Penistone and Stocksbridge (UK Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Stockbridge (UK Parliament constituency).

Penistone and Stocksbridge
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Penistone and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire
Location of South Yorkshire within England
County	South Yorkshire
Electorate	70,311 (December 2019) [1]
Major settlements	Stocksbridge, Penistone
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of Parliament	Miriam Cates (Conservative)
Seats	One
Created from	Sheffield Hillsborough (part) (still extant) Barnsley West and Penistone (part)

Penistone and Stocksbridge is a constituency ^{[n 1]} in South Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Miriam Cates, a Conservative. As with all Westminster constituencies, adults qualifying to vote in the seat elect one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system at least every five years.

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries

The Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley wards of Dodworth, Penistone East, and Penistone West, and the Sheffield wards of Stocksbridge and Upper Don, East Ecclesfield and West Ecclesfield.

Proposed

Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, the composition of the constituency from the next general election, due by January 2025, will be unchanged. ^[2]

History

The seat largely resembles the old Penistone constituency, which, following the election of a Conservative in the Conservative landslide in 1931, returned MPs representing the Labour Party through to its abolition in 1983.

In 1983, two new constituencies were formed, Sheffield Hillsborough and Barnsley West and Penistone, both of which returned Labour MPs at every election they were fought.

The 2010 result was that of a marginal Labour majority. In 2015, the Labour majority increased, partly due to a split right-wing vote between the Conservatives and UKIP, while the Liberal Democrats' vote decline largely benefited Labour in the seat.

When the UKIP vote declined in 2017, with a large amount of those voters going to the Conservatives causing a swing of almost 6% against Labour, the seat became extremely marginal.

Elected as a member of the Labour Party, MP Angela Smith quit the party in February 2019 and joined Change UK. She left this party in June 2019 and joined The Independents. She departed the parliamentary group in September 2019 and joined the Liberal Democrats. Smith chose not to defend her seat at the 2019 election; she instead contested Altrincham and Sale West for the Liberal Democrats, failing to gain the seat. At that election, Penistone and Stocksbridge was one of three seats gained by the Conservatives in South Yorkshire, the party's first seats there since before the 1997 general election.

Constituency profile

The seat is most heavily populated on its eastern fringe, with communities built largely on the coal and steel industries, such as the ex-mining village of Dodworth and the steelworking town of Stocksbridge. Penistone too has a history of steelworking at the David Brown and high-tech foundries, although many local people are or have been employed at the Hepworth pipeworks (formerly Hepworth Iron Co./Hepworth Building Products) which specialises in the manufacture of pipes, mains and domestic, and whose fortunes vary with demand in construction. To the south lie the densely populated northern Sheffield suburbs of Chapeltown with its rich industrial history, Ecclesfield, Grenoside and High Green. Between these urban areas are rural villages including Oxspring, Wortley, Green Moor and Thurgoland occupied mostly by commuters to Sheffield (as well as those for Leeds and Manchester). The western area of the constituency is in the Peak District National Park.

The seat contains three significant stately homes: Cannon Hall (home of the Spencer-Stanhope family of Pre-Raphaelites) is open to the public as the 13th/18th Royal Hussars Museum, while Wortley Hall (ancestral home of the Wortley-Montagu family) is largely used by trade unions and their families; the third is Wentworth Castle, where an adult educational establishment, Northern College, is based. ^{[n 2]}

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [3]	Party
	2010	Angela Smith	Labour
	2019		Change UK
			Independent
			The Independents
			Liberal Democrats
	2019	Miriam Cates	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Next general election: Penistone and Stocksbridge

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Robert Reiss [4]
	Labour	Marie Tidball [5]
Majority
Turnout

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Penistone and Stocksbridge ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Miriam Cates	23,688	47.8	4.6
	Labour	Francyne Johnson	16,478	33.3	12.5
	Liberal Democrats	Hannah Kitching	5,054	10.2	6.1
	Brexit Party	John Booker	4,300	8.7
Majority			7,210	14.5	11.9
Turnout			49,520	69.8
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	8.6

General election 2017: Penistone and Stocksbridge ^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Angela Smith	22,807	45.8	3.8
	Conservative	Nicola Wilson	21,485	43.2	15.5
	UKIP	John Booker	3,453	6.9	16.0
	Liberal Democrats	Penny Baker	2,042	4.1	2.2
Majority			1,322	2.6	11.7
Turnout			49,787	69.8	3.9
	Labour hold		Swing	5.8

General election 2015: Penistone and Stocksbridge ^{[8] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Angela Smith	19,691	42.0	4.2
	Conservative	Steven Jackson	12,968	27.7	3.5
	UKIP	Graeme Waddicar	10,738	22.9	18.7
	Liberal Democrats	Rosalyn Gordon	2,957	6.3	14.8
	English Democrat	Colin Porter	500	1.1
Majority			6,723	14.3	7.7
Turnout			46,854	65.9	2.0
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 2010: Penistone and Stocksbridge ^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Angela Smith*	17,565	37.8	7.4
	Conservative	Spencer Pitfield	14,516	31.2	7.5
	Liberal Democrats	Ian Cuthbertson	9,800	21.1	3.7
	BNP	Paul James	2,207	4.7	New
	UKIP	Grant French	1,936	4.2	2.5
	English Democrat	Paul McEnhill	492	1.1	New
Majority			3,049	6.6
Turnout			46,516	67.9	5.8
	Labour win (new seat)

*Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament

See also

• List of parliamentary constituencies in South Yorkshire

Notes

1. A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer).
2. These are open for most of the year, the former as a regimental museum and the latter for special events, thus providing recreational and tourism income alongside the Peak District.

References

1. "Constituency data: electorates – House of Commons Library". Parliament UK. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
2. "The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023". Schedule 1 Part 9 Yorkshire and the Humber region.
3. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 1)
4. "Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates". Mark Pack . Retrieved 25 March 2024.
5. "Labour selections: parliamentary candidates selected so far for the general election". LabourList . Retrieved 25 March 2024.
6. "Penistone & Stocksbridge Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
7. "Penistone and Stocksbridge". Sheffield City Council. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
8. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
9. "Penistone & Stocksbridge". BBC News. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
10. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.

Sources

• Sheffield Recommendations of the Boundary Commission for England.
• Summary of the Sheffield Parliamentary Boundary Review.

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