Watford (UK Parliament constituency)
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Watford 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, ...
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
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 ...
MP
Dean Russell Dean Russell (born 8 May 1976) is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Watford since the 2019 general election. He served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Enterprise and Markets f ...
.


History

Before the
Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 23) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equal ...
the area was part of the three-seat constituency of
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
. Upon this act, it took up the western division of the county; however, later seats such as
South West Hertfordshire South West Hertfordshire is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, represented since 2019 by Gagan Mohindra, a Conservative. Constituency profile Elevated and bordering Greater London and Buckinghamshire, this part of Her ...
, established in 1950, have reduced its reach, as settlements in those areas, and Watford itself, have grown. ;Political history The seat has been a
bellwether A bellwether is a leader or an indicator of trends.bellwether
" ''Cambridge Dictionary''. Ret ...
of the national result since February 1974, and since 1945 has only voted against the winning party twice: in
1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...
and
1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
. Watford saw considerable
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 ...
opposition in 2005, achieving second place, taking many
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 ...
votes with the
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 ...
candidate close behind. Before the 2010 general election it was a three-way
marginal seat A marginal seat or swing seat is a constituency held with a small majority in a legislative election, generally one conducted under a single-winner voting system. In Canada, they may be known as target ridings. The opposite is a safe seat. The ...
in which local Tories, Labour supporters and Liberal Democrats aimed to garner support for their candidate. This election in Watford was won by Richard Harrington (Con) with 34.9% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats narrowly missed out on the seat with 32.4% of the vote and the defeat for Labour's candidate, Claire Ward, was a pronounced change with 26.7% of the vote. In 2015, the result saw a significantly increased majority for Harrington of more than 9,000 votes over Labour, whilst the Liberal Democrats fell back to third. The 2017 election saw Labour significantly cut the Conservative majority to 2,092. Harrington retired at the 2019 election, when a new Conservative candidate, Dean Russell, increased the majority to 4,433 over Labour. ;Prominent frontbenchers Dennis Herbert was Deputy Speaker from 1931 to 1943. Major John Freeman was only a third-tier (junior) minister in the War Office as MP. His later unusually prominent positions in diplomacy led to his being appointed a member of the
Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
and thereby being
Rt Hon ''The Right Honourable'' (abbreviation: ''Rt Hon.'' or variations) is an honorific style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations. The term is ...
as of 1966.
Tristan Garel-Jones William Armand Thomas Tristan Garel-Jones, Baron Garel-Jones, PC (28 February 1941 – 23 March 2020) was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Watford from 1979 to 1997, befor ...
was
Minister for Europe Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of governme ...
for three years of the Major ministry. Both Herbert and Garel-Jones opted as peers in later life to use ''Watford'' as the territorial designation of their
peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks. Peerages include: Australia * Australian peers Belgium * Belgi ...
s.


Constituency profile

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...
has a considerable service sector economy, with several notable headquarters, and engineering, trade-craft, and distribution in its economy. However, it is also a commuter town to the
City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
.
British Waterways British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotlan ...
,
J D Wetherspoon J D Wetherspoon plc (branded variously as Wetherspoon or Wetherspoons, and colloquially known as Spoons) is a pub company operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company was founded in 1979 by Tim Martin and is based in Watford. It o ...
,
Camelot Group The Camelot Group is the operator of the UK National Lottery whose current franchise period started in 2009 and runs until February 2024. It has also operated the Illinois State Lottery in the state of Illinois in the United States since 20 ...
,
Iveco IVECO, an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger o ...
, manufacturers of commercial vehicles; part of
Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Balfour Beatty works ac ...
;
Bathstore Bathstore.com Ltd., (also known as bathstore) is the largest specialist bathroom retailer in the United Kingdom. History Bathstore was originally started in the beginning of the 1990s by Patrick Riley and Nico de Beer, with the idea to bring q ...
, the largest bathroom retailer in the UK; construction firm
Taylor Woodrow Taylor Woodrow was one of the largest housebuilding and general construction companies in Britain. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until its merger with rival George Wimpey to create Ta ...
; and
Mothercare Mothercare plc is a British retailer which specialises in products for expectant mothers and in general merchandise for children up to eight years of age. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap In ...
are the largest of these. The borough is also the UK base of many multinationals including
C. H. Robinson C.H. Robinson is an American ''Fortune'' 200 provider of multimodal transportation services and third-party logistics (3PL). For 2021, it was ranked 5th in the world and 1st in the US among third-party logistics providers by gross logistics reve ...
,
Total Oil TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration an ...
,
TK Maxx TK Maxx is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts. The stores operate throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands, totalli ...
,
Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...
, Vinci and
Beko Beko ( ; stylized as beko) is a Turkish major appliance and consumer electronics brand of Arçelik A.Ş. controlled by Koç Holding. History Beko Elektronik A.Ş. was founded by Vehbi Koç, the founder of Koç Holding (who also founded Arà ...
appliances. International golf tournaments such as the 2006
World Golf Championship The World Golf Championships (WGC) are a group of annual professional golf tournaments created by the International Federation of PGA Tours as a means of gathering the best players in the world together more frequently than the pre-existing four ...
have taken place at The Grove hotel. Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 3.0% 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 ...
''.


