Newport (Monmouthshire) (UK Parliament constituency)

Newport
Newport
Former borough constituency ; for the House of Commons
1918–1983
Seats	one
Created from	Monmouth Boroughs and South Monmouthshire
Replaced by	Newport East and Newport West

Last updated March 24, 2025

Newport was a borough constituency in Monmouthshire from 1918 to 1983. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 and abolished with the creation of the Newport East and Newport West constituencies. The Representation of the People Act enfranchised the county borough of Newport as a parliamentary borough returning one member. Previously, the borough was represented as part of the Monmouth Boroughs constituency, which also covered Monmouth and Usk.

Boundaries

1918–1955: The County Borough of Newport.

1955–1983: As above, as extended by the Newport Corporation Act 1954.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Lewis Haslam	Coalition Liberal
	1922 by-election	Reginald Clarry	Conservative
	1929	James Walker	Labour
	1931	Sir Reginald Clarry	Conservative
	1945 by-election	Ronald Bell	Conservative
	1945	Peter Freeman	Labour
	1956 by-election	Sir Frank Soskice	Labour
	1966	Roy Hughes	Labour
1983		constituency abolished: see Newport East and Newport West

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
C	Liberal	Lewis Haslam	14,080	56.4
	Labour	William Bowen	10,234	41.0
	Independent Democrat	Bertie Pardoe-Thomas ^[1]	647	2.6
Majority			3,846	15.4
Turnout			24,961	62.2
	Liberal win (new seat)
Cindicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

1922 Newport by-election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Reginald Clarry	13,515	40.0	*N/A*
	Labour	William Bowen	11,425	33.8	−7.2
	Liberal	William Moore	8,841	26.2	−30.2
Majority			2,090	6.2	N/A
Turnout			33,781	79.2	+17.0
	Unionist gain from National Liberal		Swing

Clarry stood on a platform of opposition to the Coalition Government. Moore was also opposed to the Coalition and called for a reunited Liberal Party.

General election 1922: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Reginald Clarry	19,019	54.3	*N/A*
	Labour	William Bowen	16,000	45.7	+4.7
Majority			3,019	8.6	N/A
Turnout			35,019	82.1	+19.9
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing

General election 1923: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Reginald Clarry	14,424	39.5	−14.8
	Labour	William Bowen	14,100	38.6	−7.1
	Liberal	H. Davies	8,015	21.9	N/A
Majority			324	0.9	−7.7
Turnout			36,539	85.2	+3.1
	Unionist hold		Swing	-3.8

General election 1924: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Reginald Clarry	20,426	52.8	+13.3
	Labour	William Bowen	18,263	47.2	+8.6
Majority			2,163	5.6	+4.7
Turnout			38,689	85.7	+0.5
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1929: Newport ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Walker	18,653	39.5	−7.7
	Unionist	Reginald Clarry	15,841	33.5	−19.3
	Liberal	Samuel Immanuel Cohen	12,735	27.0	N/A
Majority			2,812	6.0	N/A
Turnout			47,229	83.8	−1.9
Registered electors			56,392
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+5.8

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Reginald Clarry	27,829	59.1	+25.6
	Labour	James Walker	19,238	40.9	+1.4
Majority			8,591	18.2	N/A
Turnout			47,067	82.5	−1.3
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+12.0

General election 1935: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Reginald Clarry	23,300	51.7	−7.4
	Labour	Peter Freeman	21,755	48.3	+7.4
Majority			1,545	3.4	−14.8
Turnout			45,055	79.4	−3.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	-7.4

Elections in the 1940s

1945 Newport by-election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ronald Bell	16,424	54.5	+2.8
	Ind. Labour Party	Bob Edwards	13,722	45.5	New
Majority			2,702	9.0	+5.6
Turnout			40,146	50.0	−29.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.4

