Avon was abolished in 1996 both as a county council and a ceremonial county, but the name Avon continues to be used unofficially in subsequent boundary reviews as presented by the Boundary Commission for England to describe the area covered by the former county for the purpose of the rules which strongly deter cross-council constituencies (spanning more than one local authority within its area).
The Boundary Commission for England reviewed Avon in 2000 and devised a constituencies scheme in which no constituency spanned the four unitary authority boundaries within the abolished county. This entailed four seats to Bristol, three to South Gloucestershire and two each to Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset and accordingly a net increase of one seat. Constituency names were aligned with the new local council names. [1] [2] These changes were implemented at the 2010 general election. Bath was restored as a borough constituency (to which a different election expenses quota and returning officer applies compared to county constituencies). Thus Avon has 6 borough constituencies and 5 county constituencies.
Following the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Avon underwent further boundary changes, although the total number of seats was retained at 11.
† Conservative ‡ Labour ¤ Liberal Democrat ♣ Green
Constituency [nb 1] | Electorate [3] | Majority [4] | Member of Parliament [4] | Nearest opposition [4] | Electoral wards [3] | Map | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bath CC | 73,241 | 11,218 | Wera Hobhouse¤ | Dan Bewley‡ | Bath and North East Somerset Council: Bathavon North, Bathwick, Combe Down, Kingsmead, Lambridge, Lansdown, Moorlands, Newbridge, Odd Down, Oldfield Park, Southdown, Twerton, Walcot, Westmoreland, Weston, Widcombe & Lyncombe. | |||
Bristol Central BC | 70,227 | 10,407 | Carla Denyer♣ | Thangam Debbonaire‡ | Bristol City Council: Ashley, Central, Clifton, Clifton Down, Cotham, Hotwells & Harbourside, Redland. | |||
Bristol East BC | 75,936 | 6,606 | Kerry McCarthy‡ | Ani Stafford-Townsend♣ | Bristol City Council: Brislington East, Brislington West, Easton, Knowle, Lawrence Hill, St. George Central, St. George Troopers Hill, St. George West, Stockwood. | |||
Bristol North East BC | 69,793 | 11,167 | Damien Egan‡ | Lorraine Francis♣ | Bristol City Council: Eastville, Frome Vale, Hillfields, Lockleaze. South Gloucestershire Council: Kingswood, New Cheltenham, Staple Hill & Mangotsfield, Woodstock. | |||
Bristol North West BC | 76,783 | 15,669 | Darren Jones‡ | Mary Page♣ | Bristol City Council: Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston, Bishopston & Ashley Down, Henbury & Brentry, Horfield, Southmead, Stoke Bishop, Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze. | |||
Bristol South BC | 74,696 | 7,666 | Karin Smyth‡ | Jai Breitnauer♣ | Bristol City Council: Bedminster, Bishopsworth, Filwood, Hartcliffe & Withywood, Hengrove & Whitchurch Park, Southville, Windmill Hill. | |||
Filton and Bradley Stoke BC | 73,598 | 10,000 | Claire Hazelgrove‡ | Jack Lopresti† | South Gloucestershire Council: Bradley Stoke North, Bradley Stoke South, Charlton & Cribbs, Emersons Green, Filton, Frenchay & Downend, Patchway Coniston, Stoke Gifford, Stoke Park & Cheswick, Winterbourne. | |||
North East Somerset and Hanham CC | 73,113 | 5,319 | Dan Norris‡ | Jacob Rees-Mogg† | Bath and North East Somerset Council: Chew Valley, Clutton & Farmborough, High Littleton, Keynsham East, Keynsham North, Keynsham South, Mendip, Paulton, Publow & Whitchurch, Saltford, Timsbury. South Gloucestershire Council: Bitton & Oldland Common, Hanham, Longwell Green, Parkwall & Warmley. | |||
North Somerset CC | 73,963 | 639 | Sadik Al-Hassan‡ | Liam Fox† | North Somerset Council: Backwell, Clevedon East, Clevedon South, Clevedon Walton, Clevedon West, Clevedon Yeo, Gordano Valley, Long Ashton, Nailsea Golden Valley, Nailsea West End, Nailsea Yeo, Nailsea Youngwood, Pill, Portishead East, Portishead North, Portishead South, Portishead West, Winford, Wrington. | |||