Boundaries and boundary changes

1885–1918: Parts of the Sessional Division of Watford and Dacorum. The constituency was established by the
Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 23) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equal ...
(which followed on from the
Third Reform Act In the United Kingdom under the premiership of William Gladstone, the Representation of the People Act 1884 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 3, also known informally as the Third Reform Act) and the Redistribution Act of the following year were laws which ...
) as one of four Divisions of the abolished three-member Parliamentary County of
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
, and was formally named as the Western or Watford Division of Hertfordshire. It included the towns of
Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...
,
Rickmansworth Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and ...
,
Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...
,
Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...
and
Tring Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...
. 1918–1950: The Urban Districts of Bushey, Chorleywood, Rickmansworth, and Watford, and the Rural District of Watford parishes of Aldenham, Rickmansworth Rural and Watford Rural.
Aldenham Aldenham is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, north-east of Watford and southwest of Radlett. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and is one of Hertsmere's 14 conservation areas. The village has eight pre-19th-century listed buil ...
transferred from
St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...
.  Northern half of constituency, including Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring transferred to the new
Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...
Division. 1950–1983: Reconstituted as a Borough Constituency comprising the Municipal Borough of Watford.  Remainder of the constituency formed the bulk of the new County Constituency of
South West Hertfordshire South West Hertfordshire is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, represented since 2019 by Gagan Mohindra, a Conservative. Constituency profile Elevated and bordering Greater London and Buckinghamshire, this part of Her ...
. 1983–1997: The Borough of Watford, the District of Three Rivers wards of Abbots Langley and Leavesden, and the District of St Albans wards of Park Street and St Stephens. Abbots Langley and Leavesden transferred from South West Hertfordshire and Park Street and St Stephens from the abolished County Constituency of South Hertfordshire. 1997–present: The Borough of Watford, and the District of Three Rivers wards of Abbots Langley, Carpenders Park, Langleybury, Leavesden, and Oxhey Hall. Three wards further wards in the Three Rivers District transferred from South West Hertfordshire.  Park Street and St Stephens transferred to St Albans. The constituency comprises the whole of the Borough of
Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...
, together with five wards from Three Rivers District. Two of the Three Rivers wards, Carpenders Park and
Oxhey Hall South Oxhey is a suburb of Watford in the Watford Rural parish of the Three Rivers (district), Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire, England. It is located in the south western corner of Hertfordshire and close to the boundary with Greater Lond ...
, are to the south of Watford town and include mostly prosperous, elevated, commuter villages. The remaining three,
Abbots Langley Abbots Langley is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is an old settlement and is mentioned (under the name of Langelai) in the Domesday Book. Economically the village is closely linked to Watford and was ...
,
Langleybury Langleybury is a country house and estate in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of the centre of the town of Watford. The house stands on a low hill above the valley of the River Gade. Owners Raymond 1711–1756 The estate ...
and Leavesden, are to the north of Watford, the first of which is a large village, and is mixed in character and levels of income.


Members of Parliament


Elections


Elections in the 2010s

;Background to Conservative candidates In July 2007 former candidate
Ali Miraj Mohammad Ali Miraj (born October 1974) is a British former Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party Prospective parliamentary candidate, parliamentary candidate, chartered accountant, and part-time DJ from London. Political career Miraj bec ...
, a candidate for
Aberavon Aberavon ( cy, Aberafan) is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a distri ...
in
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
, was dropped from the candidates list by 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 ...
after he complained about
David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
's leadership style and allegedly demanded a peerage. The public selected his former campaign manager Ian Oakley, who had been a candidate for Newport East in
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
in the first
Open Primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...
to be organised by the Conservative Party in November 2006. In July 2008, Oakley, withdrew candidature after being arrested for conducting a campaign of harassment against the local Liberal Democrats, for which he was convicted and given an 18-week suspended prison sentence and 12-month supervision order on 13 October 2008. In December 2008 Watford Conservative Association selected a new candidate, Richard Harrington.


Elections in the 2000s


Elections in the 1990s


Elections in the 1980s


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


Election results 1885–1918


Elections in the 1880s


Elections in the 1890s


Elections in the 1900s


Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1914–15: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected; *Unionist: Arnold Ward *Liberal: Hedley Le BasManchester Evening News 31 Jan 1914


See also

* Parliamentary constituencies in Hertfordshire


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watford (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in Hertfordshire Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1885 Politics of Watford Politics of Three Rivers District