Denton and Reddish (UK Parliament constituency)

Denton and Reddish
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Denton and Reddish in Greater Manchester.
Location of Greater Manchester within England.
County	Greater Manchester
Electorate	65,684 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1983 (1983)
Member of Parliament	Andrew Gwynne (Labour)
Number of members	One
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	North West England

Denton and Reddish is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

With an electorate of 68,000, located in eastern Greater Manchester, the constituency presently consists of the electoral wards of Audenshaw, Denton North East, Denton South, Denton West, and Dukinfield from the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, and Reddish North and Reddish South from the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It covers the former townships of Audenshaw, Denton, Dukinfield, Haughton Green, Heaton Chapel, Heaton Norris, Lancashire Hill, and Reddish.

Historic boundaries

Prior to the seat's creation in 1983, Reddish was part of the marginal Stockport North constituency; the large Brinnington council estate was in the safe Labour seat of Stockport South; Audenshaw and Denton formed the core of the Manchester Gorton constituency; and Dukinfield was part of the Stalybridge and Hyde constituency.

From 1983 to 1997 the constituency consisted of the electoral wards of Brinnington, Reddish North, and Reddish South, from the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport; and Audenshaw, Denton North East, Denton South, and Denton West, from the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside.

In 1997 Labour-leaning Brinnington ward was moved out of the constituency and transferred to the Stockport seat, and was replaced with the equally Labour-leaning Dukinfield ward in Tameside. All the other wards of the constituency are very strongly Labour-leaning, except Audenshaw ward, which in local elections is presently a three-way marginal between the three main parties, although in parliamentary elections it tends to support Labour as heavily as the rest of the constituency. Labour won Audenshaw ward from the Liberal Democrats in the 2006 local elections, and held it in 2007 and 2008.

Historically both Audenshaw and Denton West wards returned Conservative councillors, but this has not occurred since 1992 and 1987 respectively.

In the Boundary Commission's provisional recommendations for parliamentary constituencies, which were published in 2005, the Reddish part of the constituency was to be re-patriated with the Stockport constituency. Denton, Audenshaw and Dukinfield would have been joined with Droylsden East, Droylsden West and the St Peter's wards of Tameside to form a Denton borough constituency, wholly in Tameside. The proposed new seat would almost certainly have remained a Labour stronghold.

However, following a public inquiry into Greater Manchester's constituencies held in late 2005, a number of changes to the original proposals for the county were made. It was recommended that the Denton and Reddish seat should remain unchanged with five wards from Tameside (Denton North East, South and West; Audenshaw and Dukinfield) and two wards from Stockport (Reddish North and Reddish South), with slight readjustments to reflect the new ward boundaries introduced in 2004. The new parliamentary boundaries in Greater Manchester took effect at the 2010 general election.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1983	Andrew Bennett	Labour
	2005	Andrew Gwynne	Labour

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Denton and Reddish
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Andrew Gwynne	19,191	51.0	-6.4
	Conservative	Julie Searle	9,360	24.9	+5.6
	Liberal Democrat	Stephen Broadhurst	6,727	17.4	+1.5
	UKIP	William Robinson	2,060	5.5	+2.3
	Independent	Jeff Dennis	297	0.8	+0.8
Majority			9,831	26.1
Turnout			37,635	58.1	+5.6
	Labour hold		Swing	-6.3

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Denton and Reddish
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Andrew Gwynne	20,340	57.4	-7.8
	Conservative	Alex Story	6,842	19.3	-0.3
	Liberal Democrat	Allison Seabourne	5,814	16.4	+4.0
	BNP	John Edgar	1,326	3.7	+3.7
	UKIP	Gerald Price	1,120	3.2	+0.4
Majority			13,498	38.1
Turnout			35,442	51.9	+3.4
	Labour hold		Swing	-3.8

General Election 2001: Denton and Reddish
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Andrew Bennett	21,913	65.2	-0.2
	Conservative	Paul Newman	6,583	19.6	-1.7
	Liberal Democrat	Roger Fletcher	4,152	12.4	-0.9
	UKIP	Alan Cadwallader	945	2.8	N/A
Majority			15,330	45.6
Turnout			33,593	48.5	-18.4
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Denton and Reddish
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Andrew Bennett	30,137	65.4
	Conservative	Barbara Nutt	9,826	21.3
	Liberal Democrat	Iain Donaldson	6,121	13.3
Majority			20,311
Turnout				66.9
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1992: Denton and Reddish
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Andrew Bennett	29,021	55.2	+5.6
	Conservative	Jeff Horswell	16,937	32.2	−1.6
	Liberal Democrat	Dr Fred Ridley	4,953	9.4	−7.1
	Liberal	MW Powell	1,296	2.5	+2.5
	Natural Law	JPG Fuller	354	0.7	+0.7
Majority			12,084	23.0	+7.3
Turnout			52,561	76.8	+1.3
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.6

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Denton and Reddish
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Andrew Bennett	26,023	49.6
	Conservative	P Slater	17,773	33.9
	Social Democrat	T I Huffer	8,697	16.6
Majority			8,250	15.7
Turnout				75.8
	Labour hold		Swing

General election of 1983

General Election 1983: Denton and Reddish
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Andrew Bennett	22,123	44.2
	Conservative	J Snadden	16,998	34.0
	Social Democrat	J Begg	10,869	21.7
Majority			5,125	10.2
Turnout				72.5

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester

Sources

• Election results 1992–2005
• Election results 1983–1992