The seat was created for the Model Parliament and sent members until at least 1331 until a new (possibly confirmatory) grant of two members to Westminster followed. From 1529 extending unusually beyond the 19th century until the 1950 general election the seat had two-member representation. Party divisions tended to run stronger after 1931 before which two different parties' candidates frequently came first and second at elections under the bloc vote system.
In 1929 recently elected Liberal, Sir William Jowitt decided to join the Labour Party and called for a by-election (which implies a single vacancy) to support this change of party which he won to take up for two years the position of Attorney General of England and Wales as part of the Government. He became the highest judge during the Attlee Ministry, the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and Speaker of the House of Lords under a then hereditary-dominated House leading to a Conservative majority. Consequently, he was selected to be elevated to a peerage as 1st Earl Jowitt. With no sons he was to be the last Earl and wrote the Dictionary of English Law.
1983-present
The representatives since the seat's revival after 33 years of being split between (larger area) North and South seats have all been members of the Labour Party.
The member from 1987-2000 was Audrey Wise, a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and reformer of maternity healthcare in opposition on the Select Committee.
Boundaries
1983-1997: The Borough of Preston wards of Ashton, Avenham, Brookfield, Central, Deepdale, Fishwick, Ingol, Larches, Moorbrook, Park, Ribbleton, St John's, St Matthew's, and Tulketh.
1997-2010: The Borough of Preston wards of Ashton, Avenham, Brookfield, Central, Deepdale, Fishwick, Larches, Moor Park, Ribbleton, Riversway, St Matthew’s, and Tulketh, and the Borough of South Ribble wards of Bamber Bridge Central, Bamber Bridge South, and Walton-le-Dale.
2010-present: The City of Preston wards of Ashton, Brookfield, Deepdale, Fishwick, Ingol, Larches, Moor Park, Ribbleton, Riversway, St George’s, St Matthew’s, Town Centre, Tulketh, and University.
In the late 19th Century the boundaries of the two-member Preston constituency were described as comprising:[2]
...[T]he old Borough of Preston, the township of Fishwick, so much of the Municipal Borough as is not included in the Parliamentary Borough, the Local Government District of Fulwood, and so much of the parishes of Lea, Ashton, Ingol, and Cotham {sic}, and Penwortham, as will be added to the Municipal Borough of Preston on June 1st, 1889
County borough of Preston and urban district of Fulwood:[3]
The single seat of Preston formed from 1918 until 1949 was created by the County Borough of Preston and Urban District of Fulwood. From the general election of 1950 to the 1983 Preston was divided into the constituencies of Preston North and Preston South. In time for the 1983 general election, the boundaries on which the current seat is drawn were confirmed. The northern, Fulwood area, was divided between Fylde and Ribble Valley.
Changes for 2010
The ward of Lea is within the constituency of Fylde.
Representatives have sat in Parliament for Preston for nearly 800 years, the first recorded names being Willielmus fil’ Pauli and Adam Russel. Prior to being reformed as "Preston" in 1983, the former Preston North and Preston South seats were amongst the most marginal in the country - in 1979, Conservative Robert Atkins won Preston North by 29 votes.
With the suburban, middle class former Fulwood Urban District area within Ribble Valley (and from 2010 Wyre and Preston North), the southern portion has awarded MPs with much healthier and secure majorities. Almost all of Preston's representatives from 1915 to 1950, and since its recreation as a single constituency in 1983, have been Labour candidates.
Between 1918 and 1949, the two-seat constituency of Preston was formed by the County Borough of Preston and the Urban District of Fulwood. In 1997, Audrey Wise secured a majority of over 18,000. The collapse of the Conservative vote - 10 percentage points down from 1992 - was firmly with the pattern of the Tory fortunes in that year.
Less than a year later, the 2001 general election returned Mark Hendrick with a much healthier 12,200 majority, up against South Ribble councillor Graham O'Hare for the Conservatives and the then local Liberal Democrat leader Bill Chadwick. In real terms, all three main parties lost support from 1997 - Labour down by over 8,000 votes, Conservatives reduced by over 2,200 and LibDems 2,300 lower. One notable candidate in 2001 was David Braid, also a candidate in a number of other seats that year, who had been the "Battle for Britain" candidate in the previous year's by-election.
The 2005 general election was notable for the changes in share of the vote of the minor parties. The first ever Respect candidate, local councillor Michael Lavalette, firmly saved his deposit with nearly 7% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats had chosen former Conservative County Councillor William Parkinson, and had their best result since 1997. Fiona Bryce for the Conservatives, remained in second place seeing her share of the vote remain stable despite the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) polling over 1,000 votes. Mark Hendrick secured another term as MP, although his vote total was 3,000 less than 2001 and 12,000 less than Audrey Wise in 1997.
Labour continued to represent Preston at the United Kingdom general election, 2010 with Mark Hendrick securing less than 50% of the votes cast, the first time this has occurred at a Preston election since 1983. For the first time since their formation the Liberal Democrats finished in second, with the Conservatives in third. At the following election in 2015, Labour held the seat with an increased majority, with the Conservatives securing second and the UK Independence Party placed third.
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
^Chicheley was also elected for Cambridge, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Preston
^On petition, Leicester and Standish were adjudged not to have been duly elected and their opponents, Burgoyne and Hoghton, were declared to have been duly elected in their place
^Major-General from 1772, Lieutenant-General from 1777
^Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
^Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
^Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
^Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1886
Sources
Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [2]
D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [3]
The Constitutional Year Book for 1913 (London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1913)
F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949 (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
Thomas Shaw
