Heywood and Middleton 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, ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

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

2024 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...

by Elsie Blundell of the Labour Party. The

2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies The 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies is the current cycle of the process to redraw the constituency map for the House of Commons. The process for periodic reviews of parliamentary constituencies in the United Kingdom is gover ...

proposes that two of the Middleton wards will be included in a new constituency named Blackley and Middleton South and this seat will be renamed Heywood and Middleton North, to be first contested at the 2024 general election.

Constituency profile

The constituency covers the west half of the

Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England. It is named after its largest town, Rochdale, The borough covers other outlying towns and villages with a population of 206,500 at the ...

, including the towns of Heywood and Middleton, and some of the western fringes of

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

itself such as Castleton.

Norden Norden is a Scandinavian and German word, directly translated as "the North". It may refer to: Places England * Norden, Basingstoke, a ward of Basingstoke and Deane * Norden, Dorset, a hamlet near Corfe Castle * Norden, Greater Manchester, a vil ...

and

Bamford Bamford is a village in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England, close to the River Derwent. To the north-east is Bamford Edge, and to the north-west the Ladybower, Derwent and Howden Reservoirs. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 1,241 ...

are strong Conservative areas, with several million-pound houses, but all other wards are mostly favourable to Labour. Middleton includes the large overspill council estate of

Langley Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perfor ...

though the South Middleton ward includes a relatively affluent area in

Alkrington Garden Village Alkrington Garden Village is a suburban area of Middleton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester England. Historically a part of Lancashire, in the Middle Ages Alkrington was a township in the parish of Prestwich-cum-Oldh ...

, but even this ward generally returns Labour councillors.

Electoral Calculus Electoral Calculus is a political forecasting web site which attempts to predict future United Kingdom general election results. It considers national factors but excludes local issues. Main features The site was developed by Martin Baxter, w ...

categorises the seat as a "Somewhere" demographic, indicating socially conservative, economically soft left views and strong support for

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

Boundaries

1983–1997: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Heywood North, Heywood South, Heywood West, Middleton Central, Middleton East, Middleton North, Middleton South, and Middleton West. 1997–2010: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Castleton, Heywood North, Heywood South, Heywood West, Middleton Central, Middleton East, Middleton North, Middleton South, Middleton West, and Norden and Bamford. 2010–2024: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Bamford, Castleton, East Middleton, Hopwood Hall, Norden, North Heywood, North Middleton, South Middleton, West Heywood, and West Middleton. 2024-present: Further to the

, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, from the 2024 general election the constituency of Heywood and Middleton North will be composed of the following wards of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale (as they existed on 1 December 2020): * Bamford; Castleton; Hopwood Hall; Norden; North Heywood; North Middleton; Spotland and Falinge; West Heywood; West Middleton. ''East Middleton and South Middleton wards will now be included in the new constituency of Blackley and Middleton South, partly compensated by the addition of the Spotland and Falinge ward from

.''

History

The constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the former seats of Heywood and Royton and Middleton and Prestwich and had been held by the Labour Party since then until the 2019 Election. From 1983 until his retirement in 1997, the MP was

Jim 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 ...

, not to be confused with a former Prime Minister with the same name. In a 2014 by-election UKIP came within 617 votes of winning the seat, which was on the same day as the

Rochester and Strood Rochester and Strood is a constituency in Kent represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Kelly Tolhurst, a Conservative. Since 2022, she has served as Government Deputy Chief Whip and Treasurer of the Household. ...

by-election, and in 2015 it produced one of their largest results in the country, as a result the constituency heavily voted to Leave in the referendum and swung to the Conservatives for the first time in 2019, in line with many other Leave-voting Labour seats in the North and Midlands.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Heywood and Middleton North is the only constituency (in England or Wales) where the

Green Party of England and Wales The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; cy, Plaid Werdd Cymru a Lloegr, kw, Party Gwer Pow an Sowson ha Kembra, often simply the Green Party or Greens) is a green, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla ...

didn’t stand a candidate.https://www.chorley.gov.uk/media/3390/Persons-Nominated-and-Notice-of-Poll-and-Polling-Locations-2024/pdf/Persons_Nominated_and_Notice_of_Poll_and_Polling_Locations_2024.pdf?m=1717778284623

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

References

External links

Heywood and Middleton UK Parliament constituency
(boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at ''MapIt UK''

(boundaries from June 2024) at ''MapIt UK'' {{Coord, 53.57, -2.21, display=title, region:GB, format=dms Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983 Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale Middleton, Greater Manchester Heywood, Greater Manchester