Dewsbury 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 (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

created in 1868. This seat is 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

United Kingdom 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 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Mark Eastwood Mark Simon Eastwood (born 14 March 1971) is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dewsbury in the 2019 general election. Early life Eastwood grew up in Thornhill Lees, before moving ...

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 ...

History

;Summary of results Dewsbury's seat dates back to 1868 and the electorate has usually given the winning MP marginal majorities which means it is a

marginal seat A marginal seat or swing seat is a constituency held with a small majority in a legislative election, generally one conducted under a single-winner voting system. In Canada, they may be known as target ridings. The opposite is a safe seat. The ...

. Labour MPs served the seat from 1935 until 1983 and again from 1987. In 2010 it was gained by Simon Reevell, a

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 ...

. ;Other parties results One of the five other parties' candidates standing in 2015 kept their deposit, by winning more than 5% of the vote in 2015,

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 ...

's Thackray, who emulated the national swing of +9.5% by an entry candidature, polling 12.4% of the vote. ;Turnout Turnout since 1918 has ranged between 87.9% of the vote in 1950, to 58.8% in 2001.

Boundaries

1868–1885: The townships of Dewsbury, Batley, and Soothill. 1918–1950: The County Borough of Dewsbury. 1950–1955: The County Borough of Dewsbury, the Municipal Borough of Ossett, and the Urban Districts of Heckmondwike and Mirfield. 1955–1983: The County Borough of Dewsbury, the Municipal Borough of Ossett, and the Urban District of Mirfield. 1983–1997: The Borough of Kirklees wards of Denby Dale, Dewsbury East, Dewsbury West, Kirkburton, Mirfield, and Thornhill. 1997–2010: The Borough of Kirklees wards of Dewsbury East, Dewsbury West, Heckmondwike, Mirfield, and Thornhill. 2010–present: The Borough of Kirklees wards of Denby Dale, Dewsbury East, Dewsbury South, Dewsbury West, Kirkburton, and Mirfield. The constituency covers the towns of

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudd ...

and

Mirfield Mirfield () is a town and civil parish in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury. At the 2011 census it had a population of 19,563. Mirfield ...

, and the surrounding areas. In the 2010 redistribution, the constituency lost the Labour-leaning ward of Heckmondwike, but gained the Conservative-leaning wards of

Denby Dale Denby Dale is a village and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is 10 miles (17 km) to the south-east of Huddersfield and 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Barnsley. The village is the main villag ...

and

Kirkburton Kirkburton is a village, civil parish and ward in Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is south-east of Huddersfield. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the township comprises the villages of Kirkburton and Highburton ...

Constituency profile

The seat has a substantial Muslim population in the town of Dewsbury (particularly the

Savile Town Savile Town is a suburb of Dewsbury, Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, lying just to the south of the River Calder. It consists of late Victorian housing, which varies between long terraces, semi-detached and detached housing. The mil ...

district), combined a few suburban and rural affluent parts such as

, and

. The town of Dewsbury itself is strongly Labour, and the remaining wards mostly Conservative. Overall the seat has close to national average income and several developments have desirable views as the upland town cuts into the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Common ...

. Relatively few people rely upon

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 ...

, however the Dewsbury East ward contains a high proportion of social housing in the

Chickenley Chickenley is a suburban village in the Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It is part of Dewsbury after being originally a farming hamlet, half-way between Ossett and Dewsbury. The Chickenley name could derive from a family name ori ...

estate, while Dewsbury South contains the Thornhill area, where the local school was the subject of the acclaimed Educating Yorkshire series. In the light of increasing concern over Muslim extremism, the Labour Party candidate

Shahid Malik Shahid Rafique Malik ( ur, شاہد رفیق ملک نے; born 24 November 1967) is a British Labour Party politician, a technology and media industry chairman, a visiting professor, and chairman and adviser to a number of non-profit organis ...

enjoyed a fairly large public media profile after his victory in 2005, with various TV appearances and interviews, strongly denouncing believers in and adherents of such views; however, this has also been a strong area for the

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

, who obtained their highest vote in Britain (13.1%) in the 2005 general election, much of it taken at the Labour Party's expense. They have also had a substantial vote at local level, when in 2006 for the first time in the UK the BNP polled more votes than any other party standing. However, at the 2010 general election, the BNP's popularity in Dewsbury fell (despite a substantial nationwide rise in support for the party compared to five years previously) and they gained a mere 6% of the vote.

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

* Swing in 1997 is based on notional figures as the seat had been redrawn prior to the election.

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1939–40: Another General Election was due 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: *Labour: Benjamin Riley *Liberal: Ronald Walker *Liberal National: Richard SoperYorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 15 March 1939

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1910s

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1880s

* Caused by Simon's resignation.

Elections in the 1870s

Elections in the 1860s

Notes

References

;Specific ;General Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. .

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewsbury (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in Yorkshire and the Humber Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1868 Politics of Kirklees Dewsbury