Rochdale (UK Parliament constituency)

Rochdale
County constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Rochdale in Greater Manchester.
Location of Greater Manchester within England.
County	Greater Manchester
Electorate	77,699 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1950 (1950)
Member of Parliament	Simon Danczuk (Labour)
Number of members	One
1832 (1832)–1950 (1950)
Number of members	One
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Created from	Lancashire
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	North West England

Rochdale is a county constituency 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.

Boundaries

The constituency is one of two covering the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It contains most of the town of Rochdale itself as well as Littleborough, Wardle and some of the surrounding rural area.

For the 2010 general election, the seat gained the villages of Milnrow and Newhey from Oldham East and Saddleworth and lost the areas of Sudden, Marland, and part of Norden to Heywood and Middleton, a 19.16% boundary change. Those changes made the seat a notional Labour victory in the Rallings and Thrasher figures which were used by the Press Association for determining gains, losses and swings. However, other predictions by political commentator Martin Baxter showed the seat maintaining a narrow Lib Dem majority.

History

Rochdale was one of the constituencies created by the Reform Act of 1832, and as of 2006 has been a Labour/Liberal Democrat marginal for many years, although it was held by the Conservatives for part of the 1950s, until a 1958 by-election.

It was held for two decades by the larger-than-life Cyril Smith, first of the Liberal Party and then of the Liberal Democrats. He won a by-election in 1972, taking the seat from Labour, and held it until his retirement in 1992. A native Rochdalian and a former Labour Party member himself, he had a substantial personal vote which always helped to see off his Labour challengers.

After his retirement, contests have been tighter. The Liberal Democrats held the seat at first, with Liz Lynne winning at the 1992 general election, only to lose to Labour's Lorna Fitzsimons at the 1997 election. However, they regained the seat at the 2005 election, with Paul Rowen defeating Fitzsimons.In 2010, the town was brought to National attention when reigning Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught on a tape recording describing a local woman (Gillian Duffy) as a "bigot" after having a conversation with her while campaigning (later described as Bigotgate by the UK media), but despite the unfavourable publicity, Labour still managed to narrowly win the seat from the Liberal Democrats.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1832	John Fenton	Liberal
	1835	John Entwistle	Conservative
	1837	John Fenton	Liberal
	1841	William Sharman Crawford	Liberal
	1852	Edward Miall	Liberal
	1857	Sir Alexander Ramsay, Bt.	Liberal
	1859	Richard Cobden	Liberal
	1865	Thomas Bayley Potter	Liberal
	1895	Clement Royds	Conservative
	1906	Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey	Liberal
	1918	Alfred Law	Coalition Conservative
	1922	Stanley Burgess	Labour
	1923	Ramsay Muir	Liberal
	1924	William Thomas Kelly	Labour
	1931	Thomas Jesson	Conservative
	1935	William Thomas Kelly	Labour
	1940 by-election	Hyacinth Morgan	Labour
	1950	Joseph Hale	Labour
	1951	Wentworth Schofield	Conservative
	1958 by-election	Jack McCann	Labour
	1972 by-election	Sir Cyril Smith	Liberal
	1992	Liz Lynne	Liberal Democrats
	1997	Lorna Fitzsimons	Labour
	2005	Paul Rowen	Liberal Democrats
	2010	Simon Danczuk	Labour

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Simon Danczuk	16,699	36.4	−4.5
	Liberal Democrat	Paul Rowen	15,810	34.4	−6.1
	Conservative	Mudasir Dean	8,305	18.1	+7.6
	National Front	Chris Jackson	2,236	4.9	N/A
	UKIP	Colin Denby	1,999	4.4	+3.0
	Islam Zinda Baad Platform	Mohammed Salim	545	1.2	+0.3
	Independent	John Whitehead	313	0.7	N/A
Majority			889	1.9	+1.6
Turnout			45,907	58.1	+0.9
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing	+0.8

Boundary changes made this a notional Labour seat, despite being held by the Lib Dem Paul Rowen.

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Paul Rowen	16,787	41.1	+6.2
	Labour	Lorna Fitzsimons	16,345	40.0	-9.2
	Conservative	Khalid Hussain	4,270	10.5	-2.9
	BNP	Derek Adams	1,773	4.3	+2.9
	UKIP	John Whittaker	499	1.2
	Green	Samir Chatterjee	448	1.1	-0.7
	Islam Zinda Baad Platform	Mohammed Salim	361	0.9
	Veritas	Carl Faulkner	353	0.9
Majority			444	1.1
Turnout			40,834	58.4	+1.7
	Liberal Democrat gain from Labour		Swing	+7.7

General Election 2001: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lorna Fitzsimons	19,406	49.2	-0.2
	Liberal Democrat	Paul Rowen	13,751	34.9	-5.1
	Conservative	Elaina Cohen	5,274	13.4	+4.6
	Green	Nick Harvey	728	1.8	N/A
	Independent	Mohammed Salim	253	0.6	+0.2
Majority			5,655	14.3
Turnout			39,412	56.7	-13.3
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lorna Fitzsimons	23,758	49.4
	Liberal Democrat	Liz Lynne	19,213	40.0
	Conservative	Mervyn Turnberg	4,237	8.8
	BNP	Gary Bergin	653	1.4	+0.2
	Independent	Mohammed Salim	221	0.5
Majority			4,545	9.4
Turnout			48,082	70.0
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrat		Swing	+4.8

