Sedgefield (UK Parliament Constituency)
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Sedgefield 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, ...
in
County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly â€About North East E ...
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 2019 by Paul Howell of the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
. It elects 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) 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 their ...
system of election.


History


1918–1974

Sedgefield was first created under the Representation of the People Act 1918 for the 1918 general election, comprising primarily southern parts of the abolished South Eastern Division of Durham, including the communities of Segefield and
Billingham Billingham is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. The town is on the north side of the River Tees and is governed by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. The settlement had previously formed i ...
. It also included parts of the former Mid Durham seat (
Ferryhill Ferryhill is a town in County Durham, England, with an estimated population in 2018 of 9,362. The town grew in the 1900s around the coal mining industry. The last mine officially closed in 1968. It is located between the towns of Bishop Auckland ...
) and a small area transferred from
Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...
( Chilton). It was abolished for the February 1974 general election, when its contents were distributed to the neighbouring seats of
Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...
(Darlington RD),
Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
(Sedgefield RD), Easington (Stockton RD) and Teesside, Stockton (Billingham UD).


1983–present

The constituency was recreated at the next redistribution, which came into effect at the 1983 general election, with similar boundaries, but excluding
Billingham Billingham is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. The town is on the north side of the River Tees and is governed by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. The settlement had previously formed i ...
and
Newton Aycliffe Newton Aycliffe is a town in County Durham (district), County Durham, England. Founded in 1947 under the New Towns Act 1946, New Towns Act of 1946, the town sits about five miles to the north of Darlington and ten miles to the south of Durham, E ...
and including
Spennymoor Spennymoor is a town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, England. It is south of the River Wear and is south of Durham, England, Durham. The civil parish includes the villages of Kirk Merrington, Middlestone Moor, Byers ...
.


Boundaries


1918–1950

* The Rural Districts of Darlington, Hartlepool, Sedgefield, and Stockton


1950-1974

* The Urban District of Billingham; and * the Rural Districts of Darlington, Sedgefield and Stockton. ''Minor changes - the Rural District of Stockton had been altered, absorbing the Rural District of Hartlepool, but losing Billingham to a new urban district.'' From 1955, the boundaries of the Rural Districts of Darlington, Sedgefield and Stockton were altered in line with changes to local authority boundaries.


1983–1997

* The District of Sedgefield wards of Bishop Middleham, Broom, Chilton, Cornforth, Ferryhill, Fishburn, Low Spennymoor and Tudhoe Grange, Middlestone, New Trimdon and Trimdon Grange, Old Trimdon, Sedgefield, Spennymoor, and Tudhoe; * the District of Easington wards of Deaf Hill, Hutton Henry, Thornley, Wheatley Hill, and Wingate; and * the Borough of Darlington wards of Heighington, Hurworth, Middleton St George, Sadberge, and Whessoe. ''Spennymoor and Tudhoe transferred from
North West Durham North West Durham is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 12 December 2019 by Richard Holden of the Conservative Party. Constituency profile The constituency is in the north west of County Durham ...
; remainder of District of Sedgefield wards from
Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
; District of Easington wards from Easington; and Borough of Darlington wards from
Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...
.''


1997–2010

* The District of Sedgefield wards of Bishop Middleham, Broom, Chilton, Cornforth, Ferryhill, Fishburn, Middridge, Neville, New Trimdon and Trimdon Grange, Old Trimdon, Sedgefield, Shafto, Simpasture, West, and Woodham; * the District of Easington wards of Deaf Hill, Hutton Henry, Thornley, Wheatley Hill, and Wingate; and * the Borough of Darlington wards of Heighington, Hurworth, Middleton St George, Sadberge, and Whessoe. ''Newton Aycliffe transferred in from Bishop Auckland in exchange for Spennymoor and Tudhoe.''


2010–present

* The Borough of Sedgefield wards of Bishop Middleham and Cornforth, Broom, Chilton, Ferryhill, Fishburn and Old Trimdon, Greenfield Middridge, Neville and Simpasture, New Trimdon and Trimdon Grange, Sedgefield, Shafto St Mary's, West, and Woodham; * the District of Easington wards of Thornley and Wheatley Hill, and Wingate; and * the Borough of Darlington wards of Heighington and Coniscliffe, Hurworth, Middleton St George, Sadberge, and Whessoe. ''Minor changes only to reflect redrawing of local authority ward boundaries.'' In the 2009 structural changes to local government in England, the local authority districts in Durham were abolished and replaced with a single
unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
; however, this has not affected the boundaries of the constituency.


