Bedford (UK Parliament constituency)

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Bedford Borough constituency
Bedford shown within Bedfordshire, and Bedfordshire shown within England
Created:	1295, 1997
MP:	Patrick Hall
Party:	Labour
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Bedfordshire
EP constituency:	East of England

Bedford 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. It is a marginal seat between the Labour Party and the Conservatives.

Contents 1 Boundaries 1.1 Boundary review 2 Members of Parliament 2.1 1295-1660 2.2 1660-1885 2.3 1885-1983 2.4 1997-present 2.5 Notes 3 Election results 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Boundaries

The constituency covers the town of Bedford in Bedfordshire.

[edit] Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Bedfordshire, the Boundary Commission for England made only minor changes to each of the existing constituencies.

The new Bedford seat will be formed from electoral wards entirely within the borough of Bedford:

• Brickhill, Castle, Cauldwell, De Parys, Goldington, Harpur, Kempston East, Kempston North, Kempston South, Kingsbrook, Newnham, Putnoe, Queen’s Park.

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1295-1660

• Constituency created (1295)
• 1295: John Cullebere, Simon de Holand

[edit] 1660-1885

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1660	Sir Samuel Luke		Humphrey Winch
		1661	Richard Taylor		John Kelyng
		1663			Paulet St John
		1667	Sir William Beecher
		1679	Sir William Francklyn
		1685	Sir Anthony Chester, Bt		Thomas Christie
		1689	Thomas Hillersden
		1695			William Farrer
		March 1698	William Spencer
		July 1698			Sir Thomas Alston, Bt
		January 1701			Samuel Rolt
		November 1701			William Farrer
		1702			Edward Carteret
		1705	William Farrer		Sir Philip Monoux, Bt
		1707			William Hillersden
		1710			John Cater
		1713	Samuel Rolt
		1715	William Farrer		John Thurlow Brace
		1722			George Huxley
		1725			John Thurlow Brace
		1727	John Orlebar
		1728			James Metcalfe
		1731			Sir Jeremy Vanacker Sambrooke, Bt
		1734	Samuel Ongley
		1740			Sir Boteler Chernock, Bt
		1747	Thomas Gore		John Offley
		1754	Francis Herne		Robert Henley-Ongley
		1761			Richard Vernon	Whig
		1768	Samuel Whitbread	Tory
		1774	Sir William Wake, Bt		Robert Sparrow[1]
		1775			Samuel Whitbread	Tory
		1784	William MacDowall Colhoun	Whig
		1790			Samuel Whitbread	Whig
		1802	William Lee-Antonie
		1812	Lord George Russell
		1815			Hon. William Waldegrave
		1818			William Henry Whitbread
		1830	Frederick Polhill
		1832	Samuel Crawley
		1835			Frederick Polhill
		1837	Henry Stuart
		1838	Samuel Crawley
		1841	Henry Stuart
		1847			Sir Harry Verney, Bt
		1852			Samuel Whitbread
		1854	William Stuart
		1857	Thomas Barnard
		1859	William Stuart
		1868	James Howard
		1874	Frederick Charles Polhill-Turner
		1880	Charles Magniac

• Reduced to one member (1885)

[edit] 1885-1983

Year		Member	Party
	1885	Samuel Whitbread
	1895	Charles Guy Pym
	1906	Percy Barlow
	January 1910	Walter Annis Attenborough
	December 1910	Frederick George Kellaway	Liberal
	1922	Sir Sydney Richard Wells, Bt
	1945	Thomas Skeffington-Lodge	Labour
	1950	Christopher Soames	Conservative
	1966	Brian Parkyn	Labour
	1970	Trevor Skeet	Conservative

• Constituency abolished (1983)

[edit] 1997-present

• Constituency recreated (1997)

Year		Member	Party
	1997	Patrick Hall	Labour

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Unseated on petition; Whitbread declared elected

[edit] Election results

General Election 2005: Bedford
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Hall	17,557	41.7	−6.2
	Conservative	Richard Fuller	14,174	33.7	+0.9
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Headley	9,063	21.5	+5.7
	UK Independence	Peter Conquest	995	2.4	+1.3
	Independent	John McCready	283	0.7	N/A
Majority			3,383	8.0
Turnout			42,072	59.6	−0.3
	Labour hold		Swing	−3.5

General Election 2001: Bedford
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Hall	19,454	47.9	-2.7
	Conservative	Nicky Attenborough	13,297	32.8	-0.9
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Headley	6,425	15.8	+3.5
	Independent	Richard Rawlins	973	2.4	N/A
	UK Independence	Jennifer Lo Bianco	430	1.1	N/A
Majority			6,157	15.1
Turnout			40,579	59.9	-13.6
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1997: Bedford
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Hall	24,774	50.6	N/A
	Conservative	Robert Blackman	16,474	33.7	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Christopher Noyce	6,044	12.3	N/A
	Referendum Party	P. Conquest	1,503	3.1	N/A
	Natural Law	P. Saunders	149	0.3	N/A
Majority			8,300		N/A
Turnout				73.5	N/A
	Labour hold		Swing	N/A

[edit] See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Bedfordshire

[edit] References

• Beatson, Robert (1807). A chronological register of both houses of the British Parliament, Volume II. 
• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.

Constituencies in the East of England
Conservative	Billericay | Braintree | Brentwood and Ongar | Broxbourne | Bury St Edmunds | Castle Point | Central Suffolk and North Ipswich | Epping Forest | Harwich | Hemel Hempstead | Hertford and Stortford | Hertsmere | Hitchin and Harpenden | Huntingdon | Maldon and East Chelmsford | Mid Bedfordshire | Mid Norfolk | North Essex | North East Bedfordshire | North East Cambridgeshire | North East Hertfordshire | North West Cambridgeshire | North West Norfolk | Peterborough | Rayleigh | Rochford and Southend East | Saffron Walden | Southend West | South Cambridgeshire | South East Cambridgeshire | South Norfolk | South Suffolk | South West Bedfordshire | South West Hertfordshire | South West Norfolk | St Albans | Suffolk Coastal | Welwyn Hatfield | West Chelmsford | West Suffolk
Labour	Basildon | Bedford | Great Yarmouth | Harlow | Ipswich | Luton North | Luton South | Norwich North | Norwich South | Stevenage | Thurrock | Watford | Waveney
Liberal Democrat	Cambridge | Colchester | North Norfolk
East of England European constituency: Conservative (3) | UKIP (2) | Labour (1) | Liberal Democrats (1)