North West Leicestershire 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. ...

of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...

since 2010 by Andrew Bridgen, 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 ...

History

The constituency was created in 1983, and first won by the

David Ashby. He stood down in 1997 and the seat was then won by Labour's David Taylor, who held the seat until he died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...

in December 2009. Taylor had already announced that he would stand down at the 2010 general election. With the next election being due on 6 May 2010, it was considered uneconomic and (based on precedent) unnecessary to arrange a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election use ...

. In the 2010 election, Andrew Bridgen took the seat for the Conservatives, with a swing of 12% from Labour to the Conservatives and with a smaller Lab-LD

swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing rid ...

. Bridgen's majority was 7,511 or 14.5% of the total votes cast. At the 2010 election, the BNP unusually succeeded in holding their deposit by winning more than 5% of the vote, and for the first time in the constituency they achieved fourth place.

Constituency profile

North West Leicestershire's main settlements are the small towns of Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The population is divided between Labour-inclined former mining areas with high rates of employment and low social housing dependency, and Conservative-inclined rural villages, with most people focused close to the two towns named. The seat has been a

bellwether A bellwether is a leader or an indicator of trends.bellwether
" ''Cambridge Dictionary''. Re ...

since 1983, as the winning party has formed the government. In 2011 Coalfield Resources plc were given permission to develop an

opencast coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

pit on the site of the former Minorca colliery on the outskirts of Measham, in the seat, which will be across and extract 1,250,000 tonnes (1,230,000 tons) of coal over five years, and 250,000 tonnes (about 245,000 tons) of clay. This will be one of three large mines all operated by the main UK coal-extracting company.

Boundaries

1983–1997: The District of North West Leicestershire, and the Borough of Charnwood wards of Shepshed East and Shepshed West. 1997–present: The District of North West Leicestershire. North West Leicestershire constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the seats of Bosworth to the south and

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second lar ...

to the east.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leicestershire North West Parliamentary constituencies in Leicestershire Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983