| Stratford-on-Avon | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1950 |
| Type: | County |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
| Year2: | 1885 |
| Abolished2: | 1918 |
| Type2: | County |
| Elects Howmany2: | One |
| Next2: | Tamworth, Rugby and Warwick & Leamington |
| Electorate: | 69,108 (December 2010)[1] |
| Region: | England |
Stratford-on-Avon is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Manuela Perteghella of the Liberal Democrats. The constituency is in Warwickshire; as its name suggests, it is centred on the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare, but also takes in the surrounding areas, including the towns of Alcester and Henley-in-Arden.
2024–present: The District of Stratford-on-Avon wards of: Alcester East; Alcester West; Bidford East; Bidford West; Brailes & Compton; Claverdon & Snitterfield; Henley-in-Arden; Kinwarton; Long Marston; Quinton; Salford Priors & Alcester Rural; Shipston North; Shipston South; Stratford Avenue; Stratford Bishopton; Stratford Clopton; Stratford Guildhall & Bridgetown; Stratford Hathaway; Stratford Orchard Hill; Stratford Shottery; Stratford Tiddington; Stratford Welcombe; Studley North; Studley South; Tanworth-in-Arden; Tredington; Tysoe (part); Welford-on-Avon; Wellesbourne East & Rural (small part); Wellesbourne North & Rural (small part); Wootton Wawen.[2]
2010–2024: The District of Stratford-on-Avon wards of Alcester, Aston Cantlow, Bardon, Bidford and Salford, Brailes, Claverdon, Ettington, Henley, Kinwarton, Long Compton, Quinton, Sambourne, Shipston, Snitterfield, Stratford Alveston, Stratford Avenue and New Town, Stratford Guild and Hathaway, Stratford Mount Pleasant, Studley, Tanworth, Tredington, Vale of the Red Horse, and Welford.
1997–2010: All the wards of the District of Stratford-on-Avon except the wards of Henley, Tanworth, and Tanworth Earlswood.
1983–1997: The District of Stratford-on-Avon.
1974–1983: As 1950 but with redrawn boundaries.
1950–1974: The Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Rural Districts of Stratford-on-Avon, Alcester, Shipston-on-Stour, and Southam.
1885–1918: The Boroughs of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick, and Leamington, the Sessional Divisions of Alcester, Brailes, Henley, Stratford, Snitterfield, and Warwick, and the part of the Sessional Division of Kenilworth in the Parliamentary Borough of Warwick and Leamington.
At the 2010 general election, following the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, this seat was reduced in size: a new constituency of Kenilworth and Southam was created, taking in much of the eastern half of the previous version of this constituency, along with parts of the abolished seat of Rugby and Kenilworth.
At the 2024 general election, following the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies the constituency underwent changes described as the following:
Minor changes to align boundaries with those of wards in the District of Stratford-on-Avon.
The constituency consists primarily of agricultural land with relatively widely spaced rural villages which are now predominantly inhabited by commuters, [3] with its boundaries taking in the historic town of Stratford-upon-Avon itself and the south and west of the Stratford-on-Avon local government district. It has been a Conservative seat since 1906.[4]
In May 2023, the Lib Dems gained majority control of the Stratford-on-Avon council for the first time in its history with a 15-seat gain. That compared with the Conservatives, who not only lost their majority but dropped 14 of their seats. On the doorstep, campaigners said issues around the town's Conservative MP came up repeatedly. [5]
After Stratford itself the next largest settlements in the constituency are Studley and Alcester each with just under 5,000 electors.
Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.4% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.[6]
Stratford-on-Avon was first created in 1885 out of the South Warwickshire constituency. It was competitive between the Conservative and Liberal parties, and was abolished in 1918 to be divided between the Warwick and Leamington and Rugby constituencies.
Stratford-on-Avon was reestablished as a constituency in 1950. From its recreation until 2024, the seat elected only Conservative MPs. The earliest member, John Profumo, resigned in 1963 following a scandal involving his extramarital affair; he was followed by Angus Maude from 1963 to 1983. In 1983, Alan Howarth was elected; he crossed the floor in 1995 to serve as a Labour Party MP and moved to the Labour-leaning Newport East constituency for the 1997 general election. Howarth was succeeded by John Maples from 1997 to 2010, followed by Nadhim Zahawi from 2010 to 2024; Zahawi served as Chancellor of the Exchequer for three months in 2022. In the 2024 United Kingdom general election, Zahawi stood down,[7] [8] with Chris Clarkson replacing him as the Conservative candidate for the constituency; he was, at that time, was the MP for the Heywood and Middleton seat. Clarkson would eventually be unsuccessful, with the seat being taken by the Liberal Democrat Manuela Perteghella.
With the exception of a relatively close 1963 by-election, the constituency always returned majorities of over 20% for the Conservatives between 1950 and 2024. Up until 1970, Labour always came second and the Liberals (when they stood) third; and the Liberal/Liberal Democratic parties came second and Labour third in every subsequent general election until 2010. The only occasion on which any other party has been in the top three (or managed to save their deposit) was in 2015, when UKIP came second with just over 13% of the vote. Since then, Labour has come second in 2017, and the Liberal Democrats in 2019.
| Election | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1885 | Lord William Compton | Liberal | ||
| 1886 | Frederick Townsend | Conservative | ||
| 1892 | Algernon Freeman-Mitford | Conservative | ||
| 1895 | Victor Milward | Conservative | ||
| 1901 by-election | Philip Foster | Conservative | ||
| 1906 | Thomas Kincaid-Smith | Liberal | ||
| 1909 by-election | Philip Foster | Conservative | ||
| 1918 | Constituency abolished | |||
| Election | Member | Party | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | John Profumo | Conservative | Secretary of State for War 1960–63; resigned | ||
| 1963 by-election | Angus Maude | Conservative | |||
| 1983 | Alan Howarth | Conservative | |||
| 1995 | Labour | ||||
| 1997 | John Maples | Conservative | Previously MP for Lewisham West 1983–92 | ||
| 2010 | Nadhim Zahawi | Conservative | Chancellor of the Exchequer July–September 2022 | ||
| 2024 | Manuela Perteghella | Liberal Democrats | |||
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;