Earley and Woodley | |
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Borough constituency for the House of Commons | |
![]() Interactive map of boundaries from 2024 | |
![]() Boundary of Earley and Woodley in South East England | |
County | Berkshire |
Electorate | 70,083 (2023) [1] |
Current constituency | |
Created | 2024 |
Member of Parliament | Yuan Yang (Labour) |
Seats | One |
Created from | Reading West, Reading East, Maidenhead, and Wokingham |
Earley and Woodley is a constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. [2] After the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it was first contested at the 2024 general election. It is represented by Yuan Yang of the Labour Party.
At the time of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, there were eight constituencies in the county of Berkshire. Of these constituencies, only three (Reading East, Reading West, and Windsor) were within the permitted electorate range of no fewer than 69,724 electors and no more than 77,062. All of the remaining constituencies were above the upper limit. The Boundary Commission for England therefore proposed the addition of a ninth constituency within the county. [3] [4]
Whilst both Reading constituencies could have remained unchanged, the boundary commission instead proposed a reconfiguration to account for the increased electorates of the surrounding constituencies, and to better reflect local ties in the surrounding communities. This involved the creation of two new constituencies, Earley and Woodley and Mid Berkshire (renamed Reading West and Mid Berkshire in the final proposals), both with the bulk of their electorate outside the Borough of Reading but including outer wards of the borough, together with a new Reading Central constituency entirely within the borough. [3]
In June 2023, the Conservatives selected Pauline Jorgensen, the leader of the opposition group on Wokingham Borough Council, as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the seat. In December 2023, the Labour Party selected Earley resident Yuan Yang, a Financial Times journalist and social campaigner, as their candidate. On 5th February 2024, the Liberal Democrats announced they had selected Tahir Maher, a former Mayor of Earley, as their candidate. [5] [6] [7]
The constituency is composed of the following wards (as they existed on 1 December 2020):
It covers:
The constituency is bordered by the seats of Reading West and Mid Berkshire, Reading Central, Henley and Thame, and Wokingham. [9] [10]
Election | Member | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
Created from Maidenhead, Reading East, Reading West and Wokingham | |||
2024 | Yuan Yang | Labour |
General election 2019: Earley and Woodley (notional) [11] | |||
Party | Vote | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 24,922 | 48.8 | |
Labour | 13,629 | 26.7 | |
Liberal Democrats | 11,147 | 21.8 | |
Green | 1,134 | 2.2 | |
Brexit Party | 278 | 0.5 | |
Turnout | 51,110 | 72.9 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Yuan Yang | 18,209 | 39.7 | ![]() | |
Conservative | Pauline Jorgensen | 17,361 | 37.8 | ![]() | |
Liberal Democrats | Tahir Maher | 6,142 | 13.4 | ![]() | |
Green | Gary Shacklady | 3,418 | 7.4 | ![]() | |
SDP | Alastair Hunter | 784 | 1.7 | New | |
Majority | 848 | 1.9 | New | ||
Turnout | 45,914 | 62.4 | ![]() | ||
Labour gain from Conservative | Swing | ![]() |
Earley is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Along with the neighbouring town of Woodley, the Office for National Statistics places Earley within the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area; for the purposes of local government it falls within the Borough of Wokingham, outside the area of Reading Borough Council. Its name is sometimes spelt Erleigh or Erlegh and consists of a number of smaller areas, including Maiden Erlegh and Lower Earley, and lies some 3 miles (5 km) south and east of the centre of Reading, and some 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Wokingham. It had a population of 32,036 at the 2011 Census.
The Borough of Wokingham is a local government district with borough status in Berkshire, England. It is named after its main town, Wokingham. Other places in the district include Arborfield, Barkham, Charvil, Earley, Finchampstead, Hurst, Remenham, Ruscombe, Shinfield, Sonning, Spencers Wood, Three Mile Cross, Twyford, Wargrave, Winnersh and Woodley. The population of Wokingham is 177,500 according to 2021 census.
Reading East was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. In the 2019-2024 Parliament, it was one of two Labour seats from a total of eight seats in Berkshire.
Reading West was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament.
Whitley is a suburb of the town of Reading, in the county of Berkshire, England. It is also an electoral ward of the Borough of Reading.
Newbury is a constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, located in the English county of Berkshire. It was created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 and has been in continual existence since then. It has been represented by Lee Dillon of the Liberal Democrats since 2024.
Wokingham is a constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, located in the English county of Berkshire. From its creation in 1950 until 2024, it was represented solely by Conservatives. Most notably, John Redwood, who held his position from 1984 until 2024, where he stepped down after the dissolution of parliament.
Maidenhead is a constituency in Berkshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by Joshua Reynolds, a Liberal Democrat, since 2024. Following its creation at the 1997 general election, the seat was held for twenty-seven years by Conservative Member of Parliament Theresa May, who served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016 and as Prime Minister from 2016 to 2019.
Windsor (/ˈwɪnzə/) is a constituency in Berkshire, currently represented by Jack Rankin of the Conservative Party. It was re-created for the 1997 general election after it was abolished following the 1970 general election and replaced by the Windsor and Maidenhead constituency.
Bracknell is a constituency in Berkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Peter Swallow, from the Labour Party. It was created for the 1997 general election, largely replacing the abolished county constituency of East Berkshire.
Reading South was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency covered an area in and around the town of Reading in the county of Berkshire.
Reading was a parliamentary borough, and later a borough constituency in England, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of England until 1707, the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1950 and 1955 to 1974. Until 1885, the constituency comprised the town of Reading in the county of Berkshire; after 1885, it was centred on the town but the exact boundaries differed.
Lower Earley is a suburb which forms the southern portion of the civil parish of Earley in the Borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. Along with neighbouring Earley, Winnersh, Woodley and Shinfield, It forms part of a part of the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area.
Yuan Yang is a British-Chinese Labour Party politician and journalist. She has served as a Member of Parliament for Earley and Woodley since July 2024. She was formerly the UK-based Europe-China correspondent for the Financial Times. Yang is the first Chinese-born British citizen to be elected to the UK Parliament, and the second of Chinese ethnicity after Alan Mak.
Reading Central is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It was formed as a result of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. It subsumes parts of the former Reading West and Reading East constituencies but, unlike them, the whole of the new constituency will be within the Borough of Reading. It will be first contested in the 2024 general election.
Reading West and Mid Berkshire, originally known as simply Mid Berkshire, is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It was formed as a result of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies and subsumes parts of the Newbury, Wokingham, and the former Reading West constituencies. It was first contested at the 2024 general election. The current MP is Olivia Bailey.
The 2024 Wokingham Borough Council election took place on Thursday 2 May 2024, to elect members of Wokingham Borough Council in Berkshire, England. This was on the same day as other local elections across England. Due to boundary changes all seats were up for election. The main impact of the boundary changes is that all wards in the Borough are now three member wards; the number of seats remained the same at 54. The old warding system had a mix of one, two and three member wards.