North East Somerset was a

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

from

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

to 2024. For the whole of its existence its Member of Parliament (MP) was Jacob Rees-Mogg of the Conservative Party. The seat was abolished following the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies. For the 2024 general election, the seat was subject to major boundary changes and has been reformed as North East Somerset and Hanham.

Boundaries

The constituency covered the part of

Bath and North East Somerset Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority district in Somerset, South West England. Bath and North East Somerset Council was created on 1 April 1996 following the abolition of the county of Avon. ...

District that was not in the Bath constituency and as such contained 18 whole electoral wards and two parishes of Newbridge ward of

: *Bathavon North – the Civil Parishes ('Parishes') of Batheaston, Bathford, Bathampton, Charlcombe, St Catherine and Swainswick *Bathavon South – the Parishes of Camerton, Claverton, Combe Hay, Dunkerton, Englishcombe, Freshford, Hinton Charterhouse, Marksbury, Monkton Combe, Priston, Shoscombe, South Stoke and Wellow *Chew Valley – the Parishes of Chew Magna, Chew Stoke, Compton Martin, Nempnett Thrubwell,

Norton Malreward Norton Malreward is a small Somerset village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish south of Bristol, England at the northern edge of the Chew Valley. In 1895 Norton Malreward was combined with the neighbouring hamlet (UK place), hamlet o ...

, Stanton Drew, Stowey-Sutton and Ubley *Clutton and Farmborough – the Parishes of Chelwood, Clutton and Farmborough *High Littleton – the Parishes of Farrington Gurney and High Littleton *

Keynsham Keynsham ( ) is a town and civil parish located on the outskirts of the city of Bristol on the A4 that links the cities of Bristol and Bath, Somerset, Bath in Somerset, England. It had a population of 19,603 at the 2021 Census. It was listed i ...

North *Keynsham South *Keynsham East *Mendip – the Parishes of Cameley, East Harptree, Hinton Blewett and West Harptree * Midsomer Norton North *Midsomer Norton Redfield *Newbridge – the Parishes of Kelston and North Stoke * Paulton – the Parish of Paulton *Peasedown – the Parish of Peasedown St John *Publow and Whitchurch – the Parishes of Publow and Whitchurch *Radstock *Saltford – the Parishes of Compton Dando, Corston, Newton St Loe and Saltford *Timsbury – the Parish of Timsbury *Westfield ;Origin of first boundaries Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which transferred all the electoral wards in Wandsyke constituency save for its four wards in South Gloucestershire to this new seat. To compensate the new seat gained the whole of the large wards in the valley of the

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

, Bathavon North, and the rest of Bathavon South, both from the Bath constituency.

Abolition

The constituency was abolished by the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, effective as of the general election of July 2024. The majority of the constituency was transferred to a new North East Somerset and Hanham constituency that stretches northwards into the district of South Gloucestershire. South-eastern areas of the constituency, including the communities of Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Peasedown St John, were incorporated into the newly created constituency of Frome and East Somerset, and the Bathavon North ward transferred to Bath.

Constituency profile

This area is marked by significant agriculture and

green belt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...

s around almost all of its settlements, which consist largely of detached and semi-detached properties, with a low rate of unemployment and negligible

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

tenancy. An unusually shaped seat that contained all the western part of the

council area, and the rural outskirts of Bath in the east, meaning the Bath constituency was entirely surrounded by a thin belt of North East Somerset. The seat contained some contrasting areas. The northern parts of the seat, especially the town of

, are commuter areas for Bath and Bristol. To the west the seat is more rural, covering the patchwork of farmland and rural villages that make up the Chew Valley. The southern part around Midsomer Norton and Radstock is part of the old Somerset Coalfield. The last of the coal mines closed in the 1970s, to be replaced by light industry, but the close knit industrial heritage of the area remains. North East Somerset is estimated to have voted to Leave the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

by 51.6% in the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.

Members of Parliament

Elections

See North East Somerset and Hanham for 2024 general election, and onwards.

Elections in the 2010s

* ''Served in the 2005–2010 Parliament as MP for Wansdyke'' The changes in vote share are compared to a notional calculation of the 2005 result. Although the Wansdyke seat had been held by Labour for 13 years, this seat was already notionally a Conservative seat by a margin of 0.4%. This means that, if the North East Somerset seat on its new boundaries had been contested in 2005, the Conservatives would have won by a few hundred votes.

Notes

References

Sources

UKPolling Report
– Anthony Wells calculations of notional majorities.

External links

(boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at ''MapIt UK'' {{Coord, 51, 20, N, 2, 30, W, type:adm3rd_region:GB_dim:15000, display=title Parliamentary constituencies in Avon (historic) Politics of Bath and North East Somerset Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2010 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2024