Elmet and Rothwell (UK Parliament constituency)

Elmet and Rothwell is a constituency in West Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its creation in 2010 by Alec Shelbrooke, a Conservative.[n 1] In the 2017 general election, Elmet and Rothwell recorded the largest turnout of any seat in West or South Yorkshire, with almost 60,000 electors casting a vote.

Elmet and Rothwell
County constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Elmet and Rothwell in West Yorkshire
Location of West Yorkshire within England
CountyWest Yorkshire
Electorate80,957 (December 2019)[1]
Major settlementsRothwell, Garforth, Wetherby
Current constituency
Created2010
Member of ParliamentAlec Shelbrooke (Conservative)
Number of membersOne
Created fromElmet, Morley and Rothwell

The constituency includes rural hinterland and suburbs to the east of Leeds, including the historical market town of Wetherby and former coal mining towns and villages like Garforth and Kippax. The area is undergoing a transition from old mining communities to more affluent commuter and dormitory towns for the West Yorkshire Urban Area to the west. There is no town of Elmet: the name refers to an ancient Celtic kingdom in the area.

History

Following its review of parliamentary boundaries in West Yorkshire, the Boundary Commission for England created this constituency for the 2010 election which principally contains the three towns of Garforth, Rothwell and Wetherby.

Constituency profile

Situated to the east of Leeds is the seat of Elmet and Rothwell in West Yorkshire. The constituency is named after the town of Rothwell and the ancient British Celtic kingdom of Elmet. The market town of Wetherby and the suburb communities of Garforth, Rothwell and Kippax have largely become commuter towns for Leeds.

This is mostly white, owner-occupier territory, with only one in 10 living in social housing, according to ONS 2011 Census figures for England and Wales. Considering this, below average levels of adults here claim Job Seeker's Allowance, with only 1% of constituents doing so. A quarter of the population works in retail and manufacturing; four in 10 have a professional, managerial or technical job, while one in 20 is an apprentice. 28% of constituents have a university degree or higher.

The area has below average levels of immigration. Only 4% of the constituency were born outside the UK, compared to 13% nationally.[2]

Elmet and Rothwell ranks 206th in a list of the largest constituencies in the UK (geographical size), and 248th in a list of the largest constituencies by population size. It is the safest seat for the Conservative Party in West Yorkshire.

Academic analysis suggests that roughly 56% of electors in the constituency voted to Leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.[3]

Boundaries

The five City of Leeds wards of Garforth and Swillington, Harewood, Kippax and Methley, Rothwell and Wetherby.

Members of Parliament
Alec Shelbrooke, Member of Parliament for Elmet and Rothwell since 2010
ElectionMember[4] Party
2010Alec ShelbrookeConservative

Elections
For results before 2010, see Elmet and Morley and Rothwell

Elections in the 2010s

The 2019 election saw Elmet and Rothwell continue to be the safest Conservative seat in West Yorkshire. A significant swing of nearly 7% to the Conservatives was recorded, in line with many seats in the area.

General election 2019: Elmet and Rothwell[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Alec Shelbrooke 33,726 57.9 +3.6
Labour David Nagle 16,373 28.1 -9.8
Liberal Democrats Stewart Golton 5,155 8.9 +4.5
Green Penny Stables 1,775 3.1 +1.4
Yorkshire Party Matt Clover 1,196 2.1 +0.3
Majority 17,353 29.8 +13.3
Turnout 58,225 71.9 -2.3
Conservative hold Swing +6.7

By numerical vote share and percentage majority, the 2017 general election saw Elmet and Rothwell become the safest Conservative seat in West Yorkshire.

General election 2017: Elmet and Rothwell [6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Alec Shelbrooke 32,352 54.3 +5.9
Labour David Nagle 22,547 37.9 +4.1
Liberal Democrats Stewart Golton 2,606 4.4 -0.2
Yorkshire Party Matthew Clover 1,042 1.8 N/A
Green Dylan Brown 995 1.7 -0.5
Majority 9,805 16.5 +1.8
Turnout 59,542 74.2 +1.2
Conservative hold Swing +0.9
General election 2015: Elmet and Rothwell[7][8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Alec Shelbrooke 27,978 48.4 +5.8
Labour Veronica King 19,488 33.7 -0.8
UKIP Paul Spivey 6,430 11.1 +8.3
Liberal Democrats Stewart Golton 2,640 4.6 -11.8
Green Dave Brooks 1,261 2.2 +2.2
Majority 8,490 14.7 +6.6
Turnout 57,797 73.0 +1.2
Conservative hold Swing +3.3

This new constituency of Elmet and Rothwell was fought for the first time at the 2010 general election.

General election 2010: Elmet and Rothwell[9][10]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Alec Shelbrooke 23,778 42.6 +8.1
Labour James Lewis 19,257 34.5 -11.4
Liberal Democrats Stewart Golton 9,109 16.3 -1.0
BNP Sam Clayton 1,802 3.2 +0.9
UKIP Darren Oddy 1,593 2.9 +2.9
Independent Christopher Nolan 250 0.4 +0.4
Majority 4,521 8.1 +6.6
Turnout 55,789 71.8 +2.0
Conservative win (new seat)
gollark: Why write maintainable code if you could write cryptic incomprehensible code for job security?
gollark: ```haskellmain = putStrLn "Hello, world!"```
gollark: I'm at the point of knowing the syntax and basic libraries and stuff, but I have no idea how to write useful code.
gollark: Also monads, which are burritos, oranges in a radioactive spacesuit, and also `Monad m => (a -> m b) -> m a -> m b`.
gollark: I find it very hard to reason about code which frequently ends up chopping up infinite lists.

See also

Notes and references
Notes
  1. Like all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
References
  1. "Elmet & Rothwell Parliamentary constituency". BBC. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  2. "Elmet and Rothwell Parliamentary Profile". 2011 Electorate Figures. BBC. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  3. Hanretty, Chris (18 August 2016). "Revised estimates of Leave vote share in Westminster constituencies". Medium.
  4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "E" (part 2)
  5. https://www.leeds.gov.uk/your-council/elections/parliamentary-general-election/elmet-and-rothwell
  6. "Elmet & Rothwell parliamentary constituency – Election 2017" – via www.bbc.com.
  7. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  8. "Elmet & Rothwell". BBC News. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  9. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  10. "UK > England > Yorkshire & the Humber > Elmet & Rothwell". Election 2010. BBC. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
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