Wentworth and Dearne 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 ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

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 ...

since its 2010 creation by

John Healey John Healey (born 13 February 1960) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Defence since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parl ...

, a member of the Labour Party who served as

Shadow Secretary of State for Defence The shadow secretary of state for defence is a member of the UK Shadow Cabinet responsible for the scrutiny of the secretary of state for defence and the department, the Ministry of Defence. The post is currently held by James Cartlidge. List ...

from 2020. Further to the completion of the

2023 review of Westminster constituencies The 2023 review of Westminster constituencies was the most recent cycle of the process to redraw the constituency map for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The new constituency boundaries were approved by the Privy Council on 15 Nov ...

, the seat was abolished. Subject to boundary changes, which entailed the loss of the two Dearne wards, and offset by the addition of the

City of Doncaster The City of Doncaster is a metropolitan borough with city status in the United Kingdom, city status in South Yorkshire, England. It is named after its principal settlement, Doncaster, and includes the surrounding suburbs of Doncaster as well as ...

wards of

Conisbrough Conisbrough () is a town within the City of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is roughly midway between Doncaster and Rotherham, and is built alongside the River Don, South Yorkshire, River Don at . It has a ward population (Conisbrou ...

, and

Edlington Edlington is a town and civil parish in the City of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, lying to the south west of Doncaster and Warmsworth. It has a population of 8,276. The original parish town of Edlington is now known as ''Old Edlington ...

and Warmsworth it was reformed as Rawmarsh and Conisbrough, and was first contested at the 2024 general election.

History

Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies recommending the creation of this constituency for the 2010 general election. ;Political history Most forerunner parts of the seat of Wentworth (which only existed in its second period from 1983 until 2010) matched its record of being a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing h ...

for the Labour Party. However, at the 2019 general election, the seat became a marginal between Labour and the Conservative Party. Labour's majority over the Conservatives stood at 2,165 in 2019. Labour's vote share declined by 24.7% at the 2019 election, the second-worst decline in vote share it suffered in any of the 630 constituencies that the party contested at that election (only being surpassed by the 24.9% decline in the Labour vote share in Bassetlaw). ;Prominent frontbencher

held a continuous period of frontbench positions, withstanding during this time various rotations of the Labour frontbench – the positions were: *May 2002 – May 2005 –

Economic Secretary to the Treasury The Economic Secretary to the Treasury is a junior ministerial post in HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury, ranked below the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Paymaster General a ...

*May 2005 – June 2007 –

Financial Secretary to the Treasury The Financial Secretary to the Treasury is a mid-level ministerial post in HM Treasury. It is nominally the fifth most significant ministerial role within the Treasury after the first lord of the Treasury, the chancellor of the Exchequer, the ch ...

*June 2007 – June 2009 – Minister of State for Local Government *July 2007 – June 2009 – Minister for Flood Recovery *June 2009 – May 2010 – Minister of State for Housing *May 2010 – October 2010 – Shadow Minister of State for Housing *October 2010 – October 2011 – Shadow Secretary of State for Health In September 2015 he was appointed Shadow Minister for Housing (attending Shadow Cabinet).

Boundaries

The seat comprises satellite settlements to two large Yorkshire towns, separated by green buffers, in a band north of

Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...

and southeast of

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

and as such has the

electoral wards The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ''ward (subnational entity), ward'' is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil pa ...

: *

Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham The Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham is a metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. It is named after its main settlement of Rotherham. The wider borough spans a larger area and covers the outlying towns of Maltby, Swinton, Wath-upo ...

: Hoober, Rawmarsh, Silverwood, Swinton, Wath and Wickersley *

Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley The Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley is a metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England; the main settlement is Barnsley and other notable towns include Wombwell, Worsbrough, Penistone and Hoyland. The borough is bisected by the M1 mo ...

: Dearne North and Dearne South Most of the constituency succeeded Wentworth, however the large settlement of Dearne was instead the largest in Barnsley East and Mexborough. The name of the seat stems from the village that shares its name with the largest private house in the country and listed gardens in the seat,

Wentworth Woodhouse Wentworth Woodhouse is a Grade I listed country house in the village of Wentworth, South Yorkshire, Wentworth, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. It is currently owned by the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation T ...

, in a similar manner, with a widened use of an otherwise scarcely populated settlement, as Sefton and Tatton.

Constituency profile

The

settlements grew in the seat into primarily large town size developments from the large presence of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

leading to extensive mining in this area, coupled with convenient proximity to

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, the canals and rivers network, as well as to

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

and

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. As the mining industry has suffered a decline and agriculture employs few people, niche manufacturing, general processing (such as of food and raw materials) as well as retail and distribution are critical sectors of the economy to local employment. Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 5.6% of the population, based on a statistical compilation by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''.Unemployment claimants by constituency
''

Members of Parliament

Election results 2010–2024

Elections in the 2010s

:* ''Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament''

Notes

References

External links

Wentworth and Dearne UK Parliament constituency
(boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at ''MapIt UK'' {{Authority control Parliamentary constituencies in South Yorkshire (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2010 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2024