Swindon North (UK Parliament constituency)

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Template:Infobox UK constituency main Swindon North is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Will Stone, a Labour politician.^{[n 2]}

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was formally renamed from North Swindon to Swindon North, and first contested at the 2024 general election.^[1]

History

North Swindon was created in 1997 and has been a bellwether since then. However, during the 2010s, the Conservatives won the constituency by much higher numbers than their national popular vote margin.

Boundaries

Template:Maplink Template:Maplink 1997–2010: The Borough of Thamesdown wards of Blunsdon, Covingham, Gorse Hill, Haydon Wick, Highworth, Moredon, St Margaret, St Philip, Western, and Whitworth, and the District of North Wiltshire ward of Cricklade.

The seat's boundaries encompassed an area that before its creation made up parts of the former Swindon constituency and pre-1997 versions of North Wiltshire and Devizes.

2010–2024: The Borough of Swindon wards of Abbey Meads, Blunsdon and Highworth, Covingham and Nythe, Gorse Hill and Pinehurst, Haydon Wick, Moredon, Penhill, St Margaret, St Philip, and Western.

In the 2010 boundary changes, the town of Cricklade became part of the North Wiltshire constituency while this seat acquired parts of the South Swindon constituency.

2024–present: Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency is composed of the following (as they existed on 1 December 2020):

The Borough of Swindon wards of: Blunsdon and Highworth; Gorse Hill and Pinehurst; Haydon Wick; Penhill and Upper Stratton; Priory Vale; Rodbourne Cheney; St. Andrews; St. Margaret and South Marston.^[2]

In order to bring the electorate within the permitted range and align with revised ward boundaries, the districts of Covingham and Nythe were transferred to Swindon South.

Constituency profile

The constituency covers a northern part of central Swindon and its northern suburbs (the civil parish of Central Swindon North), and extends northward to take in Blunsdon, the market town of Highworth and the rural parishes surrounding that town.

North Swindon has an electorate of 79,488 (as of 2010^[update]Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".), the majority of whom live in the suburbs or close to Swindon's town centre. In 2001, 52.9% of homes were into the categories of semi-detached or detached in the Swindon Local Authority area; after a 5.0% increase in flats/apartments in 2011, this figure had fallen slightly to 50.3%. In the same period, those registered unemployed rose from 2.5% to 4.2% and those self-employed rose from 6.2% to 7.8%.^[3] In 2010, the unemployment rate for Swindon South was 2.6%, compared to 3.5% in Swindon North. This is one indicator of social deprivation and compares to a rate of 11.0% in 2010 in Birmingham Ladywood, the constituency with the highest rate nationally.^[4]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member^[5]	Party
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" \|	1997	Michael Wills	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color"\|	2010	Justin Tomlinson	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color"\|	2024	Will Stone	Labour