Penistone and Stocksbridge (UK Parliament constituency)
Penistone and Stocksbridge is a constituency[n 1] in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament represented since 2019 by Miriam Cates, a Conservative. As with all constituencies, adults qualifying to vote in the seat (its electorate) elect one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
Penistone and Stocksbridge | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
County | South Yorkshire |
Electorate | 70,311 (December 2019)[1] |
Major settlements | Stocksbridge, Penistone |
Current constituency | |
Created | 2010 |
Member of Parliament | Miriam Cates (Conservative) |
Seats | One |
Created from | Sheffield Hillsborough (part) (still extant) Barnsley West and Penistone (part) |
Boundaries
The Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley wards of Dodworth, Penistone East, and Penistone West, and the Sheffield wards of Stocksbridge and Upper Don, East Ecclesfield and West Ecclesfield.
History
The seat largely resembles the old Penistone Constituency, which, following the election of a Conservative in the Conservative landslide in 1931, returned MPs representing the Labour Party through to its abolition in 1983.
In 1983, two new constituencies were formed, Sheffield Hillsborough and Barnsley West and Penistone, both of which returned Labour MPs at every election they were fought.
The 2010 result was that of a marginal Labour majority. In 2015, the Labour majority increased, partly due to a split right-wing vote between the Conservatives and UKIP, while the Liberal Democrats' vote decline largely benefited Labour in the seat.
When the UKIP vote declined in 2017, with a large amount of those voters going to the Conservatives causing a swing of almost 6% against Labour, the seat became extremely marginal.
Elected as a member of the Labour Party, MP Angela Smith quit the party in February 2019 and joined Change UK. She left this party in June 2019 and joined The Independents. She departed the parliamentary group in September 2019 and joined the Liberal Democrats. Smith chose not to defend her seat at the 2019 election; she instead contested Altrincham and Sale West for the Liberal Democrats, failing to gain the seat. In this election, the Conservatives gained Penistone and Stocksbridge to gain one of three seats in South Yorkshire, their first since before the 1997 general election.
Constituency profile
The seat is most heavily populated on its eastern fringe, with communities built largely on the coal and steel industries, such as the ex-mining village of Dodworth and the steelworking town of Stocksbridge. Penistone too has a history of steelworking at the David Brown and high-tech foundries although many local people are or have been employed at the Hepworth pipeworks (formerly Hepworth Iron Co./Hepworth Building Products) which specialises in the manufacture of pipes, mains and domestic and whose fortunes vary with demand in construction. To the south lies the densely populated, northern Sheffield suburbs of Chapeltown with its rich industrial history, Ecclesfield, Grenoside and High Green. Between these urban areas are rural villages including Oxspring, Wortley, Green Moor and Thurgoland occupied mostly by commuters to Sheffield (as well as those for Leeds and Manchester). The western area of the constituency is in the Peak District National Park.
The seat contains three significant stately homes: Cannon Hall (home of the Spencer-Stanhope family of Pre-Raphaelites) is open to the public as the 13th/18th Royal Hussars Museum, while Wortley Hall (ancestral home of the Wortley-Montagu family) is largely used by trade unions and their families; the third is Wentworth Castle, where an adult educational establishment, Northern College, is based.[n 2]
Members of Parliament
Election | Member[2] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Angela Smith | Labour | |
2019 | Change UK | ||
Independent | |||
The Independents | |||
Liberal Democrats | |||
2019 | Miriam Cates | Conservative |
Elections
Elections in the 2010s
}
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Miriam Cates | 23,688 | 47.8 | 4.6 | |
Labour | Francyne Johnson | 16,478 | 33.3 | 12.5 | |
Liberal Democrats | Hannah Kitching | 5,054 | 10.2 | 6.1 | |
Brexit Party | John Booker | 4,300 | 8.7 | New | |
Majority | 7,210 | 14.5 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 49,520 | 69.8 | |||
Conservative gain from Labour | Swing | 8.6 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Angela Smith | 22,807 | 45.8 | 3.8 | |
Conservative | Nicola Wilson | 21,485 | 43.2 | 15.5 | |
UKIP | John Booker | 3,453 | 6.9 | 16.0 | |
Liberal Democrats | Penny Baker | 2,042 | 4.1 | 2.2 | |
Majority | 1,322 | 2.6 | 11.7 | ||
Turnout | 49,787 | 69.8 | 3.9 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | 5.8 | |||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Angela Smith | 19,691 | 42.0 | 4.2 | |
Conservative | Steven Jackson | 12,968 | 27.7 | 3.5 | |
UKIP | Graeme Waddicar | 10,738 | 22.9 | 18.7 | |
Liberal Democrats | Rosalyn Gordon | 2,957 | 6.3 | 14.8 | |
English Democrat | Colin Porter | 500 | 1.1 | ||
Majority | 6,723 | 14.3 | 7.7 | ||
Turnout | 46,854 | 65.9 | 2.0 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Angela Smith* | 17,565 | 37.8 | 7.4 | |
Conservative | Spencer Pitfield | 14,516 | 31.2 | 7.5 | |
Liberal Democrats | Ian Cuthbertson | 9,800 | 21.1 | 3.7 | |
BNP | Paul James | 2,207 | 4.7 | New | |
UKIP | Grant French | 1,936 | 4.2 | 2.5 | |
English Democrat | Paul McEnhill | 492 | 1.1 | New | |
Majority | 3,049 | 6.6 | |||
Turnout | 46,516 | 67.9 | 5.8 | ||
Labour win (new seat) |
- * Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament
Notes
- A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
- These are open for most of the year, the former as a regimental museum and the latter for special events, thus providing recreational and tourism income alongside the Peak District.
References
- "Constituency data: electorates – House of Commons Library". Parliament UK. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 1)
- "Penistone & Stocksbridge Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
- "Penistone and Stocksbridge". Sheffield City Council. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
- "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- "Penistone & Stocksbridge". BBC News. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
- "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
Sources
- Sheffield Recommendations of the Boundary Commission for England.
- Summary of the Sheffield Parliamentary Boundary Review.