Compared to national averages, house prices and household income in Blackburn are low and deprivation is high. Residents are less likely to bedegree-educated and to work in professional jobs.[6] The constituency is ethnically diverse;White andAsian people each make up 48% of the population. Asian residents primarily declaredPakistani (24%) orIndian (21%) origin,[7] and almost all areMuslims.[8]
The town is politically divided. Atthe most recent borough council election in 2024, residents in the north-eastern, predominantly Asian wards of the town electedindependent councillors, whilst the mostly White wards of the south and west of the town were won byConservative orLabour Party candidates. It is estimated that 55% of voters in the constituency favoured leaving theEuropean Union in the2016 referendum, slightly higher than the national figure of 52%.[6]
1885–1918: The existing parliamentary borough, and so much of the municipal borough of Blackburn as was not already included in the parliamentary borough.[10]
1955–1974: The county borough of Blackburn wards of Park, St. John's, St. Jude's, St. Luke's, St. Matthew's, St. Michael's, St. Paul's, St. Silas's, St. Stephen's, St. Thomas's and Trinity.[12]
2010–2024: The district of Blackburn with Darwen wards of Audley, Bastwell,Beardwood and Lammack, Corporation Park,Ewood, Higher Croft,Little Harwood,Livesey withPleasington, Meadowhead, Mill Hill, Queen's Park, Roe Lee, Shadsworth withWhitebirk, Shear Brow and Wensley Fold.
Blackburn was re-established as a single-member constituency for the1955 general election, partially replacing Blackburn East and Blackburn West. After its re-establishment, the constituency was initially a marginal, but Blackburn was later considered to be aLabour Party stronghold prior to the2024 general election—up until that point, it had only elected Labour MPs since its recreation in 1955. In 2024 Blackburn was won byAdnan Hussain, an independent candidate who campaigned largely on the issue of thegenocide of Palestinians during theGaza war. Three other previously safe Labour seats saw similar results at that election, all of which had largeMuslim populations.
Jack Straw'sConservative challenger in the1997 general election, Geeta Sidhu-Robb, was filmed with a megaphone during the election campaign, exclaiming inUrdu orGujarati: "Don't vote for a Jew, Jack Straw is a Jew. If you vote for him, you're voting for a Jew. Jews are the enemies of Muslims." Sidhu-Robb said that this was in response to racist campaigning by the Labour Party, who she accused of claiming that she was "against Islam". She felt that Labour were "making it personal", and she took particular umbrage as her husband wasMuslim. Sidhu-Robb later said she wished she had not made those comments about Straw, saying she did so because she was "furious" and that she "didn't want racism and bigotry to play a part in anything that [she] had anything to do with."[14] Nonetheless, her comments regarding Straw's religion resurfaced over 20 years later, when Sidhu-Robb was competing to be nominated as theLiberal Democrat candidate in the2021 London Mayoral election, causing the Liberal Democrats to remove her from consideration for their candidacy.
Blackburn's then MP, Straw, was primarily challenged in the2005 general election by theConservative Party, but the former British ambassador toUzbekistan,Craig Murray, also stood for election in the seat as anIndependent. Murray said: "I've been approached by several people in the Asian community who are under huge pressure from Labour activists [talking up theBNP's chances] to apply for apostal vote rather than a ballot vote and then hand their postal vote over to the Labour party." Over 50% more people used postal votes in the 2005 general election in Blackburn than in 2001.[15] The BNP had not stood in the previous two elections, but this time had a candidate, who polled 5.4% of the vote, and beat Murray to come fourth. Both were outperformed by theLiberal Democrats in third place, and theConservatives, who remained second. Straw held on comfortably, albeit with a reduced majority; his winning vote share of 42% was the smallest since the seat became a single-member constituency until the 2024 result.
In August 2011, Jack Straw claimed that he had no plans to retire, despite turning 65 earlier that month.[16] Two years later, on 25 October 2013, Straw announced that he would stand down as Blackburn's MP at the next election.[17] In March 2014,Kate Hollern was selected, via anall women shortlist, as the candidate for Labour for the2015 general election, and held the seat.
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;
^Aborough 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 thefirst past the post system of election at least every five years.
