Wallsend (UK Parliament constituency)

Wallsend
Wallsend
Former borough constituency; for the House of Commons
County	1918–1974: Northumberland; 1974–1997: Tyne and Wear
1918–1997
Seats	One
Created from	Tyneside
Replaced by	Newcastle upon Tyne East & Wallsend and North Tyneside

Wallsend was a parliamentary constituency centred on Wallsend, a town on the north bank of the River Tyne in North Tyneside.

It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1997.

History

Wallsend was created as a parliamentary borough constituency under the Representation of the People Act 1918 and was formed from the majority of the abolished Northumberland county division of Tyneside.

It was abolished for the 1997 general election when the majority of the constituency formed the new seat of North Tyneside, but the town of Wallsend itself (the Wallsend and Northumberland wards) was added to Newcastle upon Tyne East to form Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend. Although this was reversed at the next periodic review of constituencies for the 2010 general election, the former constituency name was not re-established, so Wallsend is now included in the North Tyneside constituency.

After middle-class Gosforth was moved out of the seat in the 1983 boundary changes, the constituency had the country's highest percentage of working-class voters at 84% of the electorate.^[1]

Boundaries

1918–1950

the Municipal Borough of Wallsend; and
the Urban Districts of Gosforth, Longbenton, and Weetslade.^[2]

1950–1983

the Municipal Borough of Wallsend; and
the Urban Districts of Gosforth and Longbenton.^[3]

Weetslade UD had been absorbed by Longbenton UD in 1935, but the constituency boundaries remained largely unchanged.

1983–1997

the Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside wards of Battle Hill, Benton, Camperdown, Holystone, Howdon, Longbenton, Northumberland, Valley, Wallsend, and Weetslade.^[4]

As a result of the reorganisation of local authorities resulting from the Local Government Act 1972, the area comprising the former Urban District of Gosforth was now part of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne and consequently included in the constituencies of Newcastle upon Tyne Central and Newcastle upon Tyne North. The constituency gained the communities of Backworth and Earsdon which had previously been part of the seat of Blyth. Other minor boundary changes in line with changes to local authority and ward boundaries.

Members of Parliament

	Member^[5]	Party
1918	Matt Simm	National Democratic
1922	Sir Patrick Hastings	Labour
1926 by-election	Margaret Bondfield	Labour
1931	Irene Ward	Conservative
1945	John McKay	Labour
1964	Ted Garrett	Labour
1992	Stephen Byers	Labour
1997	constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Wallsend^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
C	National Democratic	Matt Simm	10,246	50.9
	Labour	John Chapman	6,835	34.0
	Liberal	J. M. Robertson	3,047	15.1
Majority			3,411	16.9
Turnout			20,128	54.8
Registered electors			36,739
	National Democratic win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Wallsend^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Hastings	14,248	46.8	+12.8
	Unionist	Christopher Lowther	11,425	37.6	New
	Liberal	Thomas George Graham	2,908	9.6	−5.5
	National Liberal	Matt Simm	1,840	6.0	New
Majority			2,823	9.2	N/A
Turnout			30,421	82.2	+27.4
Registered electors			37,001
	Labour gain from National Democratic		Swing	+28.9

General election 1923: Wallsend^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Hastings	16,126	55.5	+8.7
	Unionist	Christopher Lowther	12,950	44.5	+6.9
Majority			3,176	11.0	+1.8
Turnout			29,076	82.2	0.0
Registered electors			38,435
	Labour hold		Swing	+0.9

General election 1924: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Hastings	17,274	52.4	−3.1
	Unionist	Sam Howard	15,672	47.6	+3.1
Majority			1,602	4.8	−6.2
Turnout			32,946	85.4	+9.8
Registered electors			38,598
	Labour hold		Swing	−3.1

1926 Wallsend by-election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Margaret Bondfield	18,866	57.7	+5.3
	Unionist	Sam Howard	9,839	30.1	−17.5
	Liberal	Aaron Curry	4,000	12.2	New
Majority			9,027	27.6	+22.8
Turnout			32,705	82.9	−2.5
Registered electors			39,460
	Labour hold		Swing	+11.4

General election 1929: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Margaret Bondfield	20,057	49.5	−2.9
	Unionist	Walter Waring	12,952	31.9	−15.7
	Liberal	Samuel Phillips	6,790	16.7	N/A
	Communist	Wal Hannington	744	1.8	New
Majority			7,105	17.6	+12.8
Turnout			40,543	80.2	−5.2
Registered electors			50,578
	Labour hold		Swing	+6.5

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Irene Ward	25,999	58.57
	Labour	Margaret Bondfield	18,393	41.43
Majority			7,606	17.14	N/A
Turnout			44,392	84.92
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General election 1935: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Irene Ward	23,842	52.62
	Labour	Margaret Bondfield	21,463	47.37
Majority			2,379	5.25
Turnout			45,304	81.26
	Conservative hold		Swing

