Cheadle (UK Parliament constituency)

Cheadle is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a marginal seat between the Conservatives (one of the two main parties) and the Liberal Democrats. From 1970 until 2001 it was held by the Conservatives, but is now held by the Lib Dems.

Boundaries

Cheadle election results (click for larger version)

When originally created in 1950, the Cheadle county constituency was defined as being the Urban Districts of Bredbury and Romiley, Cheadle and Gatley, Hazel Grove and Bramhall, and Marple. The area was predominantly urban in the south-eastern suburbs of the Manchester conurbation, and reasonably prosperous. The boundary was changed in 1955 when the boundaries of Bredbury and Romiley Urban District with the County Borough of Stockport were altered, but this change was very minor.

The growth of suburbs of Manchester led to a rapidly rising electorate from the late 1950s and by the 1970 election there were 107,225 electors and some reduction was inevitable. At the February 1974 General Election the constituency was divided in two, with the eastern parts forming the new Hazel Grove constituency. The creation of Hazel Grove took too many electors away and to replace them came the town of Wilmslow. The new constituency, which was a borough seat rather than a county one, was defined as the Urban Districts of Cheadle and Gatley, and Wilmslow.

As a result of changes in the county boundaries, the constituency crossed between Greater Manchester and Cheshire. Realigning with the county boundaries in 1983, the constituency was refashioned as a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, losing Wilmslow to Tatton, and smaller parts to Macclesfield and Stockport. It retook some 20,000 voters from Hazel Grove to make up the loss. It was now defined as the following wards of Stockport: Cheadle and Gatley, Cheadle Hulme North, Cheadle Hulme South, Bramhall South, Heald Green, Stepping Hill and Bramhall North.

At the 1997 general election, minor changes were made around the north-western part to align the boundary with changes in the municipal boundaries, which resulted in gaining a small amount of Gatley from Manchester Wythenshawe.

Members of Parliament

The current MP is the Liberal Democrat Mark Hunter who was elected on 14 July 2005 in a by-election triggered by the death of fellow Liberal Democrat Patsy Calton on 29 May 2005.

The seat had safe Conservative majorities until the 1997 election,when the Liberal Democrats reduced the margin to around 3,000 votes. Patsy Calton scraped home in 2001 by a majority of 33 votes, the narrowest in the House of Commons, but returned with a much safer 4,000 votes in 2005.

Election		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1950	William Shepherd	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1966	Dr Michael Winstanley	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1970	Tom Normanton	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1987	Stephen Day	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" |	2001	Patsy Calton	Liberal Democrat
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Democrats (UK)/meta/color" |	2005 by-election	Mark Hunter	Liberal Democrat

Elections

Elections in the 2000s

Confirmed candidates for the General Election 2010

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Hunter
	Conservative	Ben Jeffreys
	Labour	Martin Miller
	United Kingdom Independance Party	Tony Moore

Cheadle by-election of 2005

By-election 2005: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Hunter	19,593	52.2	+3.3
	Conservative	Stephen Day	15,936	42.4	+2.0
	Labour	Martin Miller	1,739	4.6	−4.2
	Veritas	Leslie Leggett	218	0.6	N/A
	Alliance for Change (UK)	John Allman	81	0.2	N/A
Majority			3,657	9.7
Turnout			37,567	55.2	−14.4
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	+0.6

General election of 2005

General Election 2005: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Patsy Calton	23,189	48.9	+6.5
	Conservative	Stephen Day	19,169	40.4	−1.9
	Labour	Martin Miller	4,169	8.8	−5.2
	UKIP	Vincent Cavanagh	489	1.0	−0.4
	BNP	Richard Chadfield	421	0.9	N/A
Majority			4,020	8.5
Turnout			47,437	69.6	+6.4
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	+4.2

General election of 2001

General Election 2001: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Patsy Calton	18,477	42.4	+4.6
	Conservative	Stephen Day	18,444	42.3	−1.3
	Labour	Howard Dawber	6,086	14.0	−1.7
	UKIP	Vincent Cavanagh	599	1.4
Majority			33	0.1
Turnout			43,606	63.2	−14.1
	Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative		Swing	+2.95

Elections in the 1990s

General election of 1997

The Cheadle constituency underwent minor boundary changes after the 1992 general election and as such the change in share of vote is based on a national calculation.

