Rochdale is a seat 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 ...

. It has elected one

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) since its 1832 creation. The constituency is represented by

Tony Lloyd Sir Anthony Joseph Lloyd (born 25 February 1950) is a British Labour Party politician who has discontinuously served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1983, currently as the MP for Rochdale since 2017. He was MP for Stretford from 1983 to 1 ...

of the Labour Party. He was first elected MP for this seat in 2017; previously, he had been the MP for

Stretford Stretford is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, south of Manchester city centre, south of Salford and north-east of Altrincham. Str ...

and then Manchester Central from 1983 until his resignation from Parliament in 2012.

Boundaries

As there were no township boundaries in 1832, the original constituency was defined as a circular area in a radius of three-quarters of a mile from the old market place. In 1868 the boundary was extended to include Wardleworth, Spotland, Wuerdle, Belfield, Newbold, Buersill, and Marland. 1918–1950: The County Borough of Rochdale 1950–1983: As prior but with redrawn boundaries 1983–1997: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone, Brimrod and Deeplish, Castleton, Central and Falinge, Healey, Newbold, Norden and Bamford, Smallbridge and Wardleworth, and Spotland 1997–2010: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone, Brimrod and Deeplish, Central and Falinge, Healey, Littleborough, Newbold, Smallbridge and Wardleworth, Spotland, and Wardle 2010–present: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone and Kirkholt, Central Rochdale, Healey, Kingsway, Littleborough Lakeside, Milkstone and Deeplish, Milnrow and Newhey, Smallbridge and Firgrove, Spotland and Falinge, and Wardle and West Littleborough

History

Rochdale was one of the constituencies created by the

Reform Act of 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...

, and has been a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

marginal Marginal may refer to: * ''Marginal'' (album), the third album of the Belgian rock band Dead Man Ray, released in 2001 * ''Marginal'' (manga) * '' El Marginal'', Argentine TV series * Marginal seat or marginal constituency or marginal, in polit ...

for many years, although it was held by the

Conservatives 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 ...

for part of the 1950s, until a 1958 by-election. It was held for two decades by

Cyril Smith Sir Cyril Richard Smith (28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010) was a prominent British politician who after his death was revealed to have been a prolific serial sex offender against children. A member of the Liberal Party, he was Member of ...

, first of the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

and then of the Liberal Democrats. He won 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 used to f ...

in 1972, taking the seat from Labour, and held it until his retirement in 1992. Since Smith's death it emerged Smith was a serial child abuser. After Smith's retirement, contests have been tighter. The Liberal Democrats held the seat, with

Liz Lynne Elizabeth Lynne (born 22 January 1948) is a British politician, and was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands for the Liberal Democrats from the 1999 European election until she retired in 2012. Previously she had bee ...

at the 1992 general election, only to lose to Labour's

Lorna Fitzsimons Lorna Fitzsimons (born 6 August 1967, Littleborough, Lancashire) is a British business and public sector executive. She was the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale from 1997 to 2005. Early life Fitzsimons attended St James CE ...

at the 1997 election. However, the Liberal Democrats regained the seat at the 2005 election, with

Paul Rowen Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

. In 2010, the town was brought to national attention when then-Prime Minister

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...

was caught on a tape recording describing a local woman, Gillian Duffy, as a "bigot" after having a conversation with her while campaigning (later described as ''Bigotgate'' by the UK media). Despite this unfavourable publicity, Labour still managed to narrowly win the seat from the Liberal Democrats; and in 2015 achieved their highest majority in the seat's history, with the Liberal Democrats falling to fourth place.

Constituency profile

The constituency is one of two covering 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 ...

. It contains most of the town 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 as well as Littleborough, Wardle and some of the surrounding rural area. For the 2010 general election, the seat gained the villages of Milnrow and Newhey from

Oldham East and Saddleworth Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, whic ...

and lost the areas of Sudden, Marland, and part of Norden to Heywood and Middleton, a 19.16% boundary change. Those changes made the seat a notional Labour victory in the Rallings and

Thrasher Thrashers are a New World group of perching bird, passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the family (biology), family Mimidae. There are 15 species in one large and 4 monotypic genus, genera. T ...

figures which were used by the

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for determining gains, losses and swings. However, other predictions by political commentator Martin Baxter showed the seat maintaining a narrow Lib Dem majority. ''The

Times Guide to the House of Commons ''The Times Guide to the House of Commons'' is a political reference guide book published by Times Newspapers giving coverage of general elections in the United Kingdom. Following most general elections since 1880, the book has been published. Th ...

2010'' estimated that had the seat been fought on these boundaries in 2010 Labour would have won the seat with approximately 40.9% of the vote to the Liberal Democrats' 40.7%.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

''The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2010'' reported that based on the notional 2005 result on the new boundaries the Labour vote had fallen by 4.5% and the Liberal Democrat vote had fallen by 6.1%, while the Conservative voteshare increased by 7.6%.

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1910s

A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the summer of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place. *British Socialist Party:

Tom Kennedy Thomas or Tom Kennedy may refer to: Politics *Thomas Kennedy (Scottish judge) (1673–1754), joint Solicitor General for Scotland 1709–14, Lord Advocate 1714, Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs 1720–21 * Thomas Kennedy, 9th Earl of Cassilis ...

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1870s

Elections in the 1860s

* Caused by Cobden's death.

Elections in the 1850s

Elections in the 1840s

Elections in the 1830s

* Caused by Entwistle's death

Notes

References

Sources

Election results, 1950–1997
Politics Science Resources (Keele University) * FWS Craig, ''British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949'' * FWS Craig, ''British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Rochdale (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1832 Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale