| Mansfield | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1885 |
| Type: | County |
| Electorate: | 74,680 (2023)[1] |
| Region: | England |
| European: | East Midlands |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
Mansfield is a constituency created in 1885 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Steve Yemm of the Labour Party, who gained the seat at the 2024 general election, from the Conservative Party. Between 2017 and 2024 the seat was represented by a Conservative for the first and only time since its creation in 1885.
The seat, centred on Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, in recent times has been considered a relatively marginal seat.[2] [3]
The Mansfield council area voted with more than 70% to Leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. In 2019, the Conservatives received 63.9% of the vote in the formerly safe Labour constituency.
1885–1918: The sessional division of Mansfield (except the parishes of Clipstone, Sookholme and Warsop), and the parishes of Annesley, Eastwood, Felley and Greasley in the sessional division of Nottingham.[4]
1918–1950: The municipal borough of Mansfield, the urban district of Huthwaite, Mansfield Woodhouse, and Sutton-in-Ashfield, and the rural district of Skegby (except the parish of Sookholme).[5]
1950–1955: The municipal borough of Mansfield and the urban district of Sutton in Ashfield.[6]
1955–1983: The municipal borough of Mansfield and the urban districts of Mansfield Woodhouse and Warsop.[7]
1983–2010: The Berry Hill, Broomhill, Cumberlands, Eakring, Forest Town, Ladybrook, Leeming, Lindhurst, Manor, Northfield, Oakham, Oak Tree, Pleasleyhill, Ravensdale, Sherwood and Titchfield wards of the District of Mansfield.[8]
2010–2024: The District of Mansfield.[9]
The Boundary Commission for England made changes to the constituency to allow for regional and local population changes by moving the small town of Market Warsop from Bassetlaw. The boundaries since the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies (coming into effect for the 2010 general election) were coterminous with the Borough of Mansfield.
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the size of the constituency was reduced slightly to bring the electorate within the permitted electoral range by transferring the Bull Farm and Pleasley Hill ward and polling district BHC in the Berry Hill ward (as they existed on 1 December 2020) to Ashfield.[10]
Following a local government boundary review in which came into effect in May 2023,[11] [12] the constituency now comprises the following wards of the Borough of Mansfield from the 2024 general election:
The constituency covers the towns of Mansfield and Warsop, Nottinghamshire.
The seat was created in the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 and in the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century its economy centred on coal mining and the market town itself. Among many classes of local labourers saw organised Labour Party support, in Trade Unions, party clubs and civic society. Progression in the party's polling was heightened from the early 1920s when the seat joined many wrested from the Liberal Party, enabling the formation of the first Labour government. By length of tenure and in great majorities a safe seat status emerged for Labour (on the basis of these standard criteria) in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1980s general elections Labour's Mansfield candidates came closer to losing to Conservatives. At the 1983 election, Labour held the seat by just over 2,000 votes – at the following, in 1987, 56 votes. That election was set against the background of the party HQ-backed miners' strike of 1984, not supported by the majority of miners in Nottinghamshire.
In the elections after 1987 until 2017, the Labour MP Alan Meale held Mansfield with relatively large majorities. He was knighted in 2012 after receiving the award in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.[14]
At the 2005 general election, independent candidate Stewart Rickersey, a local District Councillor, took 17% of the vote, finishing in third place.
At the 2010 general election, Andre Camilleri, another candidate from Mansfield Independent Forum and previously a local councillor with special responsibility as a Cabinet Member for Mansfield District Council during 2003 to 2007, was placed fourth with 9% of the vote, above the 5% deposit threshold.
At the 2015 general election, the UKIP candidate Sid Pepper received 25% of the vote placing him third; this dropped to 5% at the 2017 election.
At the 2019 general election, Ben Bradley held Mansfield with a 16,306 majority, the highest ever for a Conservative candidate.
At the 2024 general election, Steve Yemm gained the seat for the Labour Party.
North Nottinghamshire prior to 1885
General Election 1914–15:
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 July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
Arthur Turnbull was supported by Horatio Bottomley