Bridgwater (UK Parliament constituency)

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Bridgwater County constituency
Bridgwater shown within Somerset, and Somerset shown within England
Created:	1295, 1885
MP:	Ian Liddell-Grainger
Party:	Conservative
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Somerset
EP constituency:	South West England

Bridgwater is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Contents 1 Boundaries 1.1 Boundary review 2 History 3 Member of Parliament 4 Elections 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Boundaries

The seat is based on the market town of Bridgwater in Somerset and currently incorporates significant portions of the surrounding north Somerset coast.

[edit] Boundary review

Following its review of parliamentary representation in Somerset, the Boundary Commission for England has finalised the proposals which expands the existing Bridgwater seat into a new Bridgwater and West Somerset division.

[edit] History

Bridgwater is one of the oldest Parliamentary Constituencies in the House of Commons, having elected Members of Parliament since 1295.

The original borough constituency was disenfranchised for corruption in 1870. From 4 July 1870 the town was incorporated within the county constituency of West Somerset.

When there was a redistribution of Parliamentary seats to take effect at the 1885 general election, a new county division of Bridgwater was created.

Bridgwater has traditionally had a radical tradition, though in recent years this has become less noticeable in election results as the constituency has expanded considerably beyond Bridgwater town itself.

The seat received particular fame in late 1938 when a by-election took place in the aftermath of the signing of the Munich Agreement. Opponnents of the agreement persuaded the local Labour and Liberal parties to not field candidates of their own against the Conservative candidate, but to instead jointly back an independent standing on a platform of opposition to the Government's foreign policy, in the hope that this would be the precursor to the formation of a more general Popular Front of opposition to the government of Neville Chamberlain in anticipation of the General Election due in either 1939 or 1940. The noted journalist Vernon Bartlett stood as the independent Popular Front candidate and achieved a sensational victory in what was hitherto a Conservative seat. He represented the constituency for the next twelve years.

In 1970 another by-election in the constituency achieved fame as it was the first occasion when 18, 19 and 20 year olds were able to vote in the UK Parliamentary election. The first under-21 year old to cast a vote was Susan Wallace. The by-election was won by the future Conservative Cabinet Minister Tom King who held the seat for the next thirty-one years. The Conservatives have continued to hold the seat to this day.

[edit] Member of Parliament

• Constituency created (1295)
• 1640: Edmund Wyndham
• 1640: (Short Parliament) Admiral Robert Blake
• 1653: (Barebones Parliament) Admiral Robert Blake
• 1661 — 1669: John Tynte
• 1768 — 1785: Anne Poulett

• Members from (1832)

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1832	William Tayleur	Liberal	Charles Kemys Kemys Tynte	Liberal
		1835	John Temple Leader	Liberal
		1837	Henry Broadwood	Conservative
		1837			Philip Courtenay	Conservative
		1841			Thomas Seaton Forman	Conservative
		1847			Charles John Kemys Tynte	Liberal
		1852	Brent Spencer Follett	Conservative
		1857	Alexander William Kinglake 2	Liberal
		1865			Henry Westropp 1	Conservative
		1866			George Patton	Conservative
		1866			Philip Vanderbyl 2	Liberal

• Borough constituency abolished (1870) - see West Somerset

• County division created (1885)

Year		Member	Party
	1885 — 1906	Edward James Stanley	Conservative
	1906 — 1910	Henry Greville Montgomery	Liberal
	1910 — 1918	Rt Hon. Sir Robert Arthur Sanders, Bt, later Baron Bayford	Conservative
	1918 — 1922		Coalition Conservative
	1922 — 1923		Conservative
	1923 — 1924	William Ewart Morse	Liberal
	1924 — 1929	Brooks Crompton Wood	Conservative
	1929 — 1938	Reginald Powell Croom-Johnson 3	Conservative
	1938 — 1950	Charles Vernon Oldfield Bartlett 4	Independent Progressive
	1950 — 1969	Sir Gerald Wills 5	Conservative
	1970 — 2001	Rt Hon. Thomas Jeremy King, later Baron King of Bridgwater	Conservative
	2001 — present	Ian Liddell-Grainger	Conservative
next election		constituency abolished: see Bridgwater and West Somerset

Notes:-

• ¹ Election of Westropp declared void.
• ² Election of Kinglake and Vanderbyl in 1868 declared void. The writ (of election) was suspended and a Royal Commission was appointed, which reported that it had found proof of extensive bribery.
• ³ Croom-Johnson vacated his seat on appointment as a Justice of the High Court.
• ⁴ Bartlett contested the 1938 by-election with the support of the local Labour and Liberal Associations, standing on a Popular Front and anti-appeasement programme. He was associated with the Common Wealth Movement in 1942, but resigned from its National Committee after two months. He contested the 1945 election as an Independent.
• ⁵ Wills died in office.

[edit] Elections

The Member of Parliament since the 2001 general election is Ian Liddell-Grainger of the Conservative Party. He succeeded the retiring Tom King who had represented the seat since a by-election in 1970.

General Election 2005: Bridgwater
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ian Liddell-Grainger	21,240	44.1	+3.7
	Labour	Matthew Burchell	12,771	26.5	−0.3
	Liberal Democrats	James Main	10,940	22.7	−7.3
	UK Independence	Ray Weinstein	1,767	3.7	+0.9
	Green	Charlie Graham	1,391	2.9	N/A
Majority			8,469	17.6
Turnout			48,109	63.5	−0.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	+2.0

General Election 2001: Bridgwater
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ian Liddell-Grainger	19,354	40.4	+3.5
	Liberal Democrats	Ian Thorn	14,367	30.0	-3.6
	Labour	Bill Monteith	12,803	26.8	+2.0
	UK Independence	Victoria Gardner	1,323	2.8	N/A
Majority			4,987	10.4
Turnout			47,847	64.4	-10.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

[edit] See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Somerset

[edit] References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press, revised edition 1977)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1973, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1983)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume I 1832-1885, edited by M. Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume II 1886-1918, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1978)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume III 1919-1945, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1979)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume IV 1945-1979, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1981)

Constituencies in South West England
Conservative	Bournemouth East | Bournemouth West | Bridgwater | Christchurch | Cotswold | Devizes | East Devon | Forest of Dean | North Dorset | North Wiltshire | Poole | Salisbury | South West Devon | Tewkesbury | Tiverton and Honiton | Torridge and West Devon | Totnes | Wells | West Dorset | Westbury | Weston-super-Mare | Woodspring
Liberal Democrat	Bath | Bristol West | Cheltenham | Falmouth and Camborne | Mid Dorset and North Poole | North Cornwall | North Devon | Northavon | Somerton and Frome | South East Cornwall | St Ives | Taunton | Teignbridge | Torbay | Truro and St Austell | Yeovil
Labour	Bristol East | Bristol North West | Bristol South | Exeter | Gloucester | Kingswood | North Swindon | Plymouth Devonport | Plymouth Sutton | South Dorset | South Swindon | Stroud | Wansdyke
South West European constituency: Conservative (3) | UKIP (2) | Liberal Democrats (1) | Labour (1)