1918–1945: The Urban Districts of Feltham, Hampton, Hampton Wick, Staines, Sunbury-on-Thames, and Teddington, and the Rural District of Staines.
1945–1950: The Urban Districts of Feltham, Staines, Sunbury-on-Thames, and Yiewsley and West Drayton.
1950–1955: The Urban Districts of Feltham, Staines, and Sunbury-on-Thames.
1955–1983: The Urban Districts of Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames.
1983–present: The Borough of Spelthorne (same content as above)
History of boundaries
Spelthorne in Middlesex 1918–1945Spelthorne in Middlesex 1945–1950Map that gives each named seat and any constant electoral success for national (Westminster) elections for Middlesex, 1955 to 1974.Spelthorne from 1955 onwards (shown within its county since 1965, Surrey)
Spelthorne was one of six hundreds of the historic county of Middlesex which covered its south west. It had thirteen historic parishes whereas the modern borough and seat has seven. The London Government Act 1963 placed the historic county in London except for two areas, one being the seven south-westernmost parishes of Spelthorne and Middlesex, placed since the commencement of the Act in April 1965 in Surrey.
The seat was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 and amounted to the larger, slightly less built-up part of the increasingly outer metropolitan Uxbridge seat which was split, in 1918, in two. It was given county seat status for unimportant logistical purposes. It amounted to the obsolete hundred plus the small west-to-east parishes in the north of Harmondsworth, Harlington and Cranford as the seat took in seven late 19th century-formed areas of local government, including the Staines Rural District. Due to the incursion into Elthorne Hundred the seat could have more accurately been named South West Middlesex.
1945–1950
For the post-war 1945 election the seat lost an eastern section: three of the historic parishes namely Hampton, Hampton Wick and Teddington to the Twickenham seat (which shifted substantially south, shedding Labour-leaning Hounslow). The seat saw a northern exchange. It gained two small parishes (one of which, Yiewsley was of modern creation) to the NNW from its parent seat. It lost the similarly small Cranford and Harlington parishes to form, with parts of the parent seat, the new seat of Southall, which the incumbent for Spelthorne went on to represent in 1950.
In the 1955 redistribution Feltham became the southwest of the new Feltham seat. Since 1955 the seat has comprised the former urban districts of Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames, added in local government to Surrey in 1965, and merged in 1974 to form in local government the Borough of Spelthorne.
The seat was categorised as a borough constituency from the February 1974 general election and for that election unaffected in the periodic redistribution. In 1995 the small settlement of Poyle, transferred from Buckinghamshire to the area in 1974 and long part of the possessions of Stanwell in Middlesex, was transferred to the Borough of Slough.
The seat is south of Heathrow Airport bounded by a long meander of the Thames. It is a more built-up area with numerous but less expansive green spaces, fewer private roads and little woodland compared to further south in Surrey. Some 30% is embanked reservoir or low-lying flood plain therefore immune against building.[3] Contrasting with these large areas of fresh water, Surrey County Council have built a waste incinerator in Charlton in the seat and the 1970s saw the construction of the M3 and M25 motorways through the seat, the latter along its western border.
While relative to the county as a whole this borough is marginally less affluent, in national terms it is more affluent. Workless claimants (registered jobseekers) were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.0% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian,[4] only 0.3% higher than the affluent neighbouring constituency of Twickenham in London. Most residents can afford to buy their own homes: social housing accounts for only 10% of the total,[5] and the proportion of professionals and managerial workers is high. Spelthorne has Labour's highest vote share of the eleven seats (30.5%) in the modern reduced definition of Surrey, where Stanwell is as at 2026 the only County Council division (seat) held by a Labour councillor. Stanwell in common with Sunbury Common has significant social housing.
Spelthorne exceeds the average quota of commercial property of Surrey's seats — it contains about 20% of the county's commercial/industrial property, including large plants or wholesale units of Complete Cover Group, Kingston Technology, Edmundson Electrical, Esso Petroleum, Johnson & Johnson Vision Products, Thames Water, Shepperton Film Studios, wholesalers and storage companies. Major offices/creative facilities of BP (its global HQ), Del Monte, NatWest, Samsung, Richmond Film Services and film/television ancillary businesses are in the constituency.
The 1918 to 1945 broadest, initial version of the parliamentary division saw no marginal majorities and can be squarely analysed as a Conservativesafe seat based on length of party tenure and size of majorities.
Since the 1955 boundary reduction and a local emphasis or demand upon private housing relative to social housing, the reduced area has eight Conservative candidate majorities of greater than 11% and three lower majorities: 1966, 1997 and 2001. The earliest of these produced the narrowest margin of victory, 5% of the vote. Based on length of party tenure and majorities the seat would be considered safe by most UK electoral analysts including of academic standing.
Members of Parliament
The constituency's first MP was Philip Pilditch, an architect who piloted the Ancient Monuments Act 1931 through Parliament: see Scheduled Monument. The most recent MP for Spelthorne (prior to the 2024 election) was the former Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng (first elected in 2010).
^"The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume two: Constituency names, designations and composition – South East". Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
^Representation of the People Act 1948 Sch. 1, at Middlesex (A) County Constituencies (page 107) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1948/65/pdfs/ukpga_19480065_en.pdf
^"Spelthorne BC". Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
^Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
^"2011 census interactive maps". Archived from the original on 29 January 2016.
^"Mixed EU vote 'reflects divisions'". BBC News. 24 June 2016.
^"A Brexiteer's Celebration – a conversation with Kwame Kwarteng". Foreign Affairs. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
^Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 4)
^"Statement of Persons Nominated" (PDF). Spelthorne Council. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
^"Spelthorne Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
^"Spelthorne Parliamentary Results – 12 December 2019". Spelthorne Borough Council. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
^"Spelthorne parliamentary constituency – Election 2017" – via www.bbc.com.
^"Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^Eyres, Zosia (31 May 2017). "General Election: Spelthorne's candidates outline policies as borough prepares to have its say on June 8". Surrey Live. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
^"Spelthorne Labour Party". Retrieved 14 February 2015.
^"Spelthorne Liberal Democrats select Rosie Shimell as their Prospective Parliamentary". Spelthorne Liberal Democrats. 1 January 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
^"Surrey Green Party | News". Archived from the original on 5 February 2015.
^"TUSC parliamentary candidates in May 2015" (PDF). Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. 4 March 2015.
^"Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^"Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^"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.
^"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. 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.
Sources
Election result, 2010 (BBC)
Election result, 2005 (BBC)
Election results, 1997 – 2001 (BBC)
Election results, 1997 – 2001 Archived 2015-06-18 at the Wayback Machine (Election Demon)
Election results, 1983 – 1992 Archived 2015-05-11 at the Wayback Machine (Election Demon)
Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
Britain Votes 4: British Parliamentary Election Results 1983–1987, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1988)
Britain Votes 5: British Parliamentary Election Results 1988–1992, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher (Parliamentary Research Services/Dartmouth Publishing 1993)
British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press, revised edition 1977)
British Parliamentary Election Results 1950–1973, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1983).
British Parliamentary Election Results 1974–1983, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1984)
Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume III 1919–1945, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1979)
Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume IV 1945–1979, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1981)
External links
Spelthorne Labour Party
Spelthorne Conservatives
Spelthorne Lib Dems
Spelthorne Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Spelthorne UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) at MapIt UK
Spelthorne UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK
Spelthorne UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK
.svg){kind=link}
.svg/1280px-Final_Middlesex_constituencies_(1955-74).svg.png)
