commission's current recommendation is to move the Sulhamstead ward from the Newbury constituency to Wokingham. Currently the ward is split between the two.

The constituencies bordering Newbury (clockwise from north) are: Wantage, Henley, Reading West, Wokingham, Basingstoke, North West Hampshire, and Devizes.

History

Originally, Newbury was part of a larger constituency of Berkshire, which returned two MPs, increased to three in the Reform Act of 1832. In the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 Berkshire (excluding Reading) was divided into three parts, Northern (Abingdon), Southern (Newbury), and Eastern (Wokingham), returning one member each. Furthermore, there was included a borough constituency for Reading which also returned one MP.

For the European Parliament elections, between 1974 and 1984 Newbury was placed in the Upper Thames constituency, between 1984 and 1994 it was placed in the Wiltshire constituency, and then in the 1994 election it was in the Hampshire North and Oxford European Parliament constituency. Since 1994 Newbury has formed part of the South East England constituency elected with a form of proportional representation.

Members of Parliament

Over the course of the constituency's history there have been eleven different Members of Parliament. Of those, all but three have been Conservatives. The total period served by either a Liberal or Liberal Democrat MP is 17 years, Conservative MPs have served for the remaining 103 years.

An incumbent MP has been defeated just four times, in the elections of 1906, 1923, 1924, and finally in 2005.

The longest serving MP was Howard Clifton Brown who was MP for two periods, the first lasting one year and the second lasting twenty one years, making a total of twenty two years as an MP.

	Member	Party
1885	William George Mount	Conservative
1900	William Arthur Mount	Conservative
1906	Frederick Coleridge Mackarness	Liberal
1910	William Arthur Mount	Conservative
1922	Howard Clifton Brown	Conservative
1923	Innes Harold Stranger	Liberal
1924	Howard Clifton Brown	Conservative
1945	Anthony Hurd	Conservative
1964	John Astor	Conservative
1974	Michael McNair-Wilson	Conservative
1992	Judith Chaplin	Conservative
1993	David Rendel	Liberal Democrat
2005	Richard Benyon	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2000s

General election of 2005

In the UK general election of 2005 David Rendel's small majority was overturned by Richard Benyon for the Conservative Party. It was their 30th target seat.

Newbury's unemployment rate as of 2005 is lower than average at 3.2%, whilst it has 0.8% Jobseeker's Allowance claimants. House prices for West Berkshire are (according to the BBC) the 6th highest in the country.

Events in the campaign included the Conservative campaign doctoring a photo. A building which Richard Benyon was pictured standing infront of normally has a sign reading "Beynon Ltd." on it, however the photo showed the sign to be "Benyon". Conversely the local Liberal Democrats have been accused of wasting money - namely the Liberal Democrat controlled council spending £600,000 on imported Italian granite for the market square. Another issue which may have played a part in the election was fox hunting, which David Rendel opposed and voted to ban, as the Newbury constituency includes many rural areas.

Two independent candidates stood in the election, Nick Cornish, who polled 409 votes is, as of 2005, a driving instructor and was able to advertise his campaign on his vehicles. Barrie Singleton stood for election to "highlight the bankruptcy of the Party Political system" ^*. He achieved 86 votes, and neither candidate retained their deposit. The Labour Party candidate, Oscar Van Nooijen, was one of the youngest in the country at 22. The Labour vote in the constituency went down 1%, lower than the average swing away from Labour in the election, but still the lowest percentage vote for Labour in any seat in the country.

After the election the pro-hunting campaign group Vote-OK claimed to have helped to oust David Rendel by boosting campaigning during the election, after the result was announced a hunting horn was blown in the declaration room which suggests that fox hunting may have at least played a part in his defeat.

General election of 2001

The 2001 general election saw David Rendel returned with a smaller majority of 2 415. Turnout was above average at 67.3%.

Elections in the 1990s

General election of 1997

In the 1997 general election, contary to many expectations, David Rendel managed to keep a hold of his seat.

Newbury by-election of 1993

Main article: Newbury by-election, 1993

The Newbury by-election of 1993 was held after Judith Chaplin died. It was won by David Rendel with an impressive swing of 27.8%. However, turnout was down on the previous year at 71.3%. The by-election in Newbury was the first in a string of by-election losses for the Conservative Party. It is also famed for having a very long ballot paper.

This table shows the top ten candidates in the by-election, for the full results see the main article.

General election of 1992

In the 1992 general election the new Conservative Party candidate won the seat with an absolute majority. The turnout was 82.76%, higher than the nationwide average. Labour achieved their fifth worst result of the 1992 election in Newbury with only a 6.0% share of the vote.

Elections in the 1980s

General election of 1987

General election of 1983

Elections in the 1970s

General election of 1979

General election of October 1974

After the 1970 general election, Newbury's boundary's were altered to reduce the size of the electorate which had grown to over 85,000. After the boundary changes, the electorate numbered around 72,000 people. This came into effect for the first general election in February 1974.

General election of February 1974

General election of 1970

Elections in the 1960s

General election of 1966

General election of 1964

Elections in the 1950s

General election of 1959

General election of 1955

General election of 1951

General election of 1950

Elections in the 1940s

General election of 1945

Elections in the 1930s

General election of 1935

General election of 1931

In the 1931 general election, Howard Clifton Brown of the Conservative Party was re-elected unopposed.

Elections in the 1920s

General election of 1929

General election of 1924

General election of 1923

General election of 1922

Newbury by-election of 1922

The by-election of June 10, 1922 saw Howard Clifton Brown returned as Newbury's MP unopposed.

Elections in the 1910s

General election of 1918

The 1918 general election saw William Arthur Mount returned unopposed.

General election of December 1910

General election of January 1910

Elections in the 1900s

General election of 1906

In the 1906 general election the Liberal candidate, Frederick Mackarness won with a majority of 402 votes. Nationally there was also a large swing to the Liberal party, with the Conservatives losing 246 seats in total.

General election of 1900

In the 1900 general election William Arthur Mount (Conservative) was returned as Newbury's MP unopposed.

Elections in the 1890s

General election of 1895

General election of 1892

Elections in the 1880s

General election of 1886

In the general election of 1886 William George Mount (Conservative) was returned as Newbury's MP unopposed.

General election of 1885

In the first general election in the Newbury constituency William George Mount for the Conservative Party won with a small majority of 202 votes over his Liberal opponent, G. Palmer.

References

BBC: Newbury constituency (2001)
McCalmont, Frederick Haynes, Stenton Michael, Vincent, John Russell. McCalmont's parliamentary poll book: British election results. (ISBN 0855270004)
F. W. S. Craig. British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1973. (ISBN 0-900178-07-8)
F. W. S. Craig. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949. (ISBN 0-900178-01-9)

External links

Parliamentary constituencies in the South East | Newbury, Berkshire

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