Rochdale | |
Parliament: | uk |
Year: | 1950 |
Type: | County |
Elects Howmany: | One |
Electorate: | 71,697 (2023)[1] |
Region: | England |
European: | North West England |
Year2: | 1832 |
Abolished2: | 1950 |
Type2: | Borough |
Elects Howmany2: | One |
Rochdale is a constituency, which is currently represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by Paul Waugh of the Labour and Co-operative Party since 2024. Rochdale has elected one Member of Parliament (MP) since its creation in 1832.
As there were no township boundaries in 1832, the original constituency was defined as a circular area in a radius of three-quarters of a mile from the old market place in Rochdale. In 1868 the boundary was extended to include Wardleworth, Spotland, Wuerdle, Belfield, Newbold, Buersill, and Marland.[2]
1918–1950: The County Borough of Rochdale
1950–1983: As prior but with redrawn boundaries
1983–1997: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone, Brimrod and Deeplish, Castleton, Central and Falinge, Healey, Newbold, Norden and Bamford, Smallbridge and Wardleworth, and Spotland
1997–2010: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone, Brimrod and Deeplish, Central and Falinge, Healey, Littleborough, Newbold, Smallbridge and Wardleworth, Spotland, and Wardle
2010–2024: The Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone and Kirkholt, Central Rochdale, Healey, Kingsway, Littleborough Lakeside, Milkstone and Deeplish, Milnrow and Newhey, Smallbridge and Firgrove, Spotland and Falinge, and Wardle and West Littleborough
2024–present: Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, the composition of the constituency from the 2024 general election will be reduced to bring the electorate within the permitted range. This will be achieved by transferring the Spotland and Falinge ward to the new constituency of Heywood and Middleton North.[3]
Rochdale was one of the constituencies created by the Reform Act of 1832, and has been a Labour Party/Liberal Democrat marginal for many years, although it was held by the Conservatives for part of the 1950s, until a 1958 by-election.
It was held for two decades by Cyril Smith, first of the Liberal Party and then of the Liberal Democrats. He won a by-election in 1972, taking the seat from Labour, and held it until his retirement in 1992. After Smith's death it emerged that he had been a serial child abuser.[4]
Since Smith's retirement, contests have been tighter. The Liberal Democrats held the seat with Liz Lynne at the 1992 general election, but lost to Labour's Lorna Fitzsimons at the 1997 election. However, the Liberal Democrats regained the seat at the 2005 election, with Paul Rowen.
In 2010, the town was brought to national attention when the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught on a tape recording describing a local woman, Gillian Duffy, as a "bigot" after having a conversation with her while campaigning (later described as Bigotgate by the UK media). Despite this unfavourable publicity, Labour still managed to narrowly win the seat from the Liberal Democrats; and in 2015 achieved their highest majority in the seat's history, with the Liberal Democrats falling to fourth place.
The constituency is one of two covering the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It contains most of the town of Rochdale itself as well as Littleborough, Wardle and some of the surrounding rural area.
For the 2010 UK general election, the seat gained the villages of Milnrow and Newhey from Oldham East and Saddleworth and lost the areas of Sudden, Marland, and part of Norden to Heywood and Middleton, a 19.16% boundary change. Those changes made the seat a notional Labour victory in the Rallings and Thrasher figures[5] which were used by the Press Association for determining gains, losses and swings. However, other predictions by political commentator Martin Baxter[6] showed the seat maintaining a narrow Lib Dem majority. The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2010 estimated that had the seat been fought on these boundaries in 2005, Labour would have won the seat with approximately 40.9% of the vote to the Liberal Democrats' 40.7%.[7]
The population was recorded as 114,386 in 2021. The ethnic composition was 62.7% White, 29.6% Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh, and 3.1% Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African.[8] The religious composition was 38.1% Christian, 30.5% Muslim, and 0.9% other. 26.0% claimed no religious affiliation.
Election | Member | Party | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Whig[9] [10] [11] | ||||
Conservative | ||||
1837 | Whig | |||
Radical[12] [13] [14] [15] [16] | ||||
Alexander Ramsay | Conservative[17] [18] [19] | |||
Liberal | ||||
Conservative | ||||
Liberal | ||||
Unionist | ||||
Labour | ||||
Liberal | ||||
Labour | ||||
Conservative | ||||
Labour | ||||
Conservative | ||||
Labour | ||||
Liberal | ||||
1987 | Liberal Democrats | |||
Labour | ||||
Liberal Democrats | ||||
2010 | Simon Danczuk | Labour | ||
2015 | Independent[20] | |||
Labour | ||||
2024 by-election | George Galloway | Workers Party | ||
2024 | Paul Waugh | Labour Co-op |
2019 notional result[21] | |||
---|---|---|---|
Party | Vote | % | |
21,379 | 50.8 | ||
13,270 | 31.6 | ||
3,451 | 8.2 | ||
3,168 | 7.5 | ||
790 | 1.9 | ||
Turnout | 42,058 | 58.7 | |
Electorate | 71,697 |
The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2010 reported that based on the notional 2005 result on the new boundaries the Labour vote had fallen by 4.5% and the Liberal Democrat vote had fallen by 6.1%, while the Conservative voteshare increased by 7.6%.[7]
A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the summer of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place.