Cheltenham () 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

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 suprema ...

. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

system of election at least every five years.

Boundaries and boundary changes

1918–1950: The Municipal Borough of Cheltenham and the Urban District of Charlton Kings. 1950–1983: As 1918 but with redrawn boundaries. 1983–1997: The Borough of Cheltenham, and the Borough of Tewkesbury wards of Leckhampton with Up Hatherley, Prestbury St Mary's, and Prestbury St Nicolas. Leckhampton, Up Hatherley and Prestbury were added to the seat from the Cirencester and Tewkesbury constituency; they had previously been in the abolished Cheltenham Rural District. 1997–2010: The Borough of Cheltenham wards of All Saints, Charlton Kings, College, Hatherley and The Reddings, Hesters Way, Lansdown, Park, Pittville, St Mark's, St Paul's, and St Peter's. Leckhampton, Up Hatherley and Prestbury were transferred to the new Tewkesbury constituency; they had been incorporated into the redrawn Borough of Cheltenham in 1991. 2010–present: The Borough of Cheltenham wards of All Saints, Battledown, Benhall and The Reddings, Charlton Kings, Charlton Park, College, Hesters Way, Lansdown, Leckhampton, Oakley, Park, Pittville, St Mark's, St Paul's, St Peter's, Springbank, Up Hatherley, and Warden Hill. Leckhampton and Up Hatherley were transferred back to this seat from the Tewkesbury seat. As its name suggests the constituency is based on the town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, covering a different, slightly smaller area than the borough of the same name. It is bordered by the

Tewkesbury Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Ri ...

and Cotswolds seats.

Constituency profile

Famous for its racecourse which hosts the annual

Cheltenham Gold Cup The Cheltenham Gold Cup is a Grade 1 National Hunt horse race run on the New Course at Cheltenham Racecourse in England, over a distance of about 3 miles 2½ furlongs (3 ...

in March, with a long-established

girls' school Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...

and right at the edge of the Cotswold Hills, Cheltenham has a large tourism sector.

GE Aviation GE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric, is headquartered in Evendale, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. GE Aviation is among the top aircraft engine suppliers, and offers engines for the majority of commercial aircraft. GE Aviation is part of t ...

is a large employer and

GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...

, the government communications centre, is here, so numbers of highly skilled workers and professionals (47.5% in the year ended September 2014) are well above the national average (44.6%). One of the West of England's most upmarket towns, the few neighbourhoods of medium levels in the Index of Multiple Deprivation are almost wholly in Hester's Way ward which has the most

social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...

. About 10% of the electorate are students at the

University of Gloucestershire , mottoeng = In Spirit and Truth , established = , type = Public , endowment = £2.4 m (2015) , chancellor = Rennie Fritchie, Baroness Fritchie , vice_chancellor ...

just outside the compact town centre. A Liberal Democrat served the seat from 1992 when their candidate Nigel Jones overturned four decades of

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

MPs to 2015 when the Tories regained the seat.

History

Cheltenham borough constituency was created in the

Great Reform Act The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...

of 1832 and has returned nine Liberals (or Liberal Democrats) and nine Conservatives to Parliament since that time, along with one independent. A

served the constituency from 1950 until 1992. The Conservatives' campaign in the 1992 general election following the

Poll Tax riots The poll tax riots were a series of riots in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), introduced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The largest pr ...

saw a local party member make racist remarks about their own candidate, John Taylor, who was of Afro-Caribbean descent. Taylor lost the election to Nigel Jones of the Liberal Democrats. In 2000, Jones was nearly murdered in a horrific incident at one of his MP's surgeries; a man attacked him and an assistant with a samurai sword. His colleague

Andrew Pennington Andrew James Pennington (1 February 1960 – 28 January 2000) was a British Liberal Democrat politician and a posthumous recipient of the George Medal in 2001. He was a Gloucestershire County Councillor from 1985 until his death in a stabbing ...

was killed in the attack. Jones was made a life peer in 2005. The Liberal Democrats held Cheltenham in the 2005 election when

Martin Horwood Martin Charles Horwood (born 12 October 1962) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who represented South West England in the European Parliament from 2019 to 2020. He previously served as the Member of Parliament for Cheltenham from 2005 ...

won the election, and again in 2010, but lost when the Conservatives retook the seat in 2015.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

In 2019, Cheltenham was one of five English constituencies, the others being

Esher and Walton Esher and Walton () is a constituency in Surrey represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Since 2010, it has been represented by Dominic Raab of the Conservative Party, who is the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ...

Westmorland and Lonsdale Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

, Winchester and

East Devon East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council has been based in Honiton since February 2019, and the largest town is Exmouth (with a population of 34,432 at the time of the 2011 census). The district was formed ...

, where Labour failed to obtain over 5% of the vote and lost their deposit.

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1950s

Election in the 1940s

General Election 1939–40: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected; *Independent Conservative: Daniel Lipson *Conservative: C L Hargreaves *Labour: John Baird

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1914–15: A general election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. *Unionist Party: James Agg-Gardner *Liberal Party: Rhys Williams Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place.

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1880s

Election in the 1870s

Elections in the 1860s

Elections in the 1850s

* Caused by Berkeley's appointment as a Commissioner of Customs. *Caused by Berkeley's death.

Elections in the 1840s

*Election declared void on petition due to "acts of corruption" *Election declared void on petition due to bribery

Elections in the 1830s

Notes

References

External links

nomis Constituency Profile for Cheltenham
– presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheltenham (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in South West England Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1832 Politics of Cheltenham