Aldridge-Brownhills () is a

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

in the West Midlands, represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the 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 parliament. T ...

of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

since

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

Wendy Morton Wendy Morton (born 9 November 1967) is a British politician who served as Chief Whip of the House of Commons and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from September to October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been the Membe ...

, a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Constituency profile

Unlike the name suggests, the

does not just cover Aldridge and

Brownhills Brownhills is a town and former administrative centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England. A few miles south of Cannock Chase and close to the large Chasewater reservoir, it is northeast of Walsall, a similar dista ...

but also a patchwork of smaller towns and villages within

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, West Midlands. The seat is described as a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combina ...

for the Conservative party. Residents are around average in terms of wealth for the UK.Electoral Calculus https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/seatdetails.py?seat=Aldridge-Brownhills

Boundaries

1974–1983: The Urban District of Aldridge-Brownhills. 1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall wards of Aldridge Central and South, Aldridge North and Walsall Wood, Brownhills, Hatherton Rushall, Pelsall, and Streetly. 2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall wards of Aldridge Central and South, Aldridge North and Walsall Wood, Brownhills, Pelsall, Rushall-Shelfield, and Streetly. Aldridge-Brownhills constituency was created in 1974 from parts of the seats of

Walsall North Walsall North is a constituency created in 1955 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Eddie Hughes, a member of the Conservative Party. The local electorate returned a Labour MP in the seat's first seventeen g ...

and Walsall South. It is one of three constituencies covering the

Metropolitan Borough of Walsall The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Walsall, but covers a larger area which also includes Aldridge, Bloxwich, Brownhills, Darlaston, Pelsall ...

. It covers the north-east and east of the borough. When held by the Labour Party, the constituency included most of Pheasey, a ward of the same name, then a stronger area for Labour than much of the rest, which was moved into Walsall South to account for population expansion in the seat.

Members of Parliament

The constituency has had just three different MPs since its formation in February 1974. Geoff Edge of the Labour Party served the constituency from February 1974 until

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

, when it was gained by Richard Shepherd of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

; who was to represent the constituency for thirty-six years, even withstanding the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

Labour landslide on a below average Conservative-to-Labour swing. In 2014 Sir Richard Shepherd announced he would not stand for re-election at the 2015 general election.

, was selected to replace him as the Conservative candidate, and secured the seat with a safe majority of 11,723 votes.

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldridge-Brownhills (Uk Parliament Constituency) Politics of Walsall Parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1974 Aldridge