Aberavon (

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

: ''Aberafan'') is a constituency represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

since 2015 by Stephen Kinnock of the

Welsh Labour Party Welsh Labour ( cy, Llafur Cymru) is the branch of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears won a plurality of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 192 ...

. It includes the town of

Aberavon Aberavon ( cy, Aberafan) is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a distr ...

, although the largest town in the constituency is

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...

History

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election by the dividing of the Swansea District. With the exception of the first term, it has always been held by the Labour Party. Ramsay MacDonald, who became Labour's first

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

in 1924, held the seat from 1922 to 1929. Its current MP, Stephen Kinnock, is the son of

Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...

, who was Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1992. It is one of the most consistently safe seats for Labour; since the end of the Second World War, the Labour candidate has always won Aberavon with a majority at least 33%, and with the exception of 2015, the Labour candidate has also always won an overall majority of the vote in the seat. In 2015, Kinnock only won 48.9% of the vote in Aberavon, against a surge in the vote for the

UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest p ...

candidate; however, in 2017, Kinnock's vote share rose by 19.2 percentage points, the biggest increase in the Labour vote in the seat's history, and his majority increased to 50.4%, the highest for an Aberavon MP since 2001. The 2017 result also made Aberavon the safest Labour seat in Wales, however the seat saw a significant swing against Labour in 2019.

Boundaries

1918–1950: The Borough of Aberavon, the Urban Districts of Briton Ferry, Glencorwg, Margam, and Porthcawl, and part of the Rural Districts of Neath and Penybont. 1950–1983: The Borough of Port Talbot, the Urban Districts of Glyncorrwg and Porthcawl, and part of the Rural District of Penybont. 1983–1997: The Borough of Afan, and the Borough of Neath wards nos. 3 and 6. 1997–2010: The Borough of Port Talbot, and the Borough of Neath wards of Briton Ferry East, Briton Ferry West, Coedffranc Central, Coedffranc North and Coedffranc West. 2010–present: The Neath Port Talbot County Borough electoral divisions of Aberavon, Baglan, Briton Ferry East, Briton Ferry West, Bryn and Cwmavon, Coedffranc Central, Coedffranc North, Coedffranc West, Cymmer, Glyncorrwg, Gwynfi, Margam, Port Talbot, Sandfields East, Sandfields West, and Tai-bach. The constituency is in South Wales, situated on the right bank of the

River Afan , name_etymology = , image = The_Afon_Afan,_Cymmer_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1001060.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = The Afan near Cymmer , map = , map_size = , map_caption ...

, near its mouth in

Swansea Bay Swansea Bay ( cy, Bae Abertawe) is a bay on the southern coast of Wales. The River Neath, River Tawe, River Afan, River Kenfig and Clyne River flow into the bay. Swansea Bay and the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel experience a large tid ...

. Commenting on the 1983 boundary changes to the constituency when moving the 2000 Loyal Address of the Blair Government in Parliament, the seat's then-MP

Sir John Morris Sir John Morris, 1st Baronet (15 July 1745 – 25 June 1819), was a British industrialist, active in copper-smelting and coal-mining in Swansea, South Wales. Biography Early life John Morris was born on 15 July 1745. He was the son of Robert Mor ...

, who would retire at the next general election, said:

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

*Jones withdrew in favour of Edwards on 13 December 1918.

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 2010s

Of the 44 rejected ballots: *29 were either unmarked or it was uncertain who the vote was for. *14 voted for more than one candidate. *1 had writing or mark by which the voter could be identified. Official portrait of Stephen Kinnock MP crop 2

Official portrait of Stephen Kinnock MP crop 2

Of the 57 rejected ballots: *37 were either unmarked or it was uncertain who the vote was for. *20 voted for more than one candidate. Of the 57 rejected ballots: *41 were either unmarked or it was uncertain who the vote was for. *16 voted for more than one candidate. Of the 82 rejected ballots: *61 were either unmarked or it was uncertain who the vote was for. *19 voted for more than one candidate. *2 had writing or mark by which the voter could be identified.

References

External links

Politics Resources
(election results from 1922 onwards)

(election results from 1955 onwards)
2017 Election
House Of Commons Library 2017 Election report
A Vision Of Britain Through Time
(constituency elector numbers)