Gillingham and Rainham 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 ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

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 2024 by

Naushabah Khan Naushabah Parveen Khan ( ) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gillingham and Rainham since 2024. Early life Khan was born at the now defunct All Saints' Hospital in Chatham and grew up in Gil ...

of the Labour Party. It was previously represented since its 2010 creation by

Rehman Chishti Atta-Ur-Rehman Chishti (born 4 October 1978) is a Pakistani-born British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gillingham and Rainham from 2010 until 2024. He was one of 11 candidates in the July 2022 leadership con ...

of the Conservative Party and replaced the previous constituency of Gillingham.

Boundaries

2010–2023: The Borough of Medway wards of Gillingham North, Gillingham South, Hempstead and Wigmore, Rainham Central, Rainham North, Rainham South, Twydall and Watling. 2023–present: Further to a local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023, the constituency now comprises the following wards of the Borough of Medway: * Gillingham North (nearly all); Gillingham South; Hempstead & Wigmore (nearly all); Rainham North; Rainham South East; Rainham South West; Twydall; Watling. 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 ...

, which was based on the ward structure in place at 1 December 2020, left the boundaries unchanged.

Constituency profile

The constituency is generally suburban and centred on Gillingham, historically a small port, which is within the

London Commuter Belt The London metropolitan area is the metropolitan area of London, England. It has several definitions, including the London Travel to work area, Travel to Work Area, and usually consists of the London urban area, settlements that share London' ...

. Local retail, industry, business parks, trades and professions provide constituents with a high level of employment, mostly on moderate to middle incomes; however, the area is not wholly resilient to unemployment. Registered claimants who were registered jobseekers were marginally lower than the national average of 3.8% at 3.5% of the population, according to 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 ...

''. Residents' wealth is around average for the UK, but below average for the South East region.Electoral Calculus https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/seatdetails.py?seat=Gillingham+and+Rainham The predecessor constituency of Gillingham was a Labour-Conservative

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 ...

though prior to 1997 was a safe Conservative seat. The current constituency had been considered a safe Conservative seat until 2024.

Members of Parliament

'' Gillingham prior to 2010''

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

Paul Clark was the incumbent MP for Gillingham.

Notes

References

External links

Gillingham and Rainham UK Parliament constituency
(boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at ''MapIt UK''

(boundaries from June 2024) at ''MapIt UK'' {{Coord , 51, 22, N, 0, 34, E, display=title Politics of Medway Parliamentary constituencies in Kent Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2010 Gillingham, Kent