the Rural Districts of Darlington, Sedgefield and Stockton.[5]
Minor changes – the Rural District of Stockton had been altered, absorbing the Rural District of Hartlepool, but losing Billingham to a new urban district.
From 1955, the boundaries of the Rural Districts of Darlington, Sedgefield and Stockton were altered in line with changes to local authority boundaries.[5][6]
The District of Sedgefield wards of Bishop Middleham, Broom, Chilton, Cornforth, Ferryhill, Fishburn, Low Spennymoor and Tudhoe Grange, Middlestone, New Trimdon and Trimdon Grange, Old Trimdon, Sedgefield, Spennymoor, and Tudhoe;
the District of Easington wards of Deaf Hill, Hutton Henry, Thornley, Wheatley Hill, and Wingate; and
the Borough of Darlington wards of Heighington, Hurworth, Middleton St George, Sadberge, and Whessoe.[7]
Spennymoor and Tudhoe transferred fromNorth West Durham; remainder of District of Sedgefield wards fromDurham; District of Easington wards fromEasington; and Borough of Darlington wards fromBishop Auckland.
The District of Sedgefield wards of Bishop Middleham, Broom, Chilton, Cornforth, Ferryhill, Fishburn, Middridge, Neville, New Trimdon and Trimdon Grange, Old Trimdon, Sedgefield, Shafto, Simpasture, West, and Woodham;
the District of Easington wards of Deaf Hill, Hutton Henry, Thornley, Wheatley Hill, and Wingate; and
the Borough of Darlington wards of Heighington, Hurworth, Middleton St George, Sadberge, and Whessoe.[8]
Newton Aycliffe transferred in from Bishop Auckland in exchange for Spennymoor and Tudhoe.
The Borough of Sedgefield wards of Bishop Middleham and Cornforth, Broom, Chilton, Ferryhill, Fishburn and Old Trimdon, Greenfield Middridge, Neville and Simpasture, New Trimdon and Trimdon Grange, Sedgefield, Shafto St Mary's, West, and Woodham;
the District of Easington wards of Thornley and Wheatley Hill, and Wingate; and
the Borough of Darlington wards of Heighington and Coniscliffe, Hurworth, Middleton St George, Sadberge, and Whessoe.[9]
Minor changes only to reflect redrawing of local authority ward boundaries.
From its recreation in 1983 until 27 June 2007, the Member of Parliament wasTony Blair, who led a successful campaign for his party towin the 1997 general election in a landslide and thereafter served for ten years as prime minister, leading the campaigns at two subsequent general elections. Blair was the first Prime Minister to lead theLabour Party to three consecutive victories. He resigned as the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield on the same day as he resigned as prime minister, which triggered aby-election.[10]
At the by-election on 19 July 2007, the official Labour Party candidatePhil Wilson was elected on a reduced majority which in national terms issafe instead ofmarginal. While Wilson had never came close to the enormous majorities held by Blair during his tenure as MP and only secured an absolute majority of the vote for the first time at the2017 general election, he consistently had majorities of over 6,000 votes in every election at which he had stood.
At the 2019 election, the Conservatives' candidatePaul Howell defeated Wilson with a majority of 4,513 and a swing of 12.8%. Sedgefield was one of the net gain of 48 seats in England by the Conservatives, as well as being considered part of the so-called "Red Wall".
Sedgefield has a longmining history (extractingcoal,fluorspar andiron ore) and once had a very strong affiliation to the Labour Party, with nearly monolithic support in parts of the constituency.[citation needed] The area contains a mixture of former coal country in the area aroundTrimdon and more industrial areas around the new town ofNewton Aycliffe. The construction of a newHitachi factory created 730 jobs in the town.[11] There are also more prosperous parts of the constituency that form the bulk of the Conservative vote – for example, the ancientmarket town ofSedgefield itself, with a charter dating back to 1312. The outer suburbs ofDarlington are also relatively wealthy, as well asHurworth-on-Tees, where unemployment stands at just 1.0%.[12]
In statistics
The constituency consists of Census Output Areas of two local government districts with similar characteristics: a working population whose average income is lower than the national average and close-to-average reliance uponsocial housing.[13] At the end of 2012 the unemployment rate in the constituency stood as 5.0% of the population claiming Jobseekers' Allowance, compared to the regional average of 5.5%.[14]
The local authority contributing to the bulk of the seat has a middling 27.2% of its population without a car, a high 27.5% of the population without qualifications and a medium 21.5% with level 4 qualifications or above. Darlington has 28% of its population without a car, 24.8% of the population without qualifications and a medium 23.7% with level 4 qualifications or above.
In terms of tenure 65.8% of County Durham homes and 64.9% of Darlington homes are owned outright or on a mortgage as at the 2011 census.[15]
^As with all current constituencies, the constituency elected oneMember of Parliament (MP) by thefirst past the post system of election at least every five years.
^Craig, Fred W. S. (1972).Boundaries of parliamentary constituencies 1885–1972;. Chichester: Political Reference Publications. p. 11.ISBN0-900178-09-4.OCLC539011.
^abCraig, Fred W. S. (1972).Boundaries of parliamentary constituencies 1885–1972;. Chichester, UK: Political Reference Publications. p. 59.ISBN0-900178-09-4.OCLC539011.
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