Reading North was a

borough constituency In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constitue ...

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

Parliament of the United Kingdom 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 ...

. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

system of election. The constituency covered an area in and around the town of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

in the county of Berkshire.

History

The Reading North parliamentary constituency was first created for the 1950 general election by splitting the previous parliamentary constituency of

into North and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

divisions. These constituencies were merged back into a single Reading constituency in for the 1955 general election. The Reading North constituency was recreated in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of President of the United States, United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom K ...

, when it was contested and won for the Conservative Party by Tony Durant. In 1983 the constituencies in Reading were reorganised, creating the new constituencies of

Reading East Reading East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Matt Rodda, of the Labour Party. The seat is one of two won (held or gained) by a Labour candidate in 2017 from a total of eight covering ...

and Reading West. Tony Durant went on to hold the Reading West constituency until 1997. In both its incarnations, the constituency included Reading town centre.

Boundaries

1950–1955: The County Borough of Reading wards of Abbey, Battle, Castle, Caversham East, Caversham West, Tilehurst, and Victoria. It was then abolished and absorbed into the re-established Borough Constituency of Reading, with the exception of the Tilehurst ward, which was transferred to Newbury. 1974–1983: The County Borough of Reading wards of Abbey, Battle, Castle, Caversham, Katesgrove, Minster, Norcot, Thames, and Tilehurst. The Tilehurst and Norcot wards were transferred back from Newbury; the remaining wards were previously part of the abolished Borough Constituency of Reading. The constituency was abolished for the

1983 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1983. Africa * 1983 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1983 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1983 Kenyan general election * 1983 Malagasy parliamentary election * 1983 Malawian general e ...

, with the majority forming the basis of the new County Constituency of Reading West, whilst northern areas, including Caversham, formed part of the new County Constituency of

Members of Parliament

MPs 1950–1955

MPs 1974–1983

Elections

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1970s

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reading North (Uk Parliament Constituency) Politics of Reading, Berkshire Parliamentary constituencies in Berkshire (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1950 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1955 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1974 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1983