West Derbyshire (UK Parliament constituency)

West Derbyshire
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of West Derbyshire in Derbyshire for the 2005 general election.
Location of Derbyshire within England.
County	Derbyshire
1885 (1885)–2010 (2010)
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Derbyshire Dales
Created from	North Derbyshire

West Derbyshire was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From 1885 until it was replaced by the Derbyshire Dales constituency in the 2010 General Election, it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.

It was a safe Conservative seat for most of its existence, its last MP being Patrick McLoughlin, the Conservative Chief Whip since 2005.

Boundaries

The only really safe Conservative seat in Derbyshire, consisting mostly of rural villages and tourist towns like Bakewell and Matlock; Labour's only strengths were in Wirksworth and Masson, not enough to end the long-standing Conservative representation of this seat.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Derbyshire, the Boundary Commission for England created a new constituency of Derbyshire Dales based on the existing West Derbyshire constituency.

History

Historically associated with the Cavendish family, the seat and its predecessors were usually represented by one of the future Dukes of Devonshire or their relatives from 1580 until the Second World War. When the Cavendish family left the Liberals over Irish Home Rule the seat stayed loyal to them as they sat first as Liberal Unionists then as Conservatives. In 1918 the hold on the constituency was briefly broken by Charles Frederick White standing for the Liberals, but the seat was regained in 1923. In a by-election in 1944, White's son, also called Charles Frederick White resigned as the official Labour nominee in order to stand against a party truce. He defeated the Conservative candidate, William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, and subsequently took the Labour whip in the Commons, holding the seat in the 1945 general election for Labour. The Conservatives regained the seat in the 1950 general election and have held it ever since. The closest they have come to losing was in the 1986 by-election when they held it by only 100 votes in a period of heavy unpopularity for the government.

Members of Parliament

	Election	Member	Party
	1885	Lord Edward Cavendish	Liberal
	1886		Liberal Unionist
	1891 by-election	Victor Christian William Cavendish	Liberal Unionist
	1908 by-election	Earl of Kerry	Liberal Unionist
	1918	Charles Frederick White	Liberal
	1923	Marquess of Hartington	Conservative
	1938 by-election	Henry Philip Hunloke	Conservative
	1944 by-election	Charles Frederick White	Independent Labour
	1945		Labour
	1950	Edward Wakefield	Conservative
	1962 by-election	Aidan Crawley	Conservative
	1967 by-election	James Scott-Hopkins	Conservative
	1979	Matthew Parris	Conservative
	1986 by-election	Patrick McLoughlin	Conservative
	2010	Constituency abolished: see Derbyshire Dales

Elections

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Patrick McLoughlin	24,378	47.7	-0.3
	Labour	David Menon	13,625	26.6	-6.8
	Liberal Democrat	Ray Dring	11,408	22.3	+6.6
	UKIP	Michael Cruddas	1,322	2.6	+1.3
	Monster Raving Loony	"The Flying Brick" Delves	405	0.8	-0.1
	Independent	Martin Kyslun	5	0.0	N/A
Majority			10,753	21.0
Turnout			51,143	69.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	+3.2

General Election 2001: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Patrick McLoughlin	24,280	48.0	+5.9
	Labour	Stephen Clamp	16,910	33.4	-0.1
	Liberal Democrat	Jeremy Beckett	7,922	15.7	-1.8
	UKIP	Stuart Bavester	672	1.3	+0.5
	Monster Raving Loony	"The Flying Brick" Delves	472	0.9	+0.4
	Independent	Robert Goodall	333	0.7	+0.5
Majority			7,370	14.6
Turnout			50,589	67.8	-10.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Patrick McLoughlin	23,945	42.1
	Labour	Stephen Clamp	19,060	33.5
	Liberal Democrat	Christopher Seeley	9,940	17.5
	Referendum Party	John Gouriet	2,499	4.4
	Independent Green	Godfrey Meynell	593	1.0
	UKIP	H. Price	484	0.9
	Monster Raving Loony	"The Flying Brick" Delves	281	0.5
	Independent Back to Basics	Martin Kyslun	81	0.1
Majority			4,885
Turnout				78.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1992: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Patrick McLoughlin	32,879	54.3	+1.2
	Liberal Democrat	RD Fearn	14,110	23.3	−11.9
	Labour	SJ Clamp	13,528	22.4	+10.7
Majority			18,769	31.0	+13.1
Turnout			60,517	85.0	+1.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	+6.6

