Bradford West covers the Bradford city centre, Manningham, Allerton and Clayton. It has a significant Pakistani population and a majority of Muslim voters.[3]
History
Before 1974, the Labour and Conservative Parties held the seat marginally in various years, since which time the Labour Party always won the seat, with the exception of the 2012 Bradford West by-election. In 1981, however, Edward Lyons, the sitting Bradford West MP, joined the newly established Social Democratic Party, consequently losing the seat at the 1983 general election.
In 1997, the seat was one of only two Labour seats in the country, the other being Bethnal Green and Bow in London, to have seen a swing towards the Conservatives away from Labour. This was attributed to the local party association selecting a Sikh, Marsha Singh to stand when the majority of the seat's population is Muslim. In 2010, however, Singh retained his seat with a swing in his favour, against the national result.
George Galloway of the Respect Party won the seat in the 2012 Bradford West by-election with 55.9% of the votes cast; his 30.9% majority was at the time the largest majority in the history of the modern constituency, but he lost the seat in 2015 to the new Labour candidate Naz Shah by a substantial (28.3%) margin. Despite Galloway's threats to contest the result, he neither launched a legal challenge nor stood again in 2017, in which Shah surpassed his record by winning a majority of 48.1%, the largest margin for a Bradford West MP in any incarnation of the seat. Despite Galloway not standing, his former Respect colleague Salma Yaqoob did stand as an Independent, garnering 6,345 votes (13.9%), not far behind the second-placed Conservative candidate.
At the 2019 general election Shah increased her vote share by 11.5%. This was easily the highest increase in the Labour Party's vote share in any constituency in the United Kingdom, in an election where Labour's vote share decreased in all but 13 constituencies. This means that Bradford West has bucked the national trend thrice, as it also did in 1997 and 2010.[4] Bradford West, since 2019, is the safest seat in the region of Yorkshire and the Humber for Labour.
Boundaries
Map of present boundaries
1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Bradford wards of Allerton, Bolton, Great Horton, Heaton, and Manningham.
1955–1974: The County Borough of Bradford wards of Allerton, Great Horton, Heaton, Manningham, and Thornton.
1974–1983: The County Borough of Bradford wards of Allerton, Heaton, Little Horton, Manningham, Thornton, and University.
1983–2010: The City of Bradford wards of Clayton, Heaton, Little Horton, Thornton, Toller, and University.
The constituency was originally created in 1885, but was abolished in 1918. For the 1955 general election the constituency was recreated, following a boundary review.[6]
^A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
^As with 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
^"Bradford West: Usual Resident Population, 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
^"Constituency data: electorates – House of Commons Library". Parliament UK. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
^The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2019. Glasgow: Times Books. 2020. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1.
^"The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023". Schedule 1 Part 9 Yorkshire and the Humber region.
^The Bradford West Constituency was created in 1955 after a boundary review. In previous elections the city was divided into four constituencies: Bradford Central, Bradford East, Bradford North and Bradford South.
^"Hansard 1803–2005". Bradford West 1885–1918. UK Parliament. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
^"Hansard 1803–2005". Bradford West 1955–. UK Parliament. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
^Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 5)
^Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 81. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
^"x.com". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 31 May 2024.
^"x.com". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved 27 May 2024.
^"General Election Candidates". Retrieved 3 June 2024.
^Naz Shah [@NazShahBfd] (16 November 2022). "I am delighted to have been reselected as Labour's Parliamentary Candidate for Bradford West" (Tweet). Retrieved 29 March 2024 – via Twitter.
^"Bradford West parliamentary constituency - Election 2019 - BBC News".
External links
nomis Constituency Profile for Bradford West — presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics.