Parliamentary constituencies in South West England
The region[1] of South West England has, since the 2010 general election, 55 parliamentary constituencies which is made up of 15 Borough Constituencies and 40 County Constituencies. At that election the Conservative Party held the largest number of constituencies, with 36. The Liberal Democrats had 15 and Labour had 4. At the 2015 general election the Liberal Democrats lost all of their seats (14 to the Conservatives and one to Labour), while the Conservatives gained one seat from Labour, leaving the Conservatives with 51 and Labour with 4. In the 2017 general election, the Conservatives remained, by far, the largest party with 47 seats, though losing three to Labour, who won 7, and one to the Liberal Democrats, who won 1. In the 2019 general election,[2] the Conservatives increased their number of seats to 48 by regaining Stroud from Labour, who held their other six seats, while the Liberal Democrats retained their sole seat in Bath.
Constituencies
† Conservative ‡ Labour ¤ Liberal Democrat ♣ Green Party # Independent
Proposed boundary changes
The Boundary Commission for England submitted their final proposals in respect of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies (the 2018 review) in September 2018. Although the proposals were immediately laid before Parliament they were not brought forward by the Government for approval. Accordingly, they did not come into effect for the 2019 election which took place on 12 December 2019, and which was contested using the constituency boundaries in place since 2010.
Under the terms of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, the Sixth Review was based on reducing the total number of MPs from 650 to 600 and a strict electoral parity requirement that the electorate of all constituencies should be within a range of 5% either side of the electoral quota.
On 24 March 2020, the Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, Chloe Smith, issued a written statement to Parliament setting out the Government's thinking with regard to parliamentary boundaries.[5] Subsequently, the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020[6] was passed into law on 14 December 2020. This formally removed the duty to implement the 2018 review and set out the framework for future boundary reviews. The Act provided that the number of constituencies should remain at the current level of 650, rather than being reduced to 600, while retaining the requirement that the electorate should be no more than +/- 5% from the electoral quota.
The Act specified that the next review should be completed no later than 1 July 2023 and the Boundary Commission formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021.[7] The Commission have calculated that the number of seats to be allocated to the South West region will increase by 3, from 55 to 58.[8]
See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.
Results history
Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019[9]
2019
The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising the South West region in the 2019 general election were as follows:
| Party | Votes | % | Change from 2017 | Seats | Change from 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 1,612,090 | 52.8% |  1.4%
|
48 | 1
|
| Labour | 713,226 | 23.3% |  5.8%
|
6 | 1
|
| Liberal Democrats | 554,500 | 18.2% | 3.3%
|
1 | 0 |
| Greens | 115,011 | 3.8% | 1.5%
|
0 | 0 |
| Brexit | 11,139 | 0.4% | new | 0 | 0 |
| Others | 47,411 | 1.5% | 0.8%
|
0 | 0 |
| Total | 3,053,377 | 100.0 | 55 |
Percentage votes
Key:
CON - Conservative Party, including National Liberal Party up to 1966
LAB - Labour Party
LIB - Liberal Party up to 1979; SDP-Liberal Alliance 1983 & 1987; Liberal Democrats from 1992
UKIP/Br - UK Independence Party 2010 to 2017 (included in Other up to 2005 and in 2019); Brexit Party in 2019
Green - Green Party of England and Wales (included in Other up to 2005)
Seats
Key:
CON - Conservative Party, including National Liberal Party up to 1966
LAB - Labour Party
LIB - Liberal Party up to 1979; SDP-Liberal Alliance 1983 & 1987; Liberal Democrats from 1992
OTH - 1945 - (1) Independent Progressive (Vernon Bartlett); (2) Independent National (Daniel Lipson)
Former constituencies
Abolished in 2010
- Bridgwater → Bridgwater and West Somerset
- Falmouth and Camborne → Camborne and Redruth, Truro and Falmouth
- Northavon → Thornbury and Yate, Filton and Bradley Stoke
- Plymouth Devonport → Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, Plymouth Moor View
- Plymouth Sutton → Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, Plymouth Moor View
- Taunton → Taunton Deane
- Teignbridge → Newton Abbot, Central Devon
- Truro and St Austell → Truro and Falmouth, St Austell and Newquay
- Wansdyke → North East Somerset
- Westbury → South West Wiltshire, Chippenham
- Woodspring → North Somerset
Abolished in 1997
- Cirencester and Tewkesbury → Cotswold, Tewkesbury
- Plymouth Drake → Plymouth Sutton
- Swindon → North Swindon, South Swindon
- West Gloucestershire → Forest of Dean, Tewkesbury
See also
- List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Avon
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Cornwall
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Devon
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Dorset
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Gloucestershire
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Somerset
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Wiltshire
Notes
References
- ^ See NUTS 1 statistical regions of England
- ^ "Results of the 2019 General Election". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
- ^ Baker, Carl; Uberoi, Elise; Cracknell, Richard (2020-01-28). "General Election 2019: full results and analysis".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ a b c "Constituencies A-Z - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
- ^ "Update: Strengthening Democracy:Written statement - HCWS183". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
- ^ "Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "2023 Review launched | Boundary Commission for England". Retrieved 2021-01-08.
- ^ "2023 Review | Boundary Commission for England". Retrieved 2021-01-08.
- ^ Watson, Christopher; Uberoi, Elise; Loft, Philip (2020-04-17). "General election results from 1918 to 2019".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help)