Cheltenham (/ˈtʃɛltənəm/) is a constituency[n 1] in Gloucestershire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1832. As with all constituencies, it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years. Since 2024, its MP has been Max Wilkinson of the Liberal Democrats.
Boundaries and boundary changes
The constituency is based on the town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, covering a different, slightly smaller area than the borough of the same name. It is bordered by the Tewkesbury and Cotswolds seats.
1885-1918: The existing parliamentary borough, and so much of the parish of Charlton Kings as lay to the north of the railway from Cheltenham to Banbury.[3]
1918–1950: The Municipal Borough of Cheltenham and the Urban District of Charlton Kings.[4]
1950–1983: As 1918 but with redrawn boundaries.
1983–1997: The Borough of Cheltenham, and the Borough of Tewkesbury wards of Leckhampton with Up Hatherley, Prestbury St Mary's, and Prestbury St Nicolas.
Leckhampton, Up Hatherley and Prestbury were added to the seat from the Cirencester and Tewkesbury constituency; they had previously been in the abolished Cheltenham Rural District.
1997–2010: The Borough of Cheltenham wards of All Saints, Charlton Kings, College, Hatherley and The Reddings, Hesters Way, Lansdown, Park, Pittville, St Mark's, St Paul's, and St Peter's.
Leckhampton, Up Hatherley and Prestbury were transferred to the new Tewkesbury constituency; they had been incorporated into the redrawn Borough of Cheltenham in 1991.
2010–2024: The Borough of Cheltenham wards of All Saints, Battledown, Benhall and The Reddings, Charlton Kings, Charlton Park, College, Hesters Way, Lansdown, Leckhampton, Oakley, Park, Pittville, St Mark's, St Paul's, St Peter's, Springbank, Up Hatherley, and Warden Hill.
Leckhampton and Up Hatherley were transferred back from the Tewkesbury constituency.
2024–present: As above minus Springbank ward.
Reduced to bring the electorate within the permitted range by transferring the Springbank ward to the Tewkesbury constituency.
Constituency profile
Famous for its racecourse which hosts the annual Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, with a long-established girls' school and right at the edge of the Cotswold Hills, Cheltenham has a large tourism sector. GE Aviation is a large employer and GCHQ, the government communications centre, is here, so numbers of highly skilled workers and professionals (47.5% in the year ended September 2014[5]) are well above the national average (44.6%[5]). One of the West of England's most upmarket towns, the few neighbourhoods of medium levels in the Index of Multiple Deprivation are almost wholly in Hester's Way ward which has the most social housing. About 10% [citation needed] of the electorate are students at the University of Gloucestershire just outside the compact town centre. A Liberal Democrat served the seat from 1992 when their candidate Nigel Jones overturned four decades of Conservative MPs to 2015 when the Tories regained the seat.
History
Cheltenham borough constituency was created in the Great Reform Act of 1832 and has returned nine Liberals (or Liberal Democrats) and nine Conservatives to Parliament since that time, along with one independent.
A Conservative served the constituency from 1950 until 1992. The Conservatives' campaign in the 1992 general election following the Poll Tax riots saw a local party member make racist remarks about their own candidate, John Taylor, who was of Afro-Caribbean descent. Taylor lost the election to Nigel Jones of the Liberal Democrats.
In 2000, Jones was nearly murdered in a horrific incident at one of his MP's surgeries; a man attacked him and an assistant with a samurai sword. His colleague Andrew Pennington was killed in the attack. Jones was made a life peer in 2005. The Liberal Democrats held Cheltenham in the 2005 election when Martin Horwood won the election, and again in 2010, but lost when the Conservatives retook the seat in 2015.
In 2019, Cheltenham was one of five English constituencies, the others being Esher and Walton, Westmorland and Lonsdale, Winchester and East Devon, where Labour failed to obtain over 5% of the vote and lost their deposit.[17]
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;
A general election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election.
^A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
References
^"Cheltenham: Usual Resident Population, 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
^"The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume two: Constituency names, designations and composition – South West". Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
^"Chap. 23. Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885". The Public General Acts of the United Kingdom passed in the forty-eighth and forty-ninth years of the reign of Queen Victoria. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1885. pp. 111–198.
^Fraser, Hugh (1918). The Representation of the People Act, 1918: with explanatory notes. London: Sweet and Maxwell.
