Plymouth Drake (UK Parliament constituency)

Plymouth Drake
Plymouth Drake
Former borough constituency ; for the House of Commons
	Plymouth Drake in Devon, showing boundaries used from 1983 to 1997.
County	Devon
1974–1997
Seats	One
Created from	Plymouth Sutton and Plymouth Devonport
Replaced by	Plymouth Sutton
1918–1950
Seats	One
Created from	Plymouth
Replaced by	Plymouth Sutton and Plymouth Devonport

Last updated January 12, 2025

Plymouth Drake was a borough constituency in the city of Plymouth, in Devon. It elected one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by the first past the post system of election.

History

The first Drake constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election. For most of this time it was held by the Conservative Party. It was a Labour gain in the Attlee landslide of 1945, although it had been held by Labour once before, in the 1929–31 Parliament.

The second incarnation of the constituency was created for the February 1974 general election. For the whole of its 23-year existence it was represented by just one MP, Dame Janet Fookes of the Conservative Party. It was always a marginal seat during this period, but Dame Janet managed to survive many strong challenges at each general election she fought, including winning with a majority of just 34 in October 1974 – making Drake the most marginal Conservative seat at that election. She served as a Deputy Speaker of the House to Betty Boothroyd from 1992 until she retired from the Commons in 1997.

The constituency was abolished for the 1997 general election, with its wards being transferred to the redrawn constituency of Plymouth Sutton, which was gained by the Labour Party in the Blair landslide of that year. Most of the territory of Drake is now covered by the constituency of Plymouth Sutton and Devonport.

Boundaries

1918–1950: The County Borough of Plymouth wards of Drake, Mount Edgcumbe, Mutley, Pennycross, St Peter, Stoke, and Valletort.

1974–1983: The County Borough of Plymouth wards of Compton, Drake, Honicknowle, Pennycross, Tamerton, Trelawny, and Whitleigh.

1983–1997: The City of Plymouth wards of Compton, Drake, St Peter, Stoke, Sutton, and Trelawny.

In its 1918 and 1983 incarnations the constituency included Plymouth city centre, which was transferred in 1997 to Plymouth Sutton and in 2010 to Plymouth Sutton and Devonport.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1918–1950

	Member^[1]	Party
1918	Arthur Benn	Conservative
1929	James Moses	Labour
1931	Frederick Guest	Conservative
1937 by-election	Henry Guest	Conservative
1945	Hubert Medland	Labour
1950	constituency abolished

MPs 1974–1997

Election		Member^[1]	Party
	Feb 1974	Janet Fookes	Conservative
	1997	constituency abolished: see Plymouth Sutton

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Plymouth Drake ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
C	Unionist	Arthur Benn	17,188	73.4
	Liberal	Thomas Dobson	6,225	26.6
Majority			10,963	46.8
Turnout			23,413
	Unionist win (new seat)
Cindicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Plymouth Drake ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Benn	11,698	43.9	−29.5
	Labour	James Gorman	8,359	31.4	New
	Liberal	Samuel John Robins	6,594	24.7	−1.9
Majority			3,339	12.5	−34.3
Turnout			26,651
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1923: Plymouth Drake ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Benn	12,345	43.7	−0.2
	Labour	James Moses	11,849	41.9	+10.5
	Liberal	Edward Ernest Henry Atkin	4,082	14.4	−10.3
Majority			496	1.8	−10.7
Turnout			28,276	77.9
	Unionist hold		Swing	-5.3

General election 1924: Plymouth Drake ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Benn	14,669	48.1	+4.4
	Labour	James Moses	12,161	39.9	−2.0
	Liberal	Solomon Stephens	3,645	12.0	−2.4
Majority			2,508	8.2	+6.4
Turnout			30,475
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1929: Plymouth Drake ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Moses	16,684	44.3	+4.4
	Unionist	Arthur Benn	14,673	39.0	−9.1
	Liberal	Hugh MacDonald Pratt	6,309	16.7	+4.7
Majority			2,011	5.3	N/A
Turnout			37,666	80.5
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Plymouth Drake^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Frederick Guest	25,063	66.4	+27.4
	Labour	James Moses	12,669	33.6	−10.7
Majority			12,394	32.8	N/A
Turnout			37,732	79.6	−0.9
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General election 1935: Plymouth Drake^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Frederick Guest	21,446	58.3	−8.1
	Labour	James Moses	15,368	41.7	+8.1
Majority			6,078	16.5	−16.3
Turnout			36,814	74.8	−4.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

1937 Plymouth Drake by-election ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Henry Guest	15,778	58.82
	Labour	Geoffrey Garratt	11,044	41.18
Majority			4,734	17.64
Turnout			26,822
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1939–40:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

Conservative: Henry Guest
Labour: Leonard Matters ^[3]

General election 1945: Plymouth Drake^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hubert Medland	15,070	50.9	+9.2
	Conservative	Henry Guest	12,871	43.4	−14.9
	Common Wealth	Edgar John Trout	1,681	5.7	New
Majority			2,199	7.5	N/A
Turnout			29,622	71.6	−3.2
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election February 1974: Plymouth Drake
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Janet Fookes	18,417	42.82
	Labour	FK Taylor	15,806	36.75
	Liberal	ME Castle	8,784	20.42
Majority			2,611	6.07
Turnout			43,007	78.04
	Conservative win (new seat)

General election October 1974: Plymouth Drake
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Janet Fookes	17,287	41.26	−1.56
	Labour	BW Fletcher	17,253	41.18	+4.43
	Liberal	ME Castle	7,354	17.55	−2.86
Majority			34	0.08	−5.99
Turnout			41,894	75.41	−2.63
	Conservative hold		Swing	−3.00

General election 1979: Plymouth Drake
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Janet Fookes	21,759	50.60	+9.34
	Labour	BW Fletcher	17,515	40.73	−0.45
	Liberal	Anthony Puttick	3,452	8.03	−9.52
	National Front	C Bradbury	279	0.65	New
Majority			4,244	9.87	+9.79
Turnout			43,005	77.19	+1.78
	Conservative hold		Swing	+4.90

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1983: Plymouth Drake^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Janet Fookes	19,718	50.7	+0.1
	SDP	Will Fitzgerald	11,133	28.6	New
	Labour	Sally Creswell	7,921	20.3	−20.4
	BNP	C Bradbury	163	0.4	New
Majority			8,585	22.1	+12.2
Turnout			38,935	74.3	−2.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	−14.4

General election 1987: Plymouth Drake^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Janet Fookes	16,195	41.3	−9.4
	SDP	David Astor	13,070	33.3	+4.9
	Labour	David Jamieson	9,451	24.1	+3.8
	Green	Tracey Barber	493	1.3	New
Majority			3,125	8.0	−14.1
Turnout			39,209	76.6	+2.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	-6.9

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1992: Plymouth Drake^[6]^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Janet Fookes	17,075	43.7	+2.4
	Labour Co-op	Peter Telford	15,062	38.6	+14.5
	Liberal Democrats	VA Cox	5,893	15.1	−18.2
	SDP	DM Stanbury	476	1.2	N/A
	Green	AE Harrison	441	1.1	−0.2
	Natural Law	TJ Pringle	95	0.2	New
Majority			2,013	5.2	−2.8
Turnout			39,042	75.6	−1.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Notes and references

1 2 Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 3)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
↑ "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
↑ "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
↑ "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
↑ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2010.

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[rayment-1] 1 2 Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 3)

[ReferenceA-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig

[3] Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939

[electoralcalculus1983-4] "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.

[electoralcalculus1987-5] "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.

[electoralcalculus1992-6] "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.

[7] "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2010.

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