Theceremonial county ofLeicestershire (which includes theunitary authority ofLeicester) is divided into 11parliamentary constituencies: 3borough constituencies and 8county constituencies. One of these is a cross-county boundary constituency with Lincolnshire also including the small historic county ofRutland, which was administratively a district of Leicestershire from 1974 to 1997. Since 1997, Rutland has been a separate unitary authority.
Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat Independent
| Name[nb 1] | Electorate[1] | Majority[2][nb 2] | Member of Parliament[2] | Nearest opposition[2] | Map | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harborough, Oadby and Wigston CC | 74,810 | 2,378 | Neil O'Brien | Hajira Piranie |  | ||
| Hinckley and Bosworth CC | 75,683 | 5,408 | Luke Evans | Michael Mullaney |  | ||
| Leicester East BC | 76,465 | 4,426 | Shivani Raja | Rajesh Agrawal |  | ||
| Leicester South BC | 71,007 | 979 | Shockat Adam | Jon Ashworth |  | ||
| Leicester West BC | 72,848 | 8,777 | Liz Kendall | Max Chauhan |  | ||
| Loughborough CC | 73,902 | 3,960 | Jeevun Sandher | Jane Hunt |  | ||
| Melton and Syston CC | 71,615 | 5,396 | Edward Argar | Zafran Khan |  | ||
| Mid Leicestershire CC | 76,173 | 2,201 | Peter Bedford | Robert Martin |  | ||
| North West Leicestershire CC | 75,373 | 1,012 | Amanda Hack | Craig Smith |  | ||
| Rutland and Stamford CC | 70,864 | 10,394 | Alicia Kearns | Joe Wood |  | ||
| South Leicestershire CC | 75,634 | 5,508 | Alberto Costa | Robert Parkinson |  | ||
In theunreformed House of Commons,Leicestershire andRutland were represented by two Knights of the Shire each, and the onlyparliamentary borough was Leicester, which sent two burgesses.
Under theReform Act 1832, Leicestershire was split into two divisions,North andSouth, which each elected two members. TheReform Act 1885 redistributed these seats into four single-member divisions:Melton, or Eastern,Loughborough, or Mid,Harborough, or Southern, andBosworth, or Western.
At the1918 general election, the four divisions of the county were retained, and the borough of Leicester was split into three single-member constituencies,Leicester East,Leicester South, andLeicester West. From 1950 to 1974 Leicester had four constituencies, these beingLeicester North East,Leicester North West,Leicester South East andLeicester South West: the three seat arrangement of South, East and West was reverted to thereafter.
Rutland constituted a constituency on its own until 1918, when it became part of theRutland and Stamford constituency, with nearbyStamford in Lincolnshire.
In 1983, seats in Leicestershire were redrawn. Rutland was merged with Melton to formRutland and Melton, withLoughborough,Bosworth, andHarborough remaining as seat names. The newNorth West Leicestershire constituency was created. A further constituency,Charnwood was created in the north for the 1997 election.
See2023 review of Westminster constituencies for further details.
For the2023 review of Westminster constituencies, which redrew the constituency map ahead of the2024 United Kingdom general election, theBoundary Commission for England opted to include Leicestershire and Rutland with Lincolnshire in a sub-region of the East Midlands region, creating one additional seat by re-establishing the constituency ofRutland and Stamford, which spans all three counties. As a consequence,Rutland and Melton is now abolished, being replaced byMelton and Syston, while a reconfiguredCharnwood has been renamedMid Leicestershire.Bosworth is renamedHinckley and Bosworth andHarborough renamedHarborough, Oadby and Wigston.[3][4]
| Former name | Boundaries 2010–2024 | Current name | Boundaries 2024–Present | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bosworth CC |  | 1 | Harborough, Oadby and Wigston CC |  |
| 2 | Charnwood CC | 2 | Hinckley and Bosworth CC | ||
| 3 | Harborough CC | 3 | Leicester East BC | ||
| 4 | Leicester East BC | 4 | Leicester South BC | ||
| 5 | Leicester South BC | 5 | Leicester West BC | ||
| 6 | Leicester West BC | 6 | Loughborough CC | ||
| 7 | Loughborough CC | 7 | Melton and Syston CC | ||
| 8 | North West Leicestershire CC | 8 | Mid Leicestershire CC | ||
| 9 | Rutland and Melton CC | 9 | North West Leicestershire CC | ||
| 10 | South Leicestershire CC | 10 | Rutland and Stamford CC | ||
| 11 | South Leicestershire CC |
In theFifth Review theBoundary Commission for England recommended that Leicestershire retained its current constituencies, with minor changes only to reflect revisions to local authority ward boundaries. Although virtually unchanged,Blaby was renamedSouth Leicestershire on the grounds that it does not match the borders ofBlaby district, and the village ofBlaby itself is not one of the major population centres.
