| Cheltenham | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1832 |
| Type: | Borough |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
| Population: | 104,867 (2011 census)[1] |
| Electorate: | 75,292 (2023)[2] |
| Region: | England |
| European: | South West England |
| Towns: | Cheltenham |
Cheltenham is a constituency in Gloucestershire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1832. As with all constituencies, it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years. Since 2024, its MP has been Max Wilkinson of the Liberal Democrats.
The constituency is based on the town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, covering a different, slightly smaller area than the borough of the same name. It is bordered by the Tewkesbury and Cotswolds seats.
1885–1918: The existing parliamentary borough, and so much of the parish of Charlton Kings as lay to the north of the railway from Cheltenham to Banbury.[3]
1918–1950: The Municipal Borough of Cheltenham and the Urban District of Charlton Kings.[4]
1950–1983: As 1918 but with redrawn boundaries.
1983–1997: The Borough of Cheltenham, and the Borough of Tewkesbury wards of Leckhampton with Up Hatherley, Prestbury St Mary's, and Prestbury St Nicolas.
Leckhampton, Up Hatherley and Prestbury were added to the seat from the Cirencester and Tewkesbury constituency; they had previously been in the abolished Cheltenham Rural District.
1997–2010: The Borough of Cheltenham wards of All Saints, Charlton Kings, College, Hatherley and The Reddings, Hesters Way, Lansdown, Park, Pittville, St Mark's, St Paul's, and St Peter's.
Leckhampton, Up Hatherley and Prestbury were transferred to the new Tewkesbury constituency; they had been incorporated into the redrawn Borough of Cheltenham in 1991.
2010–2024: The Borough of Cheltenham wards of All Saints, Battledown, Benhall and The Reddings, Charlton Kings, Charlton Park, College, Hesters Way, Lansdown, Leckhampton, Oakley, Park, Pittville, St Mark's, St Paul's, St Peter's, Springbank, Up Hatherley, and Warden Hill.
Leckhampton and Up Hatherley were transferred back from the Tewkesbury constituency.
2024–present: As above minus Springbank ward.[5]
Reduced to bring the electorate within the permitted range by transferring the Springbank ward to the Tewkesbury constituency.
Famous for its racecourse which hosts the annual Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, with a long-established girls' school and right at the edge of the Cotswold Hills, Cheltenham has a large tourism sector. GE Aviation is a large employer and GCHQ, the government communications centre, is here, so numbers of highly skilled workers and professionals (47.5% in the year ended September 2014[6]) are well above the national average (44.6%[6]). One of the West of England's most upmarket towns, the few neighbourhoods of medium levels in the Index of Multiple Deprivation are almost wholly in Hester's Way ward which has the most social housing. About 10% of the electorate are students at the University of Gloucestershire just outside the compact town centre.
Cheltenham borough constituency was created in the Great Reform Act of 1832 and has returned ten Liberals (or Liberal Democrats) and ten Conservatives to Parliament since that time, along with one independent.
A Conservative served the constituency from 1950 until 1992. The Conservatives' campaign in the 1992 general election following the Poll Tax riots saw a local party member make racist remarks about their own candidate, John Taylor, who was of Afro-Caribbean descent. Taylor lost the election to Nigel Jones of the Liberal Democrats.
In 2000, Jones was nearly murdered in a horrific incident at one of his MP's surgeries; a man attacked him and an assistant with a samurai sword. His colleague Andrew Pennington was killed in the attack. Jones was made a life peer in 2005.
The Liberal Democrats held Cheltenham in the 2005 election when Martin Horwood won the election, and again in 2010, but lost when Conservative Alex Chalk retook the seat in 2015. Chalk held on to the seat in 2017 and 2019, albeit with small majorities, but lost to Max Wilkinson when the Liberal Democrats regained the seat at the 2024 general election.
| 2019 notional result[15] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Vote | % | |
| 27,563 | 48.5 | ||
| 26,142 | 46.0 | ||
| 2,733 | 4.8 | ||
| Others | 445 | 0.8 | |
| Turnout | 56,883 | 75.5 | |
| Electorate | 75,292 | ||
In 2019, Cheltenham was one of five English constituencies, the others being Esher and Walton, Westmorland and Lonsdale, Winchester and East Devon, where Labour failed to obtain over 5% of the vote and lost their deposit.[16]
General Election 1939–40:
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;
General Election 1914–15:
A general election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election.
Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place.