Batley and Spen 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 (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

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 suprem ...

. The current MP is

Kim Leadbeater Kim Michele Leadbeater (; born 1 May 1976) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Batley and Spen since 2021. Early life and education Leadbeater was born in 1976 in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, Engl ...

, a Labour politician, elected in a 2021 by-election by a 323-vote margin. The seat has returned Labour MPs since 1997.

Constituency profile

The area is in the rolling

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Common ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

with considerable commerce, industry, retail and occupational trades. A lower percentage of

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, d ...

is present than the regional average, however most of the larger settlements have some social housing. The population in the district is ethnically diverse. Many of the towns in the Spen Valley have few residents from non-white heritage backgrounds ( Birstall, Birkenshaw,

Cleckheaton Cleckheaton is a town in the Metropolitan borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated south of Bradford, east of Brighouse, west of Batley and south-west of Leeds. It is ...

, Liversedge and

Gomersal Gomersal is a town in Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is south of Bradford, east of Cleckheaton and north of Heckmondwike. It is close to the River Spen and forms part of the Heavy Woollen District. History Gomersal was attested i ...

, generally more suburban and Conservative areas, with the exception of

, which has

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 ...

councillors). However, the constituency's largest town,

Batley Batley is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. Batley lies south-west of Leeds, north-west of Wakefield and Dewsbury, south-east of Bradford and north-east of Huddersfield. Batley is part of the ...

, has a sizeable number of residents with

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;; ...

n backgrounds, namely Pakistani (9.2%) and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n (mostly

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

) (15.9%).

Heckmondwike Heckmondwike is a town in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, south west of Leeds. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is close to Cleckheaton and Liversedge. It is mostly in the Batley and Spen pa ...

also has a well-established South Asian community with 16.9% residents having Pakistani heritage. The results of the last fifty years show marginal majorities for Labour and for the Conservatives, and is considered to be part of the " red wall". In the

2016 EU referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

, Batley and Spen voted 60% in favour of

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...

Boundaries

*1983–1997: The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees wards of Batley East, Batley West, Birstall and Birkenshaw, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike, and Spen. *1997–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees wards of Batley East, Batley West, Birstall and Birkenshaw, Cleckheaton, and Spen. *2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees wards of Batley East, Batley West, Birstall and Birkenshaw, Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike, and Liversedge and Gomersal. The constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the seats of Batley and Morley,

Brighouse and Spenborough Brighouse and Spenborough was a parliamentary constituency in the West Riding of Yorkshire, comprising the two municipal boroughs of Brighouse and Spenborough and neighbouring areas. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Com ...

and

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudd ...

. This

constituency covers

, Birkenshaw, Birstall,

, East Bierley,

, Hunsworth, and Liversedge.

History

The constituency did not exist in its present form before 1983 and has seen significant boundary changes since its creation – most notably those that took effect for the 1997 general election.

was part of the seat from its creation in 1983 until 1997, when it was transferred to

. Heckmondwike was returned to Batley and Spen for the 2010 general election. The seat swung in Labour's favour in the elections of 1997, 2001 and 2005 though the Conservatives reduced the Labour majority in 2010 with a swing below the national average. The electoral ward of Heckmondwike (which includes part of Liversedge) was considered part of the Spen Valley (although it was not part of the former

Spenborough Spenborough was, from 1915 to 1974, a local government district in the administrative county of Yorkshire, West Riding, England. Spenborough was created as an urban district in 1915 by the merger of Cleckheaton, Gomersal and Liversedge urban ...

Urban District). Heckmondwike ward was for many years a Labour stronghold, but in the 2000s elected two BNP councillors. The BNP councillors were narrowly defeated by Labour in 2007 and 2008. A by-election in 2016 occurred after the murder of Jo Cox, the sitting MP. Cox was killed on 16 June 2016 after being shot and stabbed multiple times by a man associated with far-right organisations. 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 ...

, Liberal Democrats,

UK Independence Party 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 par ...

and the

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 f ...

announced they would not contest the by-election as a mark of respect. Another by-election occurred in 2021 following the resignation of Tracy Brabin MP, who was elected Mayor of West Yorkshire on 10 May. The 2021 by-election received considerable media attention because of expectations of a Labour loss following the earlier Hartlepool by-election and a high-profile and divisive campaign by

George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...

for the

Workers Party of Britain The Workers Party of Britain (WPB) is a minor political party in Britain, formed in December 2019 and led by George Galloway. It has never held elected representation at any level of government. History The Workers Party of Britain was found ...

. The by-election was won by Jo Cox's sister,

, with a reduced majority.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

A by-election was held on 1 July 2021 following the

resignation Resignation is the formal act of leaving or quitting one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or choos ...

of MP Tracy Brabin to become Mayor of West Yorkshire.

Elections in the 2010s

a. Swing is calculated from the 2015 election, not the 2016 by-election which was not contested by major parties. Aleks Lukic's vote change is in comparison to the 2015 election, when he stood as a UKIP candidate.

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batley And Spen (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in Yorkshire and the Humber Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983 Politics of Kirklees