General Election 1997: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stephen Day	22,944	43.7	−14.0
	Liberal Democrats	Patsy Calton	19,755	37.7	+8.1
	Labour	Paul Diggett	8,253	15.7	+3.3
	Referendum	Paul Brook	1,511	2.9
Majority			3,189	6.0
Turnout			52,463	77.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	-11.05

General election of 1992

General Election 1992: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stephen Day	32,504	58.2	+3.2
	Liberal Democrats	Patsy Calton	16,726	30.0	−5.9
	Labour	Sandra Broadhurst	6,442	11.5	+2.4
	Natural Law Party	Phillipa Whittle	168	0.3
Majority			15,778	28.2
Turnout			55,840	84.4	+3.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	+4.55

Elections in the 1980s

General election of 1987

General Election 1987: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stephen Day	30,484	55.0	−0.7
	Liberal	Brian Leah	19,853	35.9	−1.4
	Labour	Ann Coffey	5,037	9.1	+2.1
Majority			10,631	19.1
Turnout			55,374	81.0	+4.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election of 1983

The boundaries of the constituency changed in 1983. Changes in the vote are based on the estimated results for 1979 had the 1983 boundaries been in operation then.

General Election 1983: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tom Normanton	28,452	55.7	−4.5
	Liberal	Paul Clark	19,072	37.3	+9.0
	Labour	Kenneth Parker	3,553	7.0	−4.5
Majority			9,380	18.4
Turnout			51,077	76.8	−5.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election of 1979

General Election 1979: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tom Normanton	32,407	58.8	+9.6
	Liberal	David Austick	15,268	27.7	−7.8
	Labour	Frances Done	7,415	13.5	−1.8
Majority			17,139	31.1
Turnout			55,090	81.8	+1.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election of October 1974

General Election October 1974: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tom Normanton	25,863	49.2	−0.5
	Liberal	Christopher Green	18,687	35.5	−3.0
	Labour	Paul Castle	8,048	15.3	+3.4
Majority			7,176	13.7
Turnout			52,598	80.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election of February 1974

After the 1970 general election boundary changes created the Hazel Grove constituency which reduced the size of the Cheadle one. The previous Member of Parliament for Cheadle, Dr. Michael Winstanley became the first member returned by Hazel Grove.

General Election February 1974: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tom Normanton	27,556	49.7
	Liberal	Christopher Green	21,332	38.5	+2.3 (est.)
	Labour	Paul Castle	6,584	11.9
Majority			6,224	11.2
Turnout				85.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election of 1970

General Election 1970: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tom Normanton	39,728	46.3	+4.8
	Liberal	Michael Winstanley	37,974	44.2	+1.8
	Labour	Roger Stott	8,062	9.4	−6.8
Majority			1,754	2.0
Turnout				79.9
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election of 1966

General Election 1966: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Michael Winstanley	32,071	42.4	+7.8
	Conservative	William Shepherd	31,416	41.5	−5.3
	Labour	Sholto Moxley	12,244	16.2	−2.2
Majority			655	0.9
Turnout				82.4
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

General election of 1964

General Election 1964: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shepherd	33,911	46.8	−8.2
	Liberal	Roger Cuss	25,220	34.8	+8.8
	Labour	Sholto Moxley	13,379	18.4	−0.6
Majority			8,691	12.0
Turnout				83.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General election of 1959

General Election 1959: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shepherd	32,787	55.0	−7.3
	Liberal	Roger Cuss	15,469	26.0	+10.4
	Labour	Charles Morris	11,373	19.0	−3.1
Majority			17,318	29.0
Turnout				83.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election of 1955

General Election 1955: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shepherd	30,940	62.3	−0.3
	Labour	Harry Stone	10,966	22.1	−2.9
	Liberal	Ronald Palmer	7,756	15.6	+3.2
Majority			19,974	40.2
Turnout				80.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election of 1951

General Election 1951: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shepherd	32,369	62.6	+4.4
	Labour	Rev. Hatton Jones	12,910	25.0	−0.3
	Liberal	George Samways	6,388	12.4	−4.2
Majority			19,459	37.6
Turnout				85.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election of 1950

General Election 1950: Cheadle

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Shepherd	30,740	58.2
	Labour	Rev. Hatton Jones	13,389	25.3
	Liberal	George Samways	8,801	16.6
Majority			17,351	32.8
Turnout				88.9

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester

Sources

• Historic list of MPs
• Election result, 2005
• Election results, 1997 - 2001
• Election results, 1983 - 1992
• Election results, 1959 - 2001
• F.W.S. Craig. British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1973. ISBN 0-900178-07-8