General election 1945: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Freeman	23,845	54.2	+5.9
	Conservative	Ronald Bell	14,754	33.6	−17.9
	Liberal	William Robert Crawshay	5,362	12.2	New
Majority			9,091	20.6	N/A
Turnout			43,961	72.8	−6.6
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Freeman	31,858	51.0	−3.2
	Conservative	Ivor Thomas	21,866	35.0	+1.4
	Liberal	William John Owen	8,761	14.0	+1.8
Majority			9,992	16.0	−4.6
Turnout			62,485	87.9	+15.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1951: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Freeman	32,883	52.8	+1.8
	Conservative	Thomas Esmôr Rhys-Roberts	24,166	38.8	+3.8
	Liberal	William John Owen	5,247	8.4	−5.6
Majority			8,717	14.0	−2.0
Turnout			62,296	86.3	−1.6
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1955: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Freeman	31,537	53.7	+0.9
	Conservative	Donald Box	27,177	46.3	+7.5
Majority			4,360	7.4	−6.6
Turnout			58,714	81.6	−4.7
	Labour hold		Swing

1956 Newport by-election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Frank Soskice	29,205	56.3	+2.6
	Conservative	Donald Box	20,720	39.9	−5.4
	Plaid Cymru	Emrys Roberts	1,978	3.8	New
Majority			8,485	16.3	+8.9
Turnout			51,903	72.1	−9.5
	Labour hold		Swing	+4.0

General election 1959: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Frank Soskice	31,125	53.1	−3.2
	Conservative	Anthony D. Arnold	27,477	46.9	+7.0
Majority			3,648	6.2	−10.1
Turnout			58,602	81.6	+9.5
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Frank Soskice	31,962	57.5	+4.4
	Conservative	Peter Temple-Morris	23,649	42.5	−4.4
Majority			8,313	15.0	+8.8
Turnout			55,611	79.0	−2.6
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1966: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Roy Hughes	32,098	59.8	+2.3
	Conservative	Peter Temple-Morris	21,599	40.2	−2.3
Majority			10,499	19.6	+4.6
Turnout			53,657	78.8	−0.2
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Roy Hughes	30,132	55.7	−4.1
	Conservative	Anthony D. Arnold	22,005	40.7	+0.5
	Plaid Cymru	A. Robert Vickery	1,997	3.7	New
Majority			8,127	15.0	−4.6
Turnout			54,134	75.5	−3.3
	Labour hold		Swing

General election February 1974: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Roy Hughes	29,384	48.8	−6.9
	Conservative	G. Price	18,002	29.9	−10.8
	Liberal	J. H. Morgan	11,868	19.7	New
	Plaid Cymru	P. Cox	936	1.6	−2.1
Majority			11,382	18.9	+3.9
Turnout			60,190	81.0	+5.5
	Labour hold		Swing

General election October 1974: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Roy Hughes	30,069	53.0	+4.2
	Conservative	G. A. L. Price	16,253	28.6	−1.3
	Liberal	J. H. Morgan	9,207	16.2	−3.5
	Plaid Cymru	G. Lee	1,216	2.1	+0.5
Majority			13,816	22.4	+5.5
Turnout			56,745	75.6	−4.4
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1979: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Roy Hughes	30,919	51.7	−1.3
	Conservative	G. G. Davies	21,742	36.3	+7.7
	Liberal	Anthony Lambert	6,270	10.5	−5.7
	National Front	G. R. Woodward	484	0.8	New
	Plaid Cymru	A. Robert Vickery	473	0.8	−1.3
Majority			9,177	15.4	−7.0
Turnout			59,888	79.7	+4.1
	Labour hold		Swing

References

↑ ‘PARDOE-THOMAS, Bertie’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 18 Sept 2017
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig

Sources

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 1)
Craig, F.W.S. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949 (Glasgow; Political Reference Publications, 1969)

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[1] ‘PARDOE-THOMAS, Bertie’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 18 Sept 2017

[2] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig

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