Much of the city of Chester itself is residential of varying characteristics, with more middle-class areas such as Upton and the large rural former council estate of Blacon which is, except where purchased under the right to buy; owned and managed by the local housing association, Chester And District Housing Trust.[3]
Boundary review
1918-1950: The County Borough of Chester, the Urban District of Hoole, and the Rural District of Chester.
1950-1974: As prior but with redrawn boundaries.
1974-1983: The County Borough of Chester, and the Rural District of Chester. Hoole Urban District had been absorbed by the County Borough of Chester in 1954, but the constituency boundaries remained unchanged.
1983-1997: The City of Chester wards of Blacon Hall, Boughton, Boughton Heath, Christleton, College, Curzon, Dee Point, Dodleston, Grosvenor, Hoole, Newton, Plas Newton, Sealand, Upton Grange, Upton Heath, Vicars Cross, and Westminster.
1997-2010: The City of Chester wards of Blacon Hall, Boughton, Boughton Heath, Christledon, College, Curzon, Dee Point, Dodleston, Grosvenor, Hoole, Mollington, Newton, Plas Newton, Saughall, Sealand, Upton Grange, Upton Heath, Vicars Cross, and Westminster.
2010-present: The City of Chester wards of Blacon Hall, Blacon Lodge, Boughton, Boughton Heath, Christleton, City and St Anne's, College, Curzon and Westminster, Dodleston, Handbridge and St Mary's, Hoole All Saints, Hoole Groves, Huntington, Lache Park, Mollington, Newton Brook, Newton St Michael's, Saughall, Upton Grange, Upton Westlea, and Vicars Cross.
History
Pre 1918
As part of a county palatine with a parliament of its own until the early-sixteenth century, Chester was not enfranchised (sent no MPs) until an Act of 1543 since which it returned two MPs to Parliament as a parliamentary borough until the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 was passed; when the representation was reduced to one MP. For most of the nineteenth century, the seat was held by the Whigs and (later) the Liberals until 1900 when results were initially in line with the landslide victories of the first decade of the century and then more marginal.
Since 1918
From 1910-1997, Chester returned Conservative Party MPs. At most elections, majorities were in relative terms medium but the party's MPs won marginal majorities at the 1929 general election over the Liberal candidate (when the Labour Party formed a minority government) and at the 1992 general election over the Labour candidate, when the Conservatives had a small parliamentary majority.
Christine Russell of the Labour Party gained the seat easily at the 1997 general election after 87 years of Conservative control, and retained it until 2010. Her majority over the Conservatives had been reduced to under 1,000 votes at the 2005 general election.[n 3]
Stephen Mosley of the Conservatives gained the seat from Labour at the 2010 general election. However, Mosley narrowly lost his seat five years later to Chris Matheson of the Labour Party in 2015 by 93 votes. The 2015 general election result gave the constituency the most marginal majority (0.2%) of Labour's 232 seats won that year.[4] Matheson was re-elected at the 2017 general election, with a significantly increased majority of 9,176 votes, it was one the largest swings to Labour in the election and is no longer considered a marginal seat. At 56.8% it is the highest share of the vote that Labour has ever had in the constituency.
^Four of the six candidates at the 2010 general election had contested the seat previously; Christine Russell (1997, 2001, 2005); Allan Weddell (2001, 2005); Ed Abrahms (2005) and Tom Barker (1992). All candidates had contested at least one election for local authorities for wards inside the constituency. The Liberal Democrats including their two predecessor parties amassed their largest share of the vote in 2005 at 21.9% of the vote.
^ abcdeCraig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN0-900178-06-X.