Thornbury and Yate CC | 74,935 | 3,014 | Claire Young¤ | Luke Hall† | South Gloucestershire Council: Boyd Valley, Charfield, Chipping Sodbury & Cotswold Edge, Dodington, Frampton Cotterell, Pilning & Severn Beach, Severn Vale, Thornbury, Yate Central, Yate North. | |||
Weston-super-Mare CC | 70,722 | 4,409 | Dan Aldridge‡ | John Penrose† | North Somerset Council: Hutton & Locking, Weston-super-Mare Central, Weston-super-Mare Hillside, Weston-super-Mare Kewstoke, Weston-super-Mare Mid Worle, Weston-super-Mare Milton, Weston-super-Mare North Worle, Weston-super-Mare South, Weston-super-Mare South Worle, Weston-super-Mare Uphill, Weston-super-Mare Winterstoke, Wick St. Lawrence & St. Georges. |
See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.
Following the abandonment of the Sixth Periodic Review (the 2018 review), the Boundary Commission for England formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021. [5] Initial proposals were published on 8 June 2021 and, following two periods of public consultation, revised proposals were published on 8 November 2022. The final proposals were published on 28 June 2023.
The commission proposed that "Avon" (covering the Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire council areas) be combined with Devon and Somerset as a sub-region of the South West Region, resulting in significant change to the existing pattern of constituencies. In Avon, Bristol West, Kingswood and North East Somerset were abolished, being replaced by Bristol Central, Bristol North East, and North East Somerset and Hanham. In addition, Frome and East Somerset, and Wells and Mendip Hills will be established as cross-authority boundary seats. [6] [7] These changes came into effect for the 2024 general election.
The following seats were proposed:
Containing electoral wards from Bath and North East Somerset
Containing electoral wards in Bristol
Containing electoral wards in North Somerset
Containing electoral wards in South Gloucestershire
Former name | Boundaries 2010–2024 | Current name | Boundaries 2024–present |
---|---|---|---|
|
Under the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the Boundary Commission for England decided to increase the number of seats which covered "Avon" from 10 to 11, with the creation of Filton and Bradley Stoke. This resulted in major changes to Kingswood and three of the four Bristol constituencies. A further three constituencies were renamed.
Former name | Boundaries 1997–2010 | Former name | Boundaries 2010–2024 |
---|---|---|---|
|
| ||
(The maps on this page do not show the nominal extensions of several constituencies over the waters of the Bristol Channel.)
Other former constituencies in the area were:
Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing – General election results from 1918 to 2019 [8]
The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Avon in the 2024 general election were as follows: [4]
Party | Votes | % | Change from 2019 | Seats | Change from 2019 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 189,007 | 36.2% | 0.5% | 8 | 4 |
Conservative | 110,554 | 21.2% | 20.5% | 0 | 6 |
Green | 87,204 | 16.7% | 11.1% | 1 | 1 |
Liberal Democrat | 71,768 | 13.7% | 2.1% | 2 | 1 |
Reform | 56,721 | 10.9% | 10.0 | 0 | 0 |
Others | 6,951 | 1.3% | 1.0% | 0 | 0 |
Total | 522,205 | 100.0 | 11 |
The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Avon in the 2019 general election were as follows:
Party | Votes | % | Change from 2017 | Seats | Change from 2017 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 258,867 | 41.7% | 0.9% | 6 | 0 |
Labour | 221,714 | 35.7% | 5.0% | 4 | 0 |
Liberal Democrats | 97,767 | 15.8% | 4.0% | 1 | 0 |
Greens | 34,563 | 5.6% | 2.1% | 0 | 0 |
Brexit | 5,717 | 0.9% | new | 0 | 0 |
Others | 1,559 | 0.3% | 1.1% | 0 | 0 |
Total | 620,187 | 100.0 | 11 |
Election year | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 24.3 | 24.0 | 27.5 | 36.5 | 36.8 | 31.8 | 23.2 | 25.7 | 40.7 | 35.7 | 36.2 |
Conservative | 47.3 | 47.9 | 44.5 | 32.7 | 31.6 | 31.9 | 35.8 | 39.6 | 42.6 | 41.7 | 21.2 |
Green Party | – | * | * | * | * | * | 1.3 | 8.7 | 3.5 | 5.6 | 16.7 |
Liberal Democrat 1 | 27.6 | 27.0 | 26.5 | 26.3 | 27.9 | 30.9 | 34.8 | 13.6 | 11.8 | 15.8 | 13.7 |
