Congleton | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
County | Cheshire |
Electorate | 77,258 (2018) [1] |
Major settlements | Congleton, Sandbach, Middlewich and Alsager |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1983 |
Member of Parliament | Fiona Bruce ( Conservative) |
Seats | One |
Created from | Crewe, Macclesfield, Knutsford and Nantwich [2] |
Congleton is a parliamentary constituency [n 1] in Cheshire, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Fiona Bruce of the Conservative Party. [n 2]
The constituency adjoins the Stoke-on-Trent urban area and rural areas in all other directions, including the Peak District to the East, Staffordshire Moorlands to the South and Cheshire Plain to the West.
Congleton is a stronghold for the Conservative Party as the seat has elected a Conservative MP since its creation in 1983, with a majority of 32% in the 2019 general election. [n 3]
The constituency consists mainly of rural areas of south-east Cheshire, with the only four towns being - in descending order of population - Congleton, Sandbach, Middlewich and Alsager. The seat is also home to the large village of Holmes Chapel, as well as many much smaller villages and settlements, such as Church Lawton, Rode Heath and Goostrey.
The constituency was created for the 1983 general election following the major reorganisation of local authorities under the Local Government Act 1972, which came into effect on 1 April 1974. It comprises parts of Macclesfield and the abolished constituencies of Crewe, Knutsford and Nantwich.
1983–1997: The Borough of Congleton, and the Borough of Crewe and Nantwich ward of Haslington. [3]
The town of Congleton was previously in the constituency of Macclesfield; Alsager, Sandbach and Haslington, came from Crewe; Middlewich from Nantwich; and rural areas comprising the former Rural District of Congleton were previously part of Knutsford.
1997–2010: The Borough of Congleton. [4]
Haslington was transferred to Crewe and Nantwich.
The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 2007 made no changes to Congleton. [5] However, before this came into force for the 2010 election, the Borough of Congleton was abolished on 1 April 2009, becoming part of the new unitary authority of Cheshire East. Consequently, the constituency's boundaries are currently:
2010–present: The Cheshire East Borough wards of Alsager, Brereton Rural (most), Congleton East, Congleton West, Dane Valley, Middlewich, Odd Rode, Sandbach Elworth, Sandbach Ettiley Heath and Wheelock, Sandbach Heath and East, and Sandbach Town.
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, the composition of the constituency from the next general election, due by January 2025, will be reduced to bring the electorate within the permitted range. This will be achieved by including Middlewich in the newly created constituency of Mid Cheshire. [6] [7]
Congleton is a stronghold for the Conservative Party as the seat has elected a Conservative MP since its creation in 1983, with a majority of 32% in the 2019 UK General Election. [n 4]
The seat was held comfortably from 1983 until 2010 by the Conservative Ann Winterton, the wife of Sir Nicholas Winterton, the MP for the adjacent Macclesfield constituency. Both stood down at the 2010 general election; their joint statement cited the hectic life of politics as part of their reason for standing down, [8] in addition to an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who concluded that they misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. [8]
Ann Winterton was succeeded by Fiona Bruce at the 2010 general election and she has held the seat since then.
Election | Member [9] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
1983 | Ann Winterton | Conservative | |
2010 | Fiona Bruce |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Fiona Bruce [10] | ||||
Green | Rich McCarthy [11] | ||||
Reform UK | Martin York [12] | ||||
Labour | Sarah Russell [13] | ||||
Liberal Democrats | Paul Duffy [13] | ||||
Independent | Rob Moreton [10] | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Fiona Bruce | 33,747 | 59.0 | +2.4 | |
Labour | Jo Dale | 15,186 | 26.5 | –7.7 | |
Liberal Democrats | Paul Duffy | 6,026 | 10.5 | +5.3 | |
Green | Richard McCarthy | 1,616 | 2.8 | +1.0 | |
Animal Welfare | Jane Smith | 658 | 1.1 | New | |
Majority | 18,561 | 32.5 | +10.1 | ||
Turnout | 57,233 | 70.7 | –2.6 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +5.0 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Fiona Bruce | 31,830 | 56.6 | +3.3 | |
Labour | Sam Corcoran | 19,211 | 34.2 | +13.8 | |