| Name | Boundaries 1997–2010 | Boundaries 2010–2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bosworth CC |  | |
| 2 | Charnwood CC | ||
| 3 | Harborough CC | ||
| 4 | Leicester East BC | ||
| 5 | Leicester South BC | ||
| 6 | Leicester West BC | ||
| 7 | Loughborough CC | ||
| 8 | North West Leicestershire CC | ||
| 9 | Rutland and Melton CC | ||
| 10 | South Leicestershire CC (previouslyBlaby CC) |
Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019[5]
The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Leicestershire and Rutland in the 2024 general election were as follows:
| Party | Votes | % | Change from 2019 | Seats | Change from 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 173,711 | 34.2% |  19.1% | 7 | 0 |
| Labour | 142,114 | 28.0% | 4.1% | 3 | 0 |
| Reform UK | 77,889 | 15.3% |  14.5% | 0 | 0 |
| Liberal Democrats | 49,343 | 9.7% | 0.1% | 0 | 0 |
| Greens | 34,014 | 6.7% | 6.7% | 0 | 0 |
| Others | 30,875 | 6.1% | 5.6% | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 507,946 | 100.0 | 11 |
| Election year | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 50.6 | 52.0 | 48.7 | 36.8 | 38.1 | 37.4 | 41.0 | 43.9 | 48.9 | 53.3 | 34.2 |
| Labour | 25.3 | 27.3 | 33.0 | 43.8 | 41.5 | 36.1 | 27.6 | 30.6 | 40.1 | 32.1 | 28.0 |
| Liberal Democrat1 | 22.7 | 20.2 | 17.1 | 15.1 | 17.0 | 20.8 | 23.3 | 8.0 | 6.6 | 9.8 | 9.7 |
| Green Party | - | * | * | * | * | * | 0.4 | 2.7 | 2.1 | 3.5 | 6.7 |
| UKIP | - | - | - | * | * | * | 2.6 | 14.4 | 1.8 | * | - |
| Reform UK2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0.8 | 15.3 |
| Other | 1.4 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 4.3 | 3.4 | 5.8 | 5.1 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 6.1 |
11983 & 1987 -SDP–Liberal Alliance
2 2019-Brexit Party
* Included in Other
| Election year | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Labour | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Independent | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 |
11983 & 1987 -SDP–Liberal Alliance
A cell marked → (with a different colour background to the preceding cell) indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.
Conservative Labour Liberal Liberal-Labour
From 1918 to 1983 Rutland was categorised with Lincolnshire.
Coalition Liberal (1918-22) /National Liberal (1922-23) Coalition National Democratic & Labour Conservative Labour Liberal National Labour National Liberal (1931-68)
From 1918 to 1983 Rutland was categorised with Lincolnshire.
Conservative Labour Social Democratic
| Constituency | 1950 | 50 | 1951 | 1955 | 56 | 57 | 1959 | 62 | 1964 | 1966 | 67 | 1970 | Feb 1974 | Oct 1974 | 1979 | 81 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bosworth | Allen | Wyatt | Butler | |||||||||||||
| Harborough | Baldock | Farr | ||||||||||||||
| Leicester NE /Leicester E (1974) | Donovan | Ungoed-Thomas | Bradley | → | ||||||||||||
| Leicester SW /Leicester S (1974) | Bowden | Boardman | Marshall | |||||||||||||
| Leicester NW /Leicester W (1974) | B. Janner | G. Janner | ||||||||||||||
| Leicester South East | Waterhouse | Peel | ||||||||||||||
| Loughborough | Follick | Cronin | Dorrell | |||||||||||||
| Melton | Nutting | Pike | Latham | |||||||||||||
| Blaby | Lawson | |||||||||||||||
Conservative Independent Labour Liberal Democrats Reclaim
1includes parts ofLincolnshire