General Election 1992: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Liz Lynne	22,776	42.8	−0.6
	Labour	David Williams	20,937	39.4	+1.4
	Conservative	Duncan Goldie-Scott	8,626	16.2	−2.4
	BNP	Ken Henderson	620	1.2	N/A
	Natural Law	Vincent J. Lucker	221	0.4	N/A
Majority			1,839	3.5	−1.9
Turnout			53,170	76.5	+1.9
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	−1.0

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Cyril Smith	22,245	43.4	-2.7
	Labour	David Williams	19,466	38.0	+7.9
	Conservative	Clive Condie	9,561	18.6	-3.7
Majority			2,779	5.4	-10.6
Turnout			51,272	74.6	+3.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-5.3

General Election 1983: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Cyril Smith	21,858	46.1	+1.1
	Labour	Valerie Broon	14,271	30.1	-4.2
	Conservative	Alan Fearn	10,616	22.4	+3.1
	National Front	P Barker	463	1.0	-0.4
	Unemployed Party	P Courtney	204	0.4
Majority			7,587	16.0	+5.3
Turnout			47,412	70.8	-2.9
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

By-Election 1958: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jack McCann	22,133	44.7	−3.8
	Liberal	Ludovic Kennedy	17,603	35.5	N/A
	Conservative	John E. Parkinson	9,827	19.8	−31.7
Majority			4,530	9.1	+12.2
Turnout			49,563
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+14.0

General Election 1955: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Wentworth Schofield	26,518	51.5	+1.1
	Labour	Jack McCann	24,928	48.5	−1.1
Majority			1,590	3.1	+2.3
Turnout			51,446	82.8	−2.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.1

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1929: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Kelly	22,060	40.2	+6.4
	Liberal	Ramsay Muir	16,957	30.8	-2.7
	Conservative	John Haslam	15,962	29.0	-3.7
Majority			5,103	9.4	+9.1
Turnout			54,979	87.6	-2.7
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1924: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Kelly	14,609	33.8	+1.2
	Liberal	Ramsay Muir	14,492	33.5	-2.9
	Conservative	Thomas Jesson	14,112	32.7	+1.7
Majority			117	0.3
Turnout			43,213	90.3	+2.5
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1923: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Ramsay Muir	15,087	36.4	+7.2
	Labour	Stanley Burgess	13,525	32.6	-6.2
	Conservative	N Cockshutt	12,845	31.0	-1.0
Majority			1,562	3.8
Turnout			41,457	87.8	+0.7
	Liberal gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1922: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Stanley Burgess	15,774	38.8	+22.3
	Conservative	Alfred Law	13,006	32.0	-15.6
	Liberal	Ramsay Muir	11,894	29.2	+7.7
Majority			2,768	6.8
Turnout			40,674	87.1	+22.6
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Coalition Conservative	Alfred Law	14,299	47.6	+6.7
	Liberal	Vivian Phillipps	6,452	21.5	-23.1
	Labour	Richard Henry Tawney	4,956	16.5
	National Democratic	John Joseph Terrett	2,358	7.8
	National Party	John Fitzgerald Jones	1,992	6.6
Majority			7,847	26.1
Turnout			30,057	64.5	-28.5
	Coalition Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election December 1910: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey	5,373	44.6	-4.2
	Conservative	N Cockshutt	4,850	40.9	+2.3
	Social Democratic Federation	Dan Irving	1,901	14.5	+1.9
Majority			477	3.7	-6.5
Turnout			11,124	88.0	-5.5
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election January 1910: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey	6,809	48.8	+2.9
	Conservative	W B Boyd-Carpenter	5,581	38.6	+2.0
	Social Democratic Federation	Dan Irving	1,755	12.6
Majority			1,428	10.2	-1.1
Turnout			13,945	93.5	+0.5
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1906: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey	5,912	45.9	0.0
	Conservative	Clement Royds	4,449	34.6	-11.5
	Independent Labour	Samuel George Hobson	2,506	19.5
Majority			1,463	11.3
Turnout			12,867	93.0	+5.9
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

General Election 1900: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Clement Royds	5,204	46.1	0.0
	Liberal	Alexander Gordon Cummins Harvey	5,185	45.9	+4.0
	Labour	C A Clarke	901	8.0
Majority			19	0.2	-4.0
Turnout			11,290	87.1	-1.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1895: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Clement Royds	4,781	46.1	+1.0
	Liberal	W L Bright	4,359	41.9	-13.0
	Ind. Labour Party	George Nicoll Barnes	1,251	12.0
Majority			422	4.2
Turnout			10,391	88.2	+2.4
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1892: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Bayley Potter	5,460	54.9	-2.7
	Conservative	Clement Royds	4,480	45.1	+2.7
Majority			980	9.8	-5.4
Turnout			9,940	85.8	+9.8
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1880s

General Election 1886: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Bayley Potter	4,738	57.6	+1.9
	Conservative	J A R Marriott	3,481	42.4	-1.9
Majority			1,257	15.2	+3.8
Turnout			9,969	76.0	-16.2
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election 1885: Rochdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Bayley Potter	5,552	55.7
	Conservative	E Lees	4,417	44.3
Majority			1,135	11.4
Turnout			9,969	92.2
	Liberal hold		Swing

See also

• Rochdale
• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester
• Rochdale by-election, 1940
• Rochdale by-election, 1958
• Rochdale by-election, 1972

Sources

• Election results, 1950–1997
• F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949
• F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918