| North Shropshire | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1983 |
| Type: | County |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
| Previous: | Oswestry and Wrekin[1] |
| Year2: | 1832 |
| Abolished2: | 1885 |
| Elects Howmany2: | Two |
| Next2: | Oswestry Wellington Newport |
| Electorate: | 77,052 (2023)[2] |
| Region: | England |
| Party: | Liberal Democrats (UK) |
North Shropshire is a constituency in the county of Shropshire, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Helen Morgan of the Liberal Democrats after a by-election on 16 December 2021. The former MP, Owen Paterson of the Conservatives, resigned his seat on 5 November 2021 when faced with suspension from the Commons for a breach of advocacy rules and the consequent possibility of a recall petition. The seat had previously been a safe seat for the Conservatives.
1832–1885: The Hundreds of Oswestry, Pimhill, North Bradford and South Bradford, as well as the Liberty of Shrewsbury.[3]
1983–1997: The District of North Shropshire, the Borough of Oswestry, and the District of The Wrekin wards of Church Aston, Edgmond, Ercall Magna, Newport East, Newport North, and Newport West.
1997–2024: The District of North Shropshire and the Borough of Oswestry.
2024–present: The County of Shropshire electoral districts of: Ellesmere Urban; Gobowen, Selattyn and Weston Rhyn; Llanymynech; Market Drayton East; Market Drayton West; Oswestry East; Oswestry South; Oswestry West; Prees; Ruyton and Baschurch; St. Martin’s; St. Oswald; Shawbury; The Meres; Wem; Whitchurch North; Whitchurch South; Whittington.[4]
The boundaries will be reduced to bring the electorate within the permitted range by transferring the electoral districts of Cheswardine and Hodnet to The Wrekin.
The district councils of North Shropshire and Oswestry were abolished in 2009, but the constituency boundaries remained unaltered.
The area is rural and north of Shrewsbury, west of Newcastle-under-Lyme in the Stoke-on-Trent conurbation, south of Cheshire and Wrexham, having five small towns (in size order): Oswestry, Market Drayton, Whitchurch, Wem and Ellesmere. Residents' health and wealth are similar to UK averages.[5]
From its first creation in 1832 to the abolition of the first creation in 1885 the constituency covered approximately half of the county and elected two members, formally Knights of the Shire. In 1885 the county was (together with South Shropshire) divided between four constituencies: Ludlow, Newport, Oswestry and Wellington.
In 1983 the constituency was revived in a smaller form and elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Owen Paterson was appointed to be the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in May 2010 and from the September 2012 Cabinet reshuffle, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,[6] until another reshuffle in June 2014. Paterson resigned in November 2021 for breaching Commons lobbying rules while working for two firms as a consultant.[7] A by-election was held on 16 December 2021, triggered by the resignation and was won by Helen Morgan for the Liberal Democrats with a 34% swing. The swing was seventh largest in United Kingdom by-election history.[8]
In December 2023, the Labour Party included the seat in its published list of 211 non-battleground seats, indicating they did not see it as necessary to win in order to gain a majority.[9]
| Election | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1832 | Sir Rowland Hill, Bt | [10] [11] [12] | John Cotes | ||||
| 1834 | |||||||
| 1835 | William Ormsby-Gore | ||||||
| 1843 by-election | Viscount Clive | ||||||
| 1848 by-election | John Whitehall Dod | ||||||
| 1857 | Hon. Rowland Hill | ||||||
| 1859 | John Ormsby-Gore | ||||||
| 1865 | Hon. Charles Cust | ||||||
| 1866 by-election | Hon. Adelbert Brownlow-Cust | ||||||
| 1867 by-election | Viscount Newport | ||||||
| 1876 by-election | Stanley Leighton | ||||||
| 1885 | Constituency abolished | ||||||
Oswestry and Wrekin prior to 1983
| Election | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | John Biffen | |||
| 1997 | Owen Paterson | |||
| 2021 by-election | Helen Morgan | |||
Class War originally selected Al Derby as a candidate here, but he changed to Wolverhampton North East.[13]