North Swindon was created in 1997 and has been a bellwether since then. However, during the 2010s, the Conservatives won the constituency by much higher numbers than their national popular vote margin.
Boundaries
Map of boundaries 2010-2024
Map of boundaries from 2024
1997–2010: The Borough of Thamesdown wards of Blunsdon, Covingham, Gorse Hill, Haydon Wick, Highworth, Moredon, St Margaret, St Philip, Western, and Whitworth, and the District of North Wiltshire ward of Cricklade.
The seat's boundaries encompassed an area that before its creation made up parts of the former Swindon constituency and pre-1997 versions of North Wiltshire and Devizes.
2010–2024: The Borough of Swindon wards of Abbey Meads, Blunsdon and Highworth, Covingham and Nythe, Gorse Hill and Pinehurst, Haydon Wick, Moredon, Penhill, St Margaret, St Philip, and Western.
In the 2010 boundary changes, the town of Cricklade became part of the North Wiltshire constituency while this seat acquired parts of the South Swindon constituency.
In order to bring the electorate within the permitted range and align with revised ward boundaries, the districts of Covingham and Nythe were transferred to Swindon South.
Constituency profile
The constituency covers a northern part of central Swindon and its northern suburbs (the civil parish of Central Swindon North), and extends northward to take in Blunsdon, the market town of Highworth and the rural parishes surrounding that town.
North Swindon has an electorate of 79,488 (as of 2010[update]), the majority of whom live in the suburbs or close to Swindon's town centre. In 2001, 52.9% of homes were into the categories of semi-detached or detached in the Swindon Local Authority area; after a 5.0% increase in flats/apartments in 2011, this figure had fallen slightly to 50.3%. In the same period, those registered unemployed rose from 2.5% to 4.2% and those self-employed rose from 6.2% to 7.8%.[4] In 2010, the unemployment rate for Swindon South was 2.6%, compared to 3.5% in Swindon North. This is one indicator of social deprivation and compares to a rate of 11.0% in 2010 in Birmingham Ladywood, the constituency with the highest rate nationally.[5]
↑ A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
↑ As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
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