Washington and Sunderland West 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. T ...

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 suprema ...

since its 2010 creation by

Sharon Hodgson Sharon Hodgson (born 1 April 1966) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Washington and Sunderland West, previously Gateshead East and Washington West, since 2005. Hodgson was appointed as the Par ...

, a member of the Labour Party.

Constituency profile

The town of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

has a well-preserved historic centre with a museum dedicated to the first US president, on its outskirts, the family home of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

. Residents have lower levels of wealth and education than UK averages.

Boundaries

The

City of Sunderland The City of Sunderland () is a metropolitan borough with city status in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, North East England. It is named after its largest settlement, Sunderland, spanning a far larger area, including nearby towns incl ...

wards of Castle, Redhill, St Anne's,

Central, Washington East, Washington North, Washington South, Washington West. Washington and Sunderland West was created for the 2010 general election when the Boundary Commission reduced the number of seats in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newc ...

from 13 to 12, with the constituencies in the City of Sunderland, in particular, being reorganised. The constituency was formed from parts of four abolished constituencies: * Castle and Redhill wards from Sunderland North; * St Anne's ward from Sunderland South; * Washington Central, East and North from

Houghton and Washington East Houghton and Washington East was, from 1997 until 2010, a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. A seat ...

; and * Washington South and West from Gateshead East and Washington West.

Political history

All of the predecessor seats were held with majorities exceeding 5,000 votes and 5% of the vote before the 2010 election. Electoral calculus, an academic website, gave a provisional ranking as the 28th-safest Labour seat in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and the 11th-safest Labour seat in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

based on the results of 2005.

Members of Parliament

;Selection of first MP Following a ballot of members on 8 September 2007 Sharon Hodgson MP was selected as the Labour candidate, she represented 38% of the new seat which came from her previous seat of Gateshead East and Washington West which was abolished.

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

For 2015, the

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

announced Pauline Renwick as a candidate, but she failed to stand. :* ''Served as an MP for Gateshead East and Washington West in the 2005–2010 Parliament'' 2010 vote share changes and swing are based on notional results (a calculation of how the seat would have voted if it had existed at the previous election).

Constituency profile

Boundaries

Political history

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Notes

References

See also