Penrith and The Border
Formercounty constituency for theHouse of Commons
Boundary of Penrith and The Border inCumbria
Location ofCumbria within England
County	Cumbria
Electorate	67,555 (December 2019)[1]
Major settlements	Appleby-in-Westmorland,Brampton,Penrith andWigton
1950–2024
Seats	One
Created from	Penrith & Cockermouth andNorth Cumberland
Replaced by	Penrith and Solway,Carlisle,Westmorland and Lonsdale

Penrith and The Border was aconstituency^{[n 1]} inCumbria represented in theHouse of Commons of theUK Parliament. Throughout its existence it elected only members of theConservative Party.^{[n 2]}

The seat was abolished prior to the2024 general election, with its area being split between three other constituencies.^[2]

Penrith and The Border was first contested in1950 since which it was generally asafeConservative seat and on rare occasions amarginal. The Conservatives came close to losing the seat in a1983 by-election, when the former cabinet ministerWilliam Whitelaw became the leader of theHouse of Lords: the by-election took place a mere seven weeks after his success in the1983 general election. Since that year theLiberal Democrats had come second behind the Conservatives until the2015 general election when they came fourth. At the two subsequent general elections they came third.

Map of boundaries 2010–2024

1950–1983: The Urban District of Penrith, and the Rural Districts of Alston with Garrigill, Border, Penrith, and Wigton.

1983–1997: TheDistrict of Eden wards of Alston Moor, Appleby, Appleby Bongate, Askham, Brough, Crosby Ravensworth, Dacre, Eamont, Greystoke, Hartside, Hesket, Kirkby Thore, Kirkoswald, Langwathby, Lazonby, Long Marton, Lowther, Penrith East, Penrith North, Penrith South, Penrith West, Skelton, Ullswater, and Warcop, theCity of Carlisle wards of Arthuret, Brampton, Burgh, Dalston, Great Corby and Geltsdale, Hayton, Irthing, Lyne, St Cuthbert Without, Stanwix Rural, and Wetheral, and theDistrict of Allerdale wards of Aspatria, Boltons, Marsh, Silloth, Tarns, Wampool, Warnell, Waver, and Wigton.

1997–2010: The District of Eden, the City of Carlisle wards of Arthuret, Brampton, Great Corby and Geltsdale, Hayton, Irthing, Lyne, Stanwix Rural, and Wetheral, and the District of Allerdale wards of Marsh, Wampool, Warnell, and Wigton.

2010–2024: The District of Eden, the City of Carlisle wards of Brampton, Great Corby and Geltsdale, Hayton, Irthing, Longtown and Rockcliffe, Lyne, and Stanwix Rural, and the District of Allerdale wards of Warnell and Wigton.

The constituency was created in 1950 by merging part ofPenrith and Cockermouth withNorth Cumberland. It was redrawn in 1983 by taking in most of the northern part of the oldWestmorland constituency and in 1997 by taking in the Kirkby Stephen and Tebay areas of the pre-1997Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency by doing so the constituency covered the entire district of Eden. Penrith and The Border also included parts of Allerdale and Carlisle districts, but lost parts of these areas to other seats at each boundary review.

Penrith and The Border was the largest constituency by area inEngland until 2024. Despite the name, it only included the Cumbrian portion of the English border with Scotland. The Northumberland portion was covered by the constituencies ofHexham andBerwick-upon-Tweed. The name stems from the fact that when the constituency was first created it consisted of thePenrith Rural and Urban Districts, theBorder Rural District and also theAlston with Garrigill Rural District.

Further to the completion of the2023 periodic review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was abolished for the2024 general election, with its contents distributed to three neighbouring constituencies:^[2]

• Penrith and rural areas stretching fromAlston in the east toWigton in the west to the new seat ofPenrith and Solway
• The parts in the (former)City of Carlisle district ("The Border"), includingBrampton andLongtown, to the constituency ofCarlisle
• Areas to the south of Penrith, includingAppleby-in-Westmorland andKirkby Stephen, toWestmorland and Lonsdale

A heavily undulating, mostly farmed terrain dotted by market towns and historic villages, with wooded mountainsides and heath-covered tops, the constituency was focused on theEden Valley between thePennines and theLake District, with the vale of theRiver Irthing above Carlisle. In the north towardsScotland were 8 of its 42wards all beside or in the market town ofBrampton which sits besideHadrian's Wall.

The constituency tended to have modest incomes,^[3] low unemployment^[4] and a rate of dependency onsocial housing lower than urban centres.^[5]

The seat was represented for nearly three decades by William Whitelaw, who served as a cabinet minister in various capacities during Conservative governments of the 1970s and 1980s and later joined theHouse of Lords.

His successor, the former Conservative Chief Whip and junior minister, David Maclean, sat as MP from 1983 to 2010, when he stood down due to the state of his health; he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996.

Maclean was succeeded by Rory Stewart in May 2010. In September 2019 Rory Stewart had the Conservative whip withdrawn and therefore sat as an Independent MP.

At the December 2019 general election, Neil Hudson of the Conservative Party became the new MP.

• 1983 Penrith and The Border by-election
• List of parliamentary constituencies in Cumbria

• Penrith and the Border UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) atMapIt UK
• Penrith and The Border UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) atMapIt UK

54°42′N2°42′W / 54.7°N 2.7°W /54.7; -2.7

• Parliamentary constituencies in Cumbria (historic)
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1950
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2024
• Politics of Cumberland (unitary authority)

• Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension