Milton Keynes South West was 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, ...

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

Parliament of the United Kingdom 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 ...

from 1992 to 2010. It elected one

Member of Parliament (MP) 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 often ...

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

Construction of Milton Keynes began in 1967, as a

new town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. Until 1983, it was part of the

Buckingham Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...

constituency. As its population grew, Milton Keynes then gained its own constituency, which was taken by William Benyon 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 ...

. Uniquely outside the normal cycle of periodic reviews by the

Boundary Commission A boundary commission is a legal entity that determines borders of nations, states, constituencies. Notable boundary commissions have included: * Afghan Boundary Commission, an Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission, of 1885 and 1893, delineated the no ...

, the continuing expansion in the population of Milton Keynes led to this constituency being divided in two for the 1992 general election (Milton Keynes South West and North East Milton Keynes). The new South West constituency was taken by

Barry Legg Barry Charles Legg (born 30 May 1949) was the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Milton Keynes South West from 1992 until the 1997 general election when he was defeated by Labour's Phyllis Starkey. Legg is the chairman of the Eurosc ...

of the Conservatives, who lost the seat to

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 ...

Phyllis Starkey Phyllis Margaret Starkey (née Williams; born 4 January 1947) is a British Labour party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Milton Keynes South West from 1997 to 2010. She had previously served as Leader of Oxford City Counci ...

in the 1997 election. The Milton Keynes South West seat was abolished, and replaced with the Milton Keynes South seat for the 2010 general election. Phyllis Starkey ran in the Milton Keynes South seat, but lost to the Conservative candidate Iain Stewart.

Boundaries

The constituency was one of two covering the

Borough of Milton Keynes A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

. It included the more urban parts of the borough:

Bletchley Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in the south-west of Milton Keynes, and is split between the civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley. Bletchley is best known ...

Fenny Stratford Fenny Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and in the Civil Parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Originally an independent town, it was included in the Milton Keynes " designated area" in 1967. From 189 ...

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

, the Shenlies, Stony Stratford and more modern districts in between. The constituency consisted of 12 electoral wards of the Borough of Milton Keynes: Church Green, Denbigh, Eaton, Fenny Stratford, Loughton, Manor Farm, Newton, Stony Stratford, Whaddon, Wolverton, Wolverton Stacey Bushes, and Woughton. The Stony Stratford, Wolverton and Wolverton Stacey Bushes wards were transferred from the

constituency.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, the

Boundary Commission for England The boundary commissions in the United Kingdom are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of constituencies for elections to the House of Commons. There are four boundary commissions: * Boundary Commission for ...

created two new seats for Milton Keynes, effectively replacing the current South West/North East division with a

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

division from the 2010 general election.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milton Keynes South West Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1992 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2010 Politics of Milton Keynes Parliamentary constituencies in Buckinghamshire (historic)