Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard is 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 ...

of 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 ...

in 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 ...

. It was first contested at the

2024 general election This is a list of elections that were held in 2024. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2024 United Nations Security Council election * 2024 national electoral calendar * 2024 local electo ...

. The current MP is

Alex Mayer Alexandra Louise Mayer (born 2 June 1981) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard since 2024. She was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for t ...

of the Labour Party.

History

The seat is a successor to South West Bedfordshire which was a Conservative seat during its existence, often with large majorities, though Labour came very close to winning the seat on two occasions in 1997 and 2001, reducing the Conservative Party's majorities to 132 and 776 respectively, with Labour winning the seat narrowly on a three-figure majority for the first time since a previous incarnation of the constituency (

South Bedfordshire South Bedfordshire was a local government district in Bedfordshire, in the East of England, from 1974 to 2009. Its main towns were Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Leighton Buzzard. Creation The district was formed on 1 April 1974 as part of a ...

), in 1966.

Constituency profile

Wealth and deprivation in this seat are around average for the UK.

Boundaries

Further to the

2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies The 2023 review of Westminster constituencies was the most recent cycle of the process to redraw the Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency map for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The new constituency b ...

, the composition of the constituency was defined as follows (as they existed on 1 December 2020): * Dunstable–Central; Dunstable–Icknield; Dunstable–Manshead; Dunstable–Northfields; Dunstable–Watling; Heath and Reach; Houghton Hall; Leighton Buzzard North; Leighton Buzzard South; Linslade; Parkside; Tithe Farm. It comprises the communities of

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the fou ...

Leighton Buzzard Leighton Buzzard ( ) is a market town in Bedfordshire, England, in the southwest of the county and close to the Buckinghamshire border. It lies between Aylesbury, Tring, Luton/ Dunstable and Milton Keynes, near the Chiltern Hills. It is nor ...

Linslade Linslade is an area in the civil parish of Leighton-Linslade, in the Central Bedfordshire unitary authority area of Bedfordshire, England. The original village was at Old Linslade on the banks of the River Ouzel. A new settlement called Linslade ...

and

Houghton Regis Houghton Regis is a market town and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Bidwell, Thorn and Sewell. Houghton Regis, together with its contiguous neighbours of Dunsta ...

and is the successor to South West Bedfordshire - excluding

Eaton Bray Eaton Bray is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It is situated about three miles south-west of the town of Dunstable and is part of a semi-rural area which extends into the parish of Edlesborough. In the 2021 United Kingdom ...

, which was transferred to the new constituency of Luton South and South Bedfordshire. Following a local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023, the constituency comprises the following wards of Central Bedfordshire from the 2024 general election: * Dunstable Central; Dunstable East; Dunstable North; Dunstable South; Dunstable West; Heath & Reach; Houghton Regis East; Houghton Regis West; Leighton-Linslade North; Leighton-Linslade South; Leighton-Linslade West

Members of Parliament

'' South West Bedfordshire prior to 2024''

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

References

External links

Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard UK Parliament constituency
(boundaries from June 2024) ''MapIt UK'' {{Constituencies in the East of England Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2024 Parliamentary constituencies in Bedfordshire