Liberal Democrats | Peter Hirst | 2,902 | 5.2 | –3.9 | |
UKIP | Mark Davies | 1,289 | 2.3 | –11.3 | |
Green | Alec Heath | 999 | 1.8 | –1.9 | |
Majority | 12,619 | 22.4 | –10.5 | ||
Turnout | 56,231 | 73.3 | +2.9 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | –5.2 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Fiona Bruce | 27,164 | 53.3 | +7.5 | |
Labour | Darren Price | 10,391 | 20.4 | +3.2 | |
UKIP | Lee Slaughter | 6,922 | 13.6 | +9.4 | |
Liberal Democrats | Peter Hirst | 4,623 | 9.1 | −22.8 | |
Green | Alec Heath | 1,876 | 3.7 | New | |
Majority | 16,773 | 32.9 | +19.0 | ||
Turnout | 50,976 | 70.4 | +1.5 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | 2.2 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Fiona Bruce | 23,250 | 45.8 | +0.4 | |
Liberal Democrats | Peter Hirst | 16,187 | 31.9 | +5.0 | |
Labour | David Bryant | 8,747 | 17.2 | −10.5 | |
UKIP | Lee Slaughter | 2,147 | 4.2 | New | |
Independent | Paul Edwards | 276 | 0.5 | New | |
Independent | Paul Rothwell | 94 | 0.2 | New | |
Independent | Adam Parton | 79 | 0.2 | New | |
Majority | 7,063 | 13.9 | -3.8 | ||
Turnout | 50,780 | 68.9 | +4.8 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | −2.3 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Ann Winterton | 21,189 | 45.4 | −0.9 | |
Labour | Nicholas Milton | 12,943 | 27.7 | −2.8 | |
Liberal Democrats | Eleanor Key | 12,550 | 26.9 | +5.3 | |
Majority | 8,246 | 17.7 | -1.9 | ||
Turnout | 46,682 | 64.2 | +1.5 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +0.9 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Ann Winterton | 20,872 | 46.3 | +5.1 | |
Labour | John Flanagan | 13,738 | 30.5 | +2.9 | |
Liberal Democrats | David Lloyd-Griffiths | 9,719 | 21.6 | −8.1 | |
UKIP | Bill Young | 754 | 1.7 | +0.2 | |
Majority | 7,134 | 15.8 | +4.3 | ||
Turnout | 45,083 | 62.7 | −14.9 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | =1.1 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Ann Winterton | 22,012 | 41.2 | −7.3 | |
Liberal Democrats | Joan Walmsley | 15,882 | 29.7 | −2.0 | |
Labour | Helen Scholey | 14,713 | 27.6 | +8.4 | |
UKIP | John Lockett | 811 | 1.5 | New | |
Majority | 6,130 | 11.5 | -7.2 | ||
Turnout | 53,418 | 77.6 | -6.9 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | -3.6 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Ann Winterton | 29,163 | 49.0 | +0.7 | |
Liberal Democrats | Iain Brodie-Browne | 18,043 | 30.3 | −3.5 | |
Labour | Matthew Finnegan | 11,927 | 20.0 | +2.1 | |
Natural Law | Peter Brown | 399 | 0.7 | New | |
Majority | 11,120 | 18.7 | +4.2 | ||
Turnout | 59,532 | 84.5 | +4.0 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +2.1 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Ann Winterton | 26,513 | 48.3 | −0.4 | |
Liberal | Iain Brodie-Browne | 18,544 | 33.8 | +2.4 | |
Labour | Michael Knowles | 9,810 | 17.9 | −2.0 | |
Majority | 7,969 | 14.5 | -2.8 | ||
Turnout | 54,867 | 80.5 | +3.6 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | −1.4 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Ann Winterton | 23,895 | 48.7 | ||
Liberal | Clive Smedley | 15,436 | 31.4 | ||
Labour | Eric Gill | 9,783 | 19.9 | ||
Majority | 8,459 | 17.3 | |||
Turnout | 49,114 | 76.9 | |||
Conservative win (new seat) |
Congleton was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district with borough status in Cheshire, England. It included the towns of Congleton, Alsager, Middlewich and Sandbach. The headquarters of the borough council were located in Sandbach.
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Haslington is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies about 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of the much larger railway town of Crewe and approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Sandbach. The village was originally bisected by the A534 road that links Crewe with Sandbach, however, this road has now been re-routed to bypass the village to the north-west. The village is also a close neighbour to a number of small towns and villages, and is approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) from the Elizabethan market town of Nantwich.
South Cheshire College is a former further education college, located in Crewe, Cheshire, England. The College was a single campus situated in a residential area about one mile from Crewe town centre. It also served students from Nantwich, Alsager, Middlewich, Sandbach, Congleton and throughout South and East Cheshire. The College also provided courses for adults at a range of centres, including high street locations in Middlewich and Congleton.
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