Meriden (UK Parliament constituency)
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Meriden is a constituency 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 suprema ...
since 2019 by
Saqib Bhatti Mohammad Saqib Bhatti (born 18 June 1985) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Meriden since the 2019 general election. He has been the Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for Business ...
, 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 ...
. It is named after the village of Meriden, halfway between
Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blyth ...
and
Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
.


Members of Parliament

The MP from 1997 to 2019 was the Conservative Caroline Spelman. Conservative Saqib Bhatti took over the position after the 2019 General Election.


Constituency profile

The constituency is one of two covering the
Metropolitan Borough of Solihull The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough in West Midlands county, England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region ...
. It covers the rural area known as the
Meriden Gap The Meriden Gap is a mostly rural area located in the West Midlands between Solihull and Coventry. It serves as a part of the wider West Midlands Green Belt, and separates the latter from the large West Midlands conurbation, which includes Birming ...
located between the
West Midlands conurbation The West Midlands conurbation is the large conurbation that includes the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the towns of Sutton Coldfield, Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Solihull, Stourbridge and Halesowen in the English West Midland ...
and
Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
, which contains villages such as
Balsall Common Balsall Common is a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, England. It is situated 4.75 miles (7.5 km) northwest of Kenilworth, west of Coventry, east of Solihull and to the southeast of Birmingham, to which it serves a ...
,
Hampton-in-Arden Hampton in Arden is a village and civil parish located in the Forest of Arden in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands of England. Hampton in Arden was part of Warwickshire until the 1974 boundary changes. It lies within ...
, and Meriden itself, with some suburban towns, particularly
Castle Bromwich Castle Bromwich () is a large suburban village situated within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of the West Midlands. It is bordered by the rest of the borough to the south east; also Sutton Coldfield to the east and ...
and
Chelmsley Wood Chelmsley Wood is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England, with a population of 12,453. It is located near Birmingham Airport and the National Exhibition Centre. It lies about eight miles eas ...
(a large area of 1960s council housing on the eastern edge of
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, some of which since acquired privately under the
right to buy The Right to Buy scheme is a policy in the United Kingdom, with the exception of Scotland since 1 August 2016 and Wales from 26 January 2019, which gives secure tenants of councils and some housing associations the legal right to buy, at a large ...
others of which being remaining
social housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...
), higher than average national income and affluent areas particular examples being
Hockley Heath Hockley Heath is a large village and civil parish in the Arden area mostly within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England, incorporating the hamlet of Nuthurst, with a history dating back to the year 705 AD as a wood owne ...
, Bentley Heath,
Temple Balsall Temple Balsall () is a small hamlet within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English West Midlands, situated between the large villages of Knowle (where population details as taken at the 2011 census can be found) and Balsall Common. ...
,
Catherine-de-Barnes Catherine-de-Barnes (known to locals as Catney) is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of West Midlands. It is situated about 2.25 miles (3.6 km) east of Solihull town centre, in the civil parish of Hampto ...
,
Dorridge Dorridge is a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands (county), England. Historically part of the historic counties of England, historic county of Warwickshire, the village is encompassed within the electoral wa ...
and Knowle. Incidence of home ownership in this area is high, as opposed to the rented sector.


History

Meriden is the largest geographical constituency in the West Midlands metropolitan area. It was created for the 1955 general election. The 1983 boundary changes and landslide electoral success of
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
that year transformed the constituency into a Conservative safe seat, with the Labour-leaning areas becoming part of the new Warwickshire North constituency (which was also won by the Conservatives).
Iain Mills Iain Campbell Mills (21 April 1940 – 16 January 1997) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. Mills was educated in southern Africa and subsequently worked as a Market Planning Executive for Dunlop. He served as a counc ...
held this seat until he died in office in January 1997, with the seat remaining vacant until the dissolution of Parliament that March (and therefore no by-election being held).
Caroline Spelman Dame Caroline Alice Spelman (' Cormack; born 4 May 1958) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Meriden in the West Midlands from 1997 to 2019. From May 2010 to September 2012 she was the Se ...
was victorious in the 1997 general election, though on that occasion only by a marginal majority, and held the seat until her retirement in 2019, with the challenge from Labour becoming more distant.


Boundaries

The constituency was created in 1955 following a review of parliamentary seats in
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...
by the Boundary Commission appointed under the
House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949 The House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for the periodic review of the number and boundaries of parliamentary constituencies. The Act amended the rules for the dist ...
. The constituency's area was transferred from the neighbouring constituencies of Nuneaton and Sutton Coldfield.F A Youngs Jr., ''Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England'', Vol.II: Northern England, London, 1991 Tamworth Rural District was abolished in 1965, with most of its area redistributed between the two neighbouring rural districts. Accordingly, this resulted in only a minor boundary change to the constituency in 1974. Until 1983 the seat was a Labour-
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 ...
marginal, covering the coal mining areas of northern Warwickshire and the more affluent area near
Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blyth ...
. It changed hands between the two parties several times, including in a
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
in 1968, which was won by
Keith Speed Sir Herbert Keith Speed (11 March 1934 – 12 January 2018) was a British Conservative politician and former Member of Parliament. He was a descendant of cartographer and historian John Speed. Life Speed was born on 11 March 1934 in Evesham ...
of the Conservatives. In 1983, reflecting the major local government boundary changes effected by the Local Government Act 1972, a new Meriden County Constituency was created as part of the parliamentary county of West Midlands. There were no boundary changes in 1997.The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1995 (S.I. 1995/1626) The Conservatives have generally achieved solid majorities in the constituency since 1983, although Labour came within 582 votes of gaining the seat in its
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 ...
landslide. 2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull wards of Bickenhill, Blythe, Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Dorridge and Hockley Heath, Kingshurst and Fordbridge, Knowle, Meriden, and Smith's Wood. 1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull wards of Bickenhill, Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Fordbridge, Kingshurst, Knowle, Meriden, Packwood, and Smith's Wood. 1974–1983: The Rural Districts of Atherstone and Meriden. 1955–1974: The Rural Districts of Atherstone, Meriden, and Tamworth.


Elections


Elections in the 2010s


Elections in the 2000s


Elections in the 1990s


Elections in the 1980s


Elections in the 1970s


Elections in the 1960s


Elections in the 1950s


See also

* List of parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county)


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meriden (Uk Parliament Constituency) Politics of Solihull Parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1955