Election in the 1940s

General election 1945: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John McKay	32,065	60.06
	Conservative	Irene Ward	21,319	39.94
Majority			10,746	20.12	N/A
Turnout			53,384	78.86
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John McKay	33,790	56.35
	Conservative	Dudley Fitz Mowbray Appleby	21,643	36.09
	Liberal	John William Craggs	4,532	7.56	New
Majority			12,147	20.26
Turnout			59,965	87.55
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1951: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	John McKay	35,678	58.70
	Conservative	Gerald C. Crangle	25,099	41.30
Majority			10,579	17.40
Turnout			60,777	87.18
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1955: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	John McKay	34,625	57.80
	Conservative	Brian Baird	25,275	42.20
Majority			9,350	15.60
Turnout			59,900	81.02
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1959: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	John McKay	37,862	56.55
	Conservative	Brian Baird	29,096	43.45
Majority			8,766	13.10
Turnout			66,958	83.45
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ted Garrett	39,841	60.42
	Conservative	Brian Baird	26,096	39.58
Majority			13,745	20.84
Turnout			65,937	81.54
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1966: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ted Garrett	39,744	65.21
	Conservative	Peter Coles Price	21,205	34.79
Majority			18,539	30.42
Turnout			60,949	77.48
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ted Garrett	39,065	61.31
	Conservative	Earl M. White	24,650	38.69
Majority			14,415	22.62
Turnout			63,715	74.18
	Labour hold		Swing

General election February 1974: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ted Garrett	41,811	61.96
	Conservative	J. Chambers	24,564	36.40
	Workers Revolutionary	D. Temple	1,108	1.64	New
Majority			17,247	25.56
Turnout			67,483	75.49
	Labour hold		Swing

General election October 1974: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ted Garrett	37,180	58.11
	Conservative	J. Chambers	15,911	24.87
	Liberal	P. Hampton	10,453	16.34	New
	Workers Revolutionary	K. Flynn	435	0.68
Majority			21,269	33.24
Turnout			63,979	70.85
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1979: Wallsend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ted Garrett	38,214	55.14
	Conservative	Liddell Johnston	21,695	31.30
	Liberal	P. Ryan	8,514	12.28
	National Front	Ian Hunter	472	0.68	New
	Workers Revolutionary	K. Flynn	412	0.59
Majority			16,519	23.84
Turnout			69,307	75.90
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1980s

Joan Phylactou, twice SDP candidate, was a senior lecturer at Newcastle Polytechnic. 1983 Conservative candidate Mary Leigh was a solicitor and councillor for St Leonard's ward in Lambeth. 1987 Conservative candidate David Milburn was a salesman and trade unionist who had previously been a Labour member before joining the Conservatives in 1974; at the party's 1980 conference he had called for Keith Joseph to be sacked and Edward Heath brought into the cabinet, accusing the Thatcher government of murder over unemployment-linked suicides.

General election 1983: Wallsend^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ted Garrett	26,615	50.07
	Conservative	Mary Leigh	14,101	26.00
	SDP	Joan Phylactou	13,522	24.93
Majority			12,514	23.07
Turnout			54,238	71.12
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1987: Wallsend^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ted Garrett	32,709	56.84
	Conservative	David Milburn	13,325	23.16
	SDP	Joan Phylactou	11,508	20.00
Majority			19,384	33.68
Turnout			57,542	75.0
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1992: Wallsend^[9]^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Stephen Byers	33,439	57.9	+1.1
	Conservative	M Gibbon	13,969	24.2	+1.0
	Liberal Democrats	Michael J. Huscroft	10,369	17.9	−2.1
Majority			19,470	33.7	0.0
Turnout			57,777	74.1	−0.9
	Labour hold		Swing	0.0

Notes and references

^ Butler, David; Kavanagh, Dennis (1987). The British General Election of 1987. Macmillan. p. 302.
^ Craig, Fred W. S. (1972). Boundaries of parliamentary constituencies 1885-1972;. Chichester: Political Reference Publications. p. 25. ISBN 0-900178-09-4. OCLC 539011.
^ Craig, Fred W. S. (1972). Boundaries of parliamentary constituencies 1885-1972;. Chichester: Political Reference Publications. pp. 82, 140. ISBN 0-900178-09-4. OCLC 539011.
^ "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1983" (PDF). p. 75.
^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 1)
^ ^a ^b ^c Craig, F.W.S., ed. (1969). British parliamentary election results 1918–1949. Glasgow: Political Reference Publications. p. 263. ISBN 0-900178-01-9.
^ "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
^ "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
^ "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
^ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2010.

54°59′28″N 1°31′59″W / 54.991°N 1.533°W / 54.991; -1.533

[1] Butler, David; Kavanagh, Dennis (1987). The British General Election of 1987. Macmillan. p. 302.

[2] Craig, Fred W. S. (1972). Boundaries of parliamentary constituencies 1885-1972;. Chichester: Political Reference Publications. p. 25. ISBN 0-900178-09-4. OCLC 539011.

[3] Craig, Fred W. S. (1972). Boundaries of parliamentary constituencies 1885-1972;. Chichester: Political Reference Publications. pp. 82, 140. ISBN 0-900178-09-4. OCLC 539011.

[4] "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1983" (PDF). p. 75.

[5] Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 1)

[craig1918-6] Craig, F.W.S., ed. (1969). British parliamentary election results 1918–1949. Glasgow: Political Reference Publications. p. 263. ISBN 0-900178-01-9.

[electoralcalculus1983-7] "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.

[electoralcalculus1987-8] "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.

[electoralcalculus1992-9] "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.

[10] "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2010.

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