East Yorkshire was a

county constituency In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constituen ...

for 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

Parliament of the United Kingdom 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 ...

, established for 1997 general election. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years by the

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

electoral system. The constituency represented northern part of the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

county. Further to the completion of 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 seat was abolished and replaced primarily (with moderate boundary changes) by the new Bridlington and The Wolds constituency since

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 ...

History

The East Yorkshire constituency was created for the 1997 general election and replaced the

Bridlington Bridlington (previously known as Burlington) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is on the Holderness part (Flamborough Head to the Humber estuary) of the Yorkshire Coast by the North Sea. The town is ...

constituency. The

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

MP for that seat since 1979,

John Townend John Ernest Townend (12 June 1934 – 18 August 2018) was a British politician who was a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party. Early years The son of Charles Hope and Dorothy Townend, he was born on 12 June 1934 in Kingston upon H ...

, won the new seat and held it until he retired at the 2001 general election. His successor

Greg Knight Sir Gregory Knight (born 4 April 1949) is a British politician, author and musician. He served as the Conservative MP for East Yorkshire from 2001 to 2024, having previously served as the MP for Derby North from 1983 to 1997. He also serv ...

had previously represented the

marginal seat A marginal seat or swing seat is a constituency held with a small majority in a legislative election, generally one conducted under a single-winner voting system. In Canada, they may be known as target ridings. The opposite is a safe seat. T ...

Derby North Derby North () is a constituency formed of part of the city of Derby, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Catherine Atkinson from the Labour Party. It was previously held by Amanda Solloway, a Conservative. ...

from 1983 until he was defeated in the 1997 general election. Since the creation of the constituency until its abolition in 2024 it was Conservative

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 ...

and ranked 170th in terms of their share of the vote of their 631 candidates, with an approximately equally divided opposition in 2010.

Boundaries

1997–2010: The Borough of East Yorkshire. 2010–2024: The District of East Riding of Yorkshire wards of Bridlington Central and Old Town, Bridlington North, Bridlington South, Driffield and Rural, East Wolds and Coastal, Pocklington Provincial, and Wolds Weighton.

Members of Parliament

Election results 1997–2024

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 2010s

References

External links

East Yorkshire UK Parliament constituency
(boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) at ''MapIt UK''

(boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at ''MapIt UK'' {{Authority control Parliamentary constituencies in Humberside (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1997 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2024