Bradford West is a
constituency
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...
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. ...
of the
UK Parliament
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 supremac ...
since
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
by
Naz Shah
Naseem Shah (; born 13 November 1973) is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected at the 2015 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West, winning the seat from George Galloway of the Respect Party. She has se ...
of the
Labour Party.
Constituency profile
Bradford West covers the city centre, Manningham, Allerton and Clayton. It has a significant
Pakistani population and a majority of Muslim voters.
History
Before 1974, the
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
and
Conservative Parties
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative Pa ...
held the seat marginally in various years, since which time the
Labour Party always won the seat, with the exception of the
2012 Bradford West by-election
The Bradford West by-election was a by-election in the House of Commons constituency of Bradford West, which was held on Thursday 29 March 2012. The writ for the by-election was moved and accepted on 6 March 2012.
It was unexpectedly won by Ge ...
. In 1981, however,
Edward Lyons Edward Lyons may refer to:
*Edward Lyons (British politician) (1926–2010), member of parliament
* Edward F. Lyons Jr. (1899–1990), World War II veteran who supported the prosecution of German war criminals
* Edward H. Lyons (1855–1920), Ameri ...
, the sitting Bradford West MP, joined the newly established
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
, consequently losing the seat at the 1983 general election.
In 1997, the seat was one of only two Labour seats in the country, the other being
Bethnal Green and Bow
Bethnal Green and Bow is a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency in Greater London, represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 2010 United Kingdom ...
in London, to have seen a swing towards the Conservatives away from Labour. This was because the local party association had selected a
Sikh
Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...
,
Marsha Singh
Marsha Singh (11 October 1954 – 17 July 2012) was a British Labour Party politician, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West from 1997 to 2012. Singh stood down due to ill health.
Singh had a degree in Languages, Politics and Eco ...
to stand when the majority of the seat's population is
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
.
George Galloway
George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...
of the
Respect Party
The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...
won the seat in the
2012 Bradford West by-election
The Bradford West by-election was a by-election in the House of Commons constituency of Bradford West, which was held on Thursday 29 March 2012. The writ for the by-election was moved and accepted on 6 March 2012.
It was unexpectedly won by Ge ...
with 55.9% of the votes cast; his 30.9% majority was at the time the largest majority in the history of the modern constituency, but he lost the seat in
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
to the new Labour candidate
Naz Shah
Naseem Shah (; born 13 November 1973) is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected at the 2015 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West, winning the seat from George Galloway of the Respect Party. She has se ...
by a substantial (28.3%) margin. Despite Galloway's threats to contest the result, he neither launched a legal challenge nor stood again in
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
, in which Shah surpassed his record by winning a majority of 48.1%, the largest margin for a Bradford West MP in any incarnation of the seat. Despite Galloway not standing, his former Respect colleague
Salma Yaqoob
Salma Yaqoob (formally Jacob) (born 15 August 1971) is a British political activist and psychotherapist who served as the Leader of the Respect Party from 2005 until 2012, representing the party on Birmingham City Council.
She led the Birming ...
did stand as an Independent, garnering 6,345 votes (13.9%), not far behind the second-placed Conservative candidate.
At
the 2019 general election Shah increased her vote share by 11.5%. This was easily the highest increase in the Labour Party's vote share in any constituency in the United Kingdom, in an election where Labour's vote share decreased in all but 13 constituencies. This means that Bradford West has bucked the national trend twice, as it also did in 1997.
Bradford West, since 2019, can be considered one of the safest seat in West Yorkshire for Labour.
Boundaries
1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Bradford wards of Allerton, Bolton, Great Horton, Heaton, and Manningham.
1955–1974: The County Borough of Bradford wards of Allerton, Great Horton, Heaton, Manningham, and Thornton.
1974–1983: The County Borough of Bradford wards of Allerton, Heaton, Little Horton, Manningham, Thornton, and University.
1983–2010: The City of Bradford wards of Clayton, Heaton, Little Horton, Thornton, Toller, and University.
2010–present: The City of Bradford wards of
City
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
,
Clayton and Fairweather Green,
Heaton,
Manningham,
Thornton and Allerton
Thornton and Allerton (population 18,000 - 2021 ward profile) is a ward within the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council in the county of West Yorkshire, England, named after the villages of Thornton and Allerton around which it is dr ...
, and
Toller
Toller is a ward within the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council of West Yorkshire, England. The population of the ward as of the 2011 Census was 19,914.
Demographics
The area is ethnically diverse, with a significant Pakistani po ...
.
Members of Parliament
The constituency was originally created in 1885, but was abolished in 1918. For the
1955 general election the constituency was recreated, following a boundary review.
[The Bradford West Constituency was created in 1955 after a boundary review. In previous elections the city was divided into four constituencies: Bradford Central, Bradford East, ]Bradford North
Bradford North was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Until it was abolished for the 2010 general election, it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post sy ...
and Bradford South.
Elections
Election results
Elections since 1918
Elections 1885–1918
See also
*
List of parliamentary constituencies in West Yorkshire
Notes
References
External links
nomis Constituency Profile for Bradford West— presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradford West (Uk Parliament Constituency)
Parliamentary constituencies in Yorkshire and the Humber
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1885
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1918
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1955
Politics of Bradford