Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, owned by the Bishops of Winchester, which was rebuilt as Taunton Castle by the Normans in the 12th century. Parts of the inner ward house were turned into the Museum of Somerset and Somerset Military Museum. For the Second Cornish uprising of 1497, Perkin Warbeck brought an army of 6,000; most surrendered to Henry VII on 4 October 1497. On 20 June 1685 in Taunton the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England in a rebellion, defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor. Judge Jeffreys led the Bloody Assizes in the Castle's Great Hall.
Taunton Deane was a local government district with borough status in Somerset, England. Its council was based in Taunton.
Taunton was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessors from 1295 to 2010, taking its name from the town of Taunton in Somerset. Until 1918, it was a parliamentary borough, electing two Member of Parliaments (MPs) between 1295 and 1885 and one from 1885 to 1918; the name was then transferred to a county constituency, electing one MP.
Yeovil is a constituency in Somerset created in 1918 and represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Since the 2024 General Election, the constituency has been represented by Liberal Democrat MP Adam Dance.
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.
Bridgwater and West Somerset was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Ian Liddell-Grainger, a Conservative.
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.
Taunton Deane was a constituency in Somerset represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament.
Taunton Deane Borough Council in Somerset, England was elected every four years. The first elections to the council were held in 1973, ahead of it coming into being in 1974. The last election was held in 2015. The council was abolished in 2019 when the district merged with neighbouring West Somerset district to become Somerset West and Taunton.
The region of South West England has, since the 2010 general election, 55 parliamentary constituencies which is made up of 15 borough constituencies and 40 county constituencies. At that election the Conservative Party held the largest number of constituencies, with 36. The Liberal Democrats had 15 and Labour had 4. At the 2015 general election the Liberal Democrats lost all of their seats, while the Conservatives gained one seat from Labour, leaving the Conservatives with 51 and Labour with 4. In the 2017 general election, the Conservatives remained, by far, the largest party with 47 seats, though losing three to Labour, who won 7, and one to the Liberal Democrats, who won 1. In the 2019 general election, the Conservatives increased their number of seats to 48 by regaining Stroud from Labour, who held their other six seats, while the Liberal Democrats retained their sole seat in Bath.
Taunton was a rural district in Somerset, England, from 1894 to 1974.
Rebecca Pow, is a British Conservative politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Taunton Deane from 2015 to 2024. She also served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Nature from November 2023 to 4 July 2024. Pow lost her bid to be elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the revised Taunton and Wellington seat to Gideon Amos of the Liberal Democrats in the 2024 United Kingdom General Election. Pow previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2019 to 2022.
The 2017 Somerset County Council election took place on 4 May 2017 as part of the 2017 local elections in the United Kingdom. All 55 councilors were elected from 54 electoral divisions, which each returned either one or two county councilors by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office.
The 2022 Somerset Council election took place on 5 May 2022 to elect members of Somerset County Council. The number of councillors was doubled from 55 to 110 at this election, in preparation for the county council becoming a unitary authority on 1 April 2023, when it was renamed Somerset Council.
Tiverton and Minehead 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 at the 2024 general election.
Gideon John Amos is a British Liberal Democrat politician, architect, and urban designer who has been the Member of Parliament for Taunton and Wellington since 2024.
