Dudley North 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 2019 by
Marco Longhi
Marco Andrea Longhi (born 22 April 1967) is a British property entrepreneur and Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Dudley North since 2019.
Early life
Longhi grew up in Rome, the son of an Italian ai ...
, of the
Conservative Party
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 P ...
.
Campaigns in the seat have resulted in a minimum of 30% of votes at each election consistently for the same two parties' choice for candidate, and the next highest-placed share having fluctuated between 5.5% and 24% of the vote since its creation: for differing parties, the highest placed of these having been the
UK Independence Party
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 par ...
. The seat attracted seven candidates in 1997 and 2015 and four in 2001.
Members of Parliament
Boundaries
Dudley North is one of four constituencies presently covering the
Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley is a metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England. It was created in 1974 following the Local Government Act 1972, through a merger of the existing Dudley County Borough with the municipal boroughs of Stour ...
, encompassing the northern part of the borough, including the town centre.
2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley wards of Castle and Priory, Gornal, St James's, St Thomas's, Sedgley, and Upper Gornal and Woodsetton.
1997–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley wards of Castle and Priory, Coseley East, Coseley West, Gornal, St James's, St Thomas's, and Sedgley.
History
Before the
1997 election,
Dudley
Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...
was divided into
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
and
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
constituencies, rather than the current North and
Dudley South. Dudley North covers much of the area previously covered by
Dudley East, which included
Netherton but excluded the western part of
Sedgley
Sedgley is a town in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England.
Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, Sedgley is on the A459 road between Wolverhampt ...
, which was part of Dudley West.
The earlier
Dudley constituency, consisting of central Dudley, Netherton, and
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...
, was more prominent before 1974. Colonel
George Wigg
George Edward Cecil Wigg, Baron Wigg, PC (28 November 1900 – 11 August 1983) was a British Labour Party politician who only served in relatively junior offices but had a great deal of influence behind the scenes, especially with Harold Wils ...
(later Lord Wigg), Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
's adviser on security matters and later a Minister of State, held the seat for many years until elevated to the peerage in 1968. At the
Dudley by-election in March of that year,
Donald Williams, the
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 i ...
candidate, gained the seat with a swing of 20%. In
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
, however, the seat was regained by
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 ...
with the election of
Dr John Gilbert, who subsequently represented Dudley East from
February 1974
The following events occurred in February 1974:
February 1, 1974 (Friday)
*Joelma fire, A fire killed 177 people and injured 293 others in the 23-story Joelma Building at São Paulo in Brazil. Another 11 later died of their injuries. The bl ...
until its abolition at the 1997 general election. Gilbert served as a Minister of State under both
James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005), commonly known as Jim Callaghan, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is ...
and (as a peer)
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
. Dudley West meanwhile was represented, until his death in 1994, by Conservative MP
Dr John Blackburn. At the subsequent
Dudley West by election the seat was a Labour gain with
Ian Pearson
Ian Phares Pearson (born 5 April 1959) is a British Labour Party politician who was a member of parliament (MP) from 1994 until 2010, representing Dudley West from 1994 until 1997, and then Dudley South from 1997 until his retirement from th ...
elected. After boundary changes, Pearson became the MP for the newly created Dudley South seat at the 1997 election
Ross Cranston
Sir Ross Frederick Cranston (born 23 July 1948) is a professor of Law at London School of Economics and a retired High Court judge. He is also a former British Labour Party politician, and served as the Member of Parliament for Dudley North betw ...
(Labour) was the first MP for the new Dudley North seat after winning it at the 1997 election; he remained the constituencies MP until the 2005 general election, when it was retained by his successor Ian Austin.
In 2010, Austin held onto his seat with 38.7% of the vote, a narrow 1.7% ahead of Conservative candidate Graeme Brown, at the first general election in 36 years which resulted in a
hung parliament
A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisl ...
. Despite increasing his majority to 11% at the 2015 election (4,181 votes), in 2017 – after two
recounts – it was reduced to a mere 22 votes, the fourth smallest majority at that election, and was the Labour seat that was closest to being taken by the Conservatives that election. (
Walsall North
Walsall North is a constituency created in 1955 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Eddie Hughes, a member of the Conservative Party. The local electorate returned a Labour MP in the seat's first seventeen ...
, a closely neighbouring constituency was indeed gained by the Conservatives.) In 2019, the Conservatives gained the seat for the first time, with their candidate
Marco Longhi
Marco Andrea Longhi (born 22 April 1967) is a British property entrepreneur and Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Dudley North since 2019.
Early life
Longhi grew up in Rome, the son of an Italian ai ...
winning a majority of more than 11,000 votes. The Conservative vote share increased by 16.6% in the seat, which was the party's fifth-largest increase at the election.
Elections
Elections in the 2010s
The original
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 i ...
candidate for the 2015 election
Afzal Amin
Afzal Raja Amin is a British former Conservative Party aspirant politician and former prospective parliamentary candidate for Dudley North constituency for the 2015 general election until his resignation over claims of conspiring with the inv ...
was suspended after allegations he persuaded the
English Defence League
The English Defence League (EDL) is a far-right, Islamophobic organisation in the United Kingdom. A social movement and pressure group that employs street demonstrations as its main tactic, the EDL presents itself as a single-issue movement ...
to announce a march against a mosque in the constituency
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
See also
*
List of parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county)
*
List of parliamentary constituencies in Dudley
The town of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England, has been represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom through several parliamentary constituencies:
See also
* List of parliamentary constituencies in the ...
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudley North
Politics of Dudley
Parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county)
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1997
1997 establishments in England