^ ab"Constituency Profile". nomis Constituency Profile for Cheltenham. Source: Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
^Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 3)
^ abcHorwood, Martin. "The Honourable Craven Berkeley". Martin Horwood for Cheltenham. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
^ abcBenson, Derek (2012). "William Penn Gaskell (1808–1882)". Cheltenham Local History Society Journal (28). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
^ abc"The General Election". The Spectator. 31 July 1847. p. 2. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
^ abcMosse, Richard B. (1838). The Parliamentary Guide: a concise history of the Members of both Houses, etc. p. 142. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
^ abcdeStooks Smith, Henry. (1973) [1844–1850]. Craig, F. W. S. (ed.). The Parliaments of England (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 114. ISBN 0-900178-13-2.
^ abHorwood, Martin. "Grenville Berkeley". Martin Horwood for Cheltenham. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
^Horwood, Martin. "Colonel Francis Berkeley". Martin Horwood for Cheltenham. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
^"Cheltenham Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
^"Notional results for a UK general election on 12 December 2019". Rallings & Thrasher, Professor David Denver (Scotland), Nicholas Whyte (NI) for Sky News, PA, BBC News and ITV News. UK Parliament. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
^"Election results 2019: Greens lose the most deposits - BBC News".
^"2019 Election Results". Retrieved 13 December 2019.
^"UK Parliamentary election: Cheltenham constituency Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll" (PDF). Cheltenham Borough Council. Patricia Pratley, Acting Returning Officer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
^"General Election 2017: Cheltenham MP Alex Chalk says Conservative victory would provide stability". Gloucestershire Live. 19 April 2017. Archived from the original on 19 April 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
^"Horwood 'delighted' to be Lib Dem candidate amid "orgy of infighting"". Gloucestershire Live. 21 July 2016. Archived from the original on 19 April 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
^"General Election 2017: Former Cheltenham MP says "it's a nakedly opportunistic election to call"". Gloucestershire Live. 18 April 2017. Archived from the original on 19 April 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
^"Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^Council, Cheltenham Borough (7 May 2015). "Election results for Cheltenham, 7 May 2015". democracy.cheltenham.gov.uk.
^"UKIP Cheltenham". ukipcheltenham.org.uk. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
^jrmaidment (29 October 2014). "Cheltenham Decides 2015: Meet the independent MP candidate Richard Lupson-Darnell". Glocestershire Echo. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
^"Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^Percentage change and swing for 2010 is calculated relative to the PA (Rallings and Thrasher) 2005 notional result, not actual 2005 result "Press Association Elections". Press Association. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
^"Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"Doctor plans to fight West seat". BBC News. 15 April 2005.
^"Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^Percentage change and swing for 1997 is calculated relative to the Rallings and Thrasher 1992 notional constituency result, not actual 1992 result. See C. Rallings & M. Thrasher, The Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies (Plymouth: LGC Elections Centre, 1995)
^"Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
^"Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^Percentage change and swing for 1983 is calculated relative to the BBC/ITN 1979 notional constituency result, not actual 1979 result. See British Broadcasting Corporation; Independent Television News. The BBC/ITN Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies (Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services 1983)
^‘LEMKIN, James Anthony’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 18 Oct 2017
^ abcCraig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
^ abDebrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
^Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1886
^ abcdefghijklmnopCraig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
^"Election Intelligence". North Devon Gazette. 13 May 1856. p. 3. Retrieved 27 April 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"Cheltenham Election". Cheltenham Chronicle. 10 July 1855. p. 2. Retrieved 27 April 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ abcWilliam, William Retlaw (1898). The parliamentary history of the county of Gloucester, including the cities of Bristol and Gloucester, and the boroughs of Cheltenham, Cirencester, Stroud, and Tewkesbury, from the earliest times to the present day, 1213–1898. Herford: Jakeman and Carver. pp. 145–150.
^"Cheltenham Election Petition". Cheltenham Journal and Gloucestershire Fashionable Weekly Gazette. 14 August 1848. p. 3. Retrieved 1 November 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"Miscellaneous". Sheffield Independent. 3 June 1848. p. 5. Retrieved 1 November 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"The Elections". Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser. 3 July 1841. p. 7. Retrieved 1 November 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
External links
nomis Constituency Profile for Cheltenham – presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics.
Cheltenham UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK
Cheltenham UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK