Walsall North 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, ...

created in 1955 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

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since 2017 by Eddie Hughes, a member 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 ...

. The local electorate returned 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 ...

MP in the seat's first seventeen general elections; in the following election Eddie Hughes became its second Conservative MP following an earlier by-election win by his party in 1976. The seat consists of green-buffered urban areas with golf courses, parks and sports fields between the half of the former metalworking and manufacturing-centred town and main other settlement,

Bloxwich Bloxwich is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England. It is located between the towns of Walsall, Cannock, Willenhall and Brownhills. Early history Bloxwich has its origins at least as early as t ...

within its boundaries.

Members of Parliament

Constituency profile

The constituency is in the heart of an area traditionally focused on manufacturing which retains many mechanical and engineering jobs in its economy. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 8.0% of the population based on a statistical compilation by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', not the highest in the region which was Birmingham Ladywood at 11.1% but also significantly higher than the average for the region, 4.7%.

Boundaries

Walsall North is one of three constituencies covering the

Metropolitan Borough of Walsall The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Walsall, but covers a larger area which also includes Aldridge, Bloxwich, Brownhills, ...

. 1983–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall wards of Birchills Leamore, Blakenall, Bloxwich East, Bloxwich West, Short Heath, Willenhall North, and Willenhall South. 1974–1983: As 1955-1974 less Hatherton, plus Bentley, Willenhall North, and Willenhall South. 1955–1974: The County Borough of Walsall wards of Birchills, Blakenall, Bloxwich East, Bloxwich West, Hatherton, and Leamore, and the Urban District of Brownhills.

History

;Results between 1955 and 1979 The seat was created in 1955 from part of

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

. Its first

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 ...

was W.T. Wells of the Labour Party, who had been the MP for Walsall. In 1974, he was succeeded by controversial Labour MP

John Stonehouse John Thomson Stonehouse (28 July 192514 April 1988) was a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician and cabinet minister under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Stonehouse is remembered for his unsuccessful attempt at faking his own death in ...

, who was appointed

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and became infamous for faking his own death, being later jailed for

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

. After resigning from the party in April 1976, he was invited to join the

English National Party English National Party has been the name of various political parties of England, which have commonly called for a separate parliament for England. The original ENP History The English National Party (ENP) was founded as the John Hampden New ...

, becoming their first (and only) MP, before being forced to resign as an MP in August 1976. The ensuing

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 ...

was won by Robin Hodgson, 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 i ...

. ;Results since 1979 Labour regained the seat in 1979; their candidate was the former Croydon South MP

David Winnick David Julian Winnick (born 26 June 1933) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Walsall North between 1979 and 2017, he was also the MP for Croydon South from 1966 to 1970. Early life Born into a Britis ...

, who represented the constituency until 2017. Aside from a marginal majority in 1987 of 3.7%, Winnick's wins from and including 1979 ranged between 7.3% and 29% (the latter twice) until 2010. He fended off a strong challenge from Conservative Helyn Clack, who he beat by 2.7% of the vote in 2010. Going into the 2015 general election, Walsall North was 13th on the list of Conservative target seats. Winnick increased his majority to 1,937 — 5.2% of the vote. The 2015 result gave the seat the 22nd-smallest majority of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority. ;Other parties since 1979

candidates finished runner-up in each election from and including 1979, winning in 2017. The

UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest p ...

swing of +17.2% in 2015, coming the year before the UK's EU membership referendum, was higher than the national average of 9.5%. The

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 ...

TUSC Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is a socialist electoral alliance launched in Britain for the 2010 general election. TUSC's co-founder was the RMT union general secretary Bob Crow. Members of the PCS, NUT, FBU and POA uni ...

and

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

candidates of 2015 won less than 5% of the vote, so lost their

deposits A deposit account is a bank account maintained by a financial institution in which a customer can deposit and withdraw money. Deposit accounts can be savings accounts, Transaction account#Current accounts, current accounts or any of several othe ...

. The Liberal Democrats managed to produce their best result since the seat's 1955 creation (counting their two predecessor parties) in 1983, when

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

A. Bentley polled 20.7% of the vote. In 2005 and 2010, the BNP saved their deposit by polling more than 5% of the vote. The last time this percentage had been reached by a candidate in Walsall North in other than the top three parties had been 1976.

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1950s

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsall North (Uk Parliament Constituency) Politics of Walsall Parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1955