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Patrick McLoughlin	31,224	53.1
	Liberal	Chris Walmsley	20,697	35.2
	Labour	William Moore	6,875	11.7
Majority			10,527	17.9
Turnout				83.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

West Derbyshire by-election, 1986
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Patrick McLoughlin	19,896	39.5
	Liberal	Chris Walmsley	19,796	39.4
	Labour	William Moore	9,952	19.8
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	R. C. Sidwell	348	0.7
	Independent	R. Goodall	289	0.6
Majority			100	0.1
Turnout				71.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1983: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Matthew Parris	29,695	55.9
	Liberal	Viv Bingham	14,370	27.0
	Labour	J. S. March	9,060	17.1
Majority			15,325	28.9
Turnout				77.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1979: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Matthew Parris	21,478	52.6
	Liberal	P. Worboys	11,261	27.6
	Labour	W. Moore	8,134	19.9
Majority			10,217	25.0
Turnout				80.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Scott-Hopkins	18,468	47.9
	Liberal	P. Worboys	10,622	27.6
	Labour	D. A. Townsend	9,456	24.5
Majority			7,846	20.4
Turnout				57.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Scott-Hopkins	19,941	48.7
	Liberal	P. Worboys	11,481	28.0
	Labour	Fred Inglis	9,529	23.3
Majority			8,460	20.7
Turnout				61.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1970: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Scott-Hopkins	22,692	61.9
	Labour	Fred Inglis	13,976	38.1
Majority			8,716	23.8
Turnout				76.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

West Derbyshire by-election, 1967
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Scott-Hopkins	16,319
	Liberal	Aza Pinney	5,696
	Labour	Robin Corbett	5,284
	Independent	Robert Goodall	1,496
Majority			10,623
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1966: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Aidan Crawley	18,383	49.6
	Labour	P. Whitehead	13,791	37.2
	Liberal	M. V. Edwards	4,874	13.2
Majority			4,592	12.4
Turnout				83.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1964: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Aidan Crawley	16,825	44.2
	Liberal	Ronald Gardner-Thorpe	11,559	30.4
	Labour	J. Dilks	9,669	25.4
Majority			5,266	13.8
Turnout				85.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

West Derbyshire by-election, 1962
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Aidan Crawley	12,455
	Liberal	Ronald Gardner-Thorpe	11,235
	Labour	J. Dilks	9,431
	Independent	Raymond Gregory	1,433
Majority			1,220
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Edward Wakefield	22,034	61.3
	Labour	A. E. Kitts	13,925	38.7
Majority			8,109	22.6
Turnout				82.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1955: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Edward Wakefield	21,052	59.6
	Labour	R. B. Stirling	14,296	40.4
Majority			6,756	19.1
Turnout				80.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1951: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Edward Wakefield	22,223	58.8
	Labour	R. H. Lewis	15,578	41.2
Majority			6,645	17.6
Turnout				84.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1950: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Edward Wakefield	20,015	51.9
	Labour	N. Gratton	13,478	35.0
	Liberal	G. F. Strange	5,070	13.2
Majority			6,537	17.0
Turnout				87.5
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: West Derbyshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Charles Frederick White	18,331	48.8
	Conservative	William Aitken	18,175	48.4
	Agriculturalist	Robert Goodall	1,068	2.8
Majority			156	0.4
Turnout				81.7
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

West Derbyshire by-election, 1944
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Labour	Charles Frederick White	16,336	57.7
	Conservative	Marquess of Hartington	11,775	41.5
	Agriculturalist	Robert Goodall	233	0.8
Majority			4,561	16.2
Turnout				65.4
	Independent Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

West Derbyshire by-election, 1938
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Philip Hunloke	16,740	48.6
	Labour	Charles Frederick White	11,216	32.5
	Liberal	M. Gray	6,515	18.9
Majority			5,524	16.1
Turnout				79.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

At the 1931 and 1935 general elections, Edward Cavendish was elected unopposed.

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Derbyshire

Sources

• Guardian Unlimited Politics (Election results from 1992 to the present)
• http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/ (Election results from 1951 to the present)