Oldham East and Saddleworth (UK Parliament constituency)

Oldham East and Saddleworth
County constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Oldham East and Saddleworth in Greater Manchester.
Location of Greater Manchester within England.
County	Greater Manchester
Electorate	72,249 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Oldham (part) Saddleworth Shaw and Crompton
Current constituency
Created	1997 (1997)
Member of Parliament	Debbie Abrahams (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Littleborough & Saddleworth and Oldham Central & Royton
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	North West England

Oldham East and Saddleworth is a county constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Since January 2011, it has been represented by Debbie Abrahams, a member of the Labour Party.

Boundaries

Oldham East and Saddleworth is the largest constituency in Greater Manchester by area, and one of three covering the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. According to the Manchester Evening News it is "a juxtaposition of downbeat urban terraces and the rolling Pennine hills", while UK Polling Report describes it as a "constituency at the eastern side of Greater Manchester, reaching from central Oldham up into the Pennines and Saddleworth Moor". Within its bounds are the eastern fringes of Oldham (such as Derker, Glodwick, Greenacres, and Sholver), Shaw and Crompton, Lees, and Saddleworth (the latter of which includes the rural villages of Denshaw, Diggle, Dobcross, Greenfield and Uppermill). Culturally, The Guardian describes the constituency as a "shotgun marriage", likened to "Coronation Street meets Last of the Summer Wine, Salford combined with Holmfirth"; East Oldham is noted as "an area of deprived terraces and racial tensions", Shaw and Crompton as a "relatively prosperous (and unusually named) town" and Saddleworth as composed of "middle-class villages and hamlets". Between 1997 and 2010, Oldham East and Saddleworth incorporated the suburban town of Milnrow in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, before boundary reforms placed it in the neighbouring Rochdale constituency.

History

The seat was established in 1997, from parts of the former Littleborough and Saddleworth and Oldham Central and Royton constituencies. Whilst Oldham Central and Royton was a safe Labour seat, Littleborough and Saddleworth had been held by the Conservatives until a 1995 by-election, when it was lost to the Liberal Democrats. Since the 1997 general election, the seat has been a Labour/Liberal Democrat marginal. Although Phil Woolas of Labour (who was their defeated candidate in the 1995 by-election) has been victorious in all three general elections since then, his majorities have not been substantial and the Conservative vote has increased from 16% to 24%.^{[citation needed]}

The constituency "gained notoriety" at the 2001 general election, when the British National Party gained over 5,000 votes (an 11.2% share), retaining their deposit. Along with the BNP's showing in the neighbouring Oldham West and Royton constituency, this was interpreted as a reaction to the 2001 Oldham race riots.^{[citation needed]} At the 2005 election the BNP's share of the vote dropped to 4.9%.

For the 2010 General election the seat lost the Milnrow and Newhey ward to the neighbouring Rochdale constituency and gained part of Alexandra ward from Oldham West and Royton.

After losing the 2010 election by 103 votes, Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins submitted a petition for a hearing by an election court, claiming that campaign literature issued by his Labour opponent Phil Woolas breached the Representation of the People Act 1983 by making false statements about his personal character. On 5 November 2010, the election court, presided over by Mr Justice Nigel Teare and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, upheld the petition and declaring the election void after finding Phil Woolas guilty of making false election statements. Woolas sought a judicial review of the decision in the High Court, but was unsuccessful overall as that Court upheld the decision of the Election Court in relation to two statements, whilst quashing the decision in relation to a third. As a result, the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, 2011, was required to take place, by which time the constituency was described as an "ultra-marginal between Labour and the Liberal Democrats". The by-election took place on 13 January 2011. Ten candidates were nominated to contest the by-election, which was won by the Labour Party candidate Debbie Abrahams.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1997	Phil Woolas	Labour
	5 November 2010	Vacant
	2011 by-election	Debbie Abrahams	Labour

Elections

Election	Political result		Candidate		Party	Votes	%	±%
By-election, 2011  2010 result voided on petition Electorate: 72,788 Turnout: 34,930 (48.0%) −13.1		Labour hold Majority: 3,558 (10.2%) +10.0 Swing: 5.0% from Lib Dem to Lab		Debbie Abrahams	Labour	14,718	42.1	+10.2
				Elwyn Watkins	Liberal Democrat	11,160	31.9	+0.3
				Kashif Ali	Conservative	4,481	12.8	-13.6
				Paul Nuttall	UKIP	2,029	5.8	+1.9
				Derek Adams	BNP	1,560	4.5	-1.2
				Peter Allen	Green	530	1.5	N/A
				Nick "The Flying Brick" Delves	Monster Raving Loony	145	0.4	N/A
				Stephen Morris	English Democrats	144	0.4	N/A
				Loz Kaye	Pirate	96	0.3	N/A
				David Bishop	Bus-Pass Elvis	67	0.1	N/A
General Election 2010  Electorate: 72,557 Turnout: 44,520 (61.2%) +4.4		Labour hold Majority: 103 (0.2%) –10.2 Swing: 5.1% from Lab to Lib Dem		Phil Woolas	Labour	14,186	31.9	−10.7
				Elwyn Watkins	Liberal Democrat	14,083	31.6	−0.5
				Kashif Ali	Conservative	11,773	26.4	+8.7
				Alwyn Stott	BNP	2,546	5.7	+0.8
				David Bentley	UKIP	1,720	3.9	+1.8
				Gulzar Nazir	Christian	212	0.5	N/A
General Election 2005  Electorate: 75,540 Turnout: 43,367 (57.3%) −3.7		Labour hold Majority: 3,590 (8.3%) Swing: 1.1% from Lib Dem to Lab		Phil Woolas	Labour	17,968	41.4	+2.8
				Tony Dawson	Liberal Democrat	14,378	33.2	+0.6
				Keith Chapman	Conservative	7,901	18.2	+2.1
				Michael Treacy	BNP	2,109	4.9	−6.3
				Valerie Nield	UKIP	873	2.0	+0.5
				Philip O'Grady	Independent	138	0.3	N/A
General Election 2001  Electorate: 74,511 Turnout: 45,420 (61.0%) −13.0		Labour hold Majority: 2,726 (6.0%) −0.3 Swing: 0.13% from Lib Dem to Lab		Phil Woolas	Labour	17,537	38.6	−3.1
				Howard Sykes	Liberal Democrat	14,811	32.6	−2.8
				Craig Heeley	Conservative	7,304	16.1	−3.6
				Michael Treacy	BNP	5,091	11.2	N/A
				Barbara Little	UKIP	677	1.5	N/A
General Election 1997  New constitituency Electorate: 73,189 Turnout: 73.92%		Labour win Majority: 3,389 (6.3%)		Phil Woolas	Labour	22,546	41.7	+11.5
				Chris Davies	Liberal Democrat	19,157	35.4	+1.0
				John Hudson	Conservative	10,666	19.7	−15.7
				Douglas Findlay	Referendum Party	1,116	2.0	N/A
				John Smith	Socialist Labour	470	0.9	N/A
				Ian Dalling	Natural Law	146	0.3	N/A

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester