Hartlepool (UK Parliament Constituency)

Hartlepool is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Jill Mortimer of the Conservative Party from 2021. The constituency covers the town of Hartlepool plus nearby settlements.

Labour won every contest for the seat since the first at the February 1974 election (and mostly won the predecessor constituency of The Hartlepools from the 1945 election onward) until Mortimer won the 2021 by-election, becoming the first Conservative MP to represent Hartlepool since 1959.

Boundaries

1974–1983

The County Borough of Hartlepool.

Before 1974 the seat was known as The Hartlepools (reflecting the representation of both old Hartlepool and West Hartlepool). The name was changed following the merger in 1967 of the County Borough of West Hartlepool and the Municipal Borough of Hartlepool to form the County Borough of Hartlepool.

1983–present

The Borough of Hartlepool.

''As a result of major local government boundary changes in 1974 arising from the Local Government Act 1972, the Borough of Hartlepool was incorporated into the new county of Cleveland. As a consequence, a small part of the pre-1983 Easington constituency was added to the seat.''

The seat is currently coterminous with the borough of Hartlepool, which has close to the average population for a UK parliamentary constituency. The seat includes the town of Hartlepool itself and the nearby villages of Hart, Elwick, Greatham, Newton Bewley and Dalton Piercy.

History

The constituency had previously substantially been in the constituency of The Hartlepools. It became the constituency of Hartlepool in 1974.

Hartlepool was a Labour constituency from its creation until 2021, although its predecessor did have Conservative MPs both in the early 1960s and during the Second World War. At the 1992 general election, Edward Leadbitter stood down and was succeeded by the former Labour Director of Communications Peter Mandelson. Mandelson's pivotal role in the reshaping of the Labour Party into New Labour attracted much attention, and he became a prominent target.

During the first term of the Labour government led by Tony Blair, Mandelson was twice appointed to the Cabinet and twice forced to resign amid minor but controversial scandals. At the 2001 general election there was a notable contest when Arthur Scargill, former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers and the leader of the Socialist Labour Party, stood for election in the hope of exploiting uneasiness about New Labour in "traditional" Labour heartlands. In the event, Mandelson retained his seat, while Scargill polled only 912 votes. Mandelson shocked many with a triumphalist victory speech in which he declared "They underestimated Hartlepool, and they underestimated me, because I am a fighter and not a quitter!".

The following year, the town's first direct Mayoral election generated surprise when the mascot of Hartlepool United F.C., H'Angus the Monkey (real name Stuart Drummond) was elected on a platform that included free bananas for schoolchildren.

Mandelson resigned as MP for Hartlepool when he was appointed as a European Commissioner in the summer of 2004. This triggered a by-election that took place on 30 September. The Hartlepool by-election – the last held prior to the 2005 general election – saw Iain Wright retain the seat for Labour with a majority of 2,033 votes. That by-election marked the first time that the United Kingdom Independence Party had ever finished in third place at a by-election.

The Labour Party has continued to hold the seat since the by-election, with a dwindling majority and falling share of the vote, and at the three most recent general elections, three parties have finished in second place: the Liberal Democrats in 2005 (following their strong performance at the by-election the previous year), the Conservative Party in 2010, and UKIP, going one better than its by-election showing, in 2015.

In May 2010, the Conservatives gained their largest percentage vote increase in the country in Hartlepool, reducing the Labour majority to just over 5,500, whilst in 2015, UKIP recorded their eleventh-highest vote share in the United Kingdom, taking 28% and reducing the Labour majority to just over 3,000 votes.

2010 general election

Both the 2010 and 2015 general elections (in addition to several local elections) took place against the backdrop of concerns regarding the potential closure of Hartlepool and Stockton hospitals and their replacement with a new "super hospital" in out of town Wynyard. This precipitated the closure of several departments, and the removal of services from Hartlepool. The move was initially supported by Hartlepool MP Iain Wright, and opposed by Stockton South candidate James Wharton at the 2010 general election. A substantial protest group was formed opposing Wynyard, and calling on services to remain at Hartlepool, backed by a campaign by the ''Hartlepool Mail'', a local newspaper.

Following the recession of 2008, the incoming coalition government announced it would scrap the Wynyard proposals, although no guarantees were made regarding the future of Hartlepool hospital. This issue continued to dominate politics in Hartlepool at both general elections and local council elections, which dented support for Iain Wright and Labour, who had backed the Wynyard plans, whilst many independent candidates gained traction.

At the 2010 general election, the Conservative Party approached Alan Wright, a regional broadcaster for the BBC
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