Reform 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0.9 | 10.9 |
UKIP | – | – | – | * | * | * | 2.8 | 12.0 | 0.6 | * | – |
Other | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 4.5 | 3.7 | 5.4 | 2.1 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.3 |
11983 & 1987 – Alliance of Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party
2As the Brexit Party in 2019
* Included in Other
Election year | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
Liberal Democrat 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Green | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Conservative | 9 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
Total | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 12 |
11983 & 1987 – Alliance of Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party
Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats Green
Constituency | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 24 | 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bath | Patten | Foster | Howlett | Hobhouse | ||||||||
Bristol East | Sayeed | Corston | McCarthy | |||||||||
Bristol North West | Stern | Naysmith | Leslie | Jones | ||||||||
Bristol South | Cocks | Primarolo | Smyth | |||||||||
Bristol West / Bristol Central (2024) | Waldegrave | Davey | Williams | Debbonaire | Denyer | |||||||
Filton and Bradley Stoke | Lopresti | Hazelgrove | ||||||||||
Kingswood / Bristol North East (2024) | Hayward | Berry | Skidmore | Egan | ||||||||
Northavon / Thornbury & Yate (2010) | Cope | Webb | Hall | Young | ||||||||
Wansdyke / NE Somerset (2010) / NE Somerset & Hanham (2024) | Aspinwall | Norris | Rees-Mogg | Norris | ||||||||
Weston-super-Mare | Wiggin | Cotter | Penrose | Aldridge | ||||||||
Woodspring / North Somerset (2010) | Dean | Fox | Al-Hassan |
South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Kingswood, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke. The southern part of its area falls within the Greater Bristol urban area surrounding the city of Bristol.
Avon was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in the west of England that existed between 1974 and 1996. The county was named after the River Avon, which flows through the area. It was formed from the county boroughs of Bristol and Bath, together with parts of the administrative counties of Gloucestershire and Somerset.
Bristol North West is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Darren Jones of the Labour Party.
Kingswood was a borough constituency for the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years by the first-past-the-post electoral system.
Wansdyke was a county 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.
North East Somerset was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 2010 to 2024. For the whole of its existence its Member of Parliament (MP) was Jacob Rees-Mogg of the Conservative Party.
North Somerset is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Sadik Al-Hassan of the Labour Party.
Thornbury and Yate is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since the 2024 election by Claire Young, a member of the Liberal Democrats. Encompassing an area to the north-east of Bristol, it is one of three constituencies that make up the South Gloucestershire Unitary Authority Area, along with Filton and Bradley Stoke and Kingswood.
The city of Bristol, England, is a unitary authority, represented by four MPs representing seats wholly within the city boundaries. The overall trend of both local and national representation became left of centre during the latter 20th century. The city has a tradition of local activism, with environmental issues and sustainable transport being prominent issues in the city.
The region of South West England is divided into 58 parliamentary constituencies, which are made up of 16 borough constituencies and 42 county constituencies. Since the general election of July 2024, 24 are represented by Labour MPs, 22 by Liberal Democrat MPs, 11 by Conservative MPs, and 1 by a Green MP.
North East Somerset and Hanham is a constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it was first contested in the 2024 general election.