Proposed constituency changes

The 2023 Boundary Review Initial Proposals have recommended that all the wards in the borough of Darlington should be removed from the seat, with
Shildon Shildon is a town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976. The town has the Locomotion Museum, due to it having the first , built in 1825, and locomotive works on ...
moving in from
Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...
and
Coxhoe Coxhoe is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated about south of Durham City centre. The civil parish also includes nearby Quarrington Hill. The electoral ward of Coxhoe stretches beyond the boundaries of the parish and has a total p ...
from City of Durham. The reconfigured seat would be renamed ‘Newton Aycliffe and Sedgefield’.


Political history

From its recreation in 1983 until 27 June 2007, the Member of Parliament was
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
, who led a successful campaign for his party to win the 1997 general election in a landslide and thereafter served for ten years as the Prime Minister, leading the campaigns at two subsequent general elections. Blair was the first Prime Minister to lead the Labour Party to three consecutive victories. He resigned as the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield on the same day as he resigned as Prime Minister, which triggered 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 ...
. At the by-election on 19 July 2007, the official Labour Party candidate Phil Wilson was elected on a reduced majority which in national terms is
safe A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body and ...
instead of
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 ...
. While Wilson had never came close to the enormous majorities held by Blair during his tenure as MP and only secured an absolute majority of the vote for the first time at the 2017 general election, he had consistently held majorities of over 6,000 votes at every election he had stood at. At the 2019 election, the Conservatives' candidate Paul Howell defeated Wilson with a majority of 4,513 and a swing of 12.8%. Sedgefield was one of the 48 seats net won in England by the Conservatives as well as being considered part of the so-called red wall.


Constituency profile

Sedgefield has a long
mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
history (extracting
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...
, fluorspar and
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
) and very strong affiliation to the Labour Party, with nearly monolithic support in parts of the constituency. The area contains a mixture of former coal country in the area around
Trimdon Trimdon is a village in County Durham, in England, previously known as Tremeldon (1196) or Tremedon (1262).Eilert Ekwall,1959, ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Placenames'' (4th edition), OUP, Oxford, p. 480; he cites taxation sources, ...
and more industrial areas around the new town of
Newton Aycliffe Newton Aycliffe is a town in County Durham (district), County Durham, England. Founded in 1947 under the New Towns Act 1946, New Towns Act of 1946, the town sits about five miles to the north of Darlington and ten miles to the south of Durham, E ...
. The construction of a new Hitachi factory created 730 jobs in the town. There are also more prosperous parts of the constituency that form the bulk of the Conservative vote – for example, the ancient
market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
of
Sedgefield Sedgefield is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It had a population of 5,211 as at the 2011 census. It has the only operating racecourse in County Durham. History Roman A Roman 'ladder settlement' was discovered by C ...
itself, with a charter dating back to 1312. The outer suburbs of
Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...
are also relatively wealthy, such as
Hurworth-on-Tees Hurworth-on-Tees is a village in the borough of Darlington, within the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It is situated in the civil parish of Hurworth. The village lies to the south of Darlington on the River Tees, close to its ...
, where unemployment stands at just 1.0%. ;In statistics The constituency consists of Census Output Areas of two local government districts with similar characteristics: a working population whose average income is lower than the national average and close to average reliance upon
social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...
. At the end of 2012 the unemployment rate in the constituency stood as 5.0% of the population claiming jobseekers allowance, compared to the regional average of 5.5%. The local authority contributing to the bulk of the seat has a middling 27.2% of its population without a car, a high 27.5% of the population without qualifications and a medium 21.5% with level 4 qualifications or above. Darlington has 28% of its population without a car, 24.8% of the population without qualifications and a medium 23.7% with level 4 qualifications or above In terms of tenure 65.8% of County Durham homes and 64.9% of Darlington homes are owned outright or on a mortgage as at the 2011 census.


Members of Parliament


MPs 1918–1974


MPs since 1983


Elections


Elections in the 2010s


Elections in the 2000s

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Elections in the 1990s

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Elections in the 1980s

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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


See also

* List of parliamentary constituencies in County Durham * History of parliamentary constituencies and boundaries in Durham


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sedgefield (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in County Durham Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1918 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1974 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom represented by a sitting Prime Minister Tony Blair