Middleton and Prestwich was a

parliamentary 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 ...

centred on the Middleton and

Prestwich Prestwich ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, north of Manchester, north of Salford and south of Bury. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, Prestwich was the seat of the ...

districts of

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to 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 ...

. The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the

1983 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1983. Africa * 1983 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1983 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1983 Kenyan general election * 1983 Malagasy parliamentary election * 1983 Malawian general elec ...

, when it was partially replaced by the new constituencies of

Heywood and Middleton Heywood and Middleton North is a Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Elsie Blun ...

and

Bury South Bury South is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2019 by Christian Wakeford. Wakeford was elected as a Conservative but defected to the Labour Party in January 2022. He was re ...

. Its member from 1974 to the seat's abolition was

Jim Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005) was a British statesman and Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from ...

, who happened to share his name with the Labour Prime Minister. It was an unusual constituency, because Middleton and Prestwich were physically separated by Heaton Park, a large green area bequeathed to Manchester City Council, and had nothing whatsoever in common. Prestwich was a well established middle class suburb with a large Jewish minority, and during the inter-war years boasted several millionaires. Middleton, on the other hand, was greatly expanded by a large Manchester overspill council estate, and at one point during the 1950s, Prestwich had no Labour councillors, while Middleton had no Conservatives. The new constituency of

in 1983 resolved this mismatch by linking together the two adjacent towns in the

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

borough, and was held by Labour right up to 2019.

joined neighbouring towns Radcliffe and Whitefield in the Bury Council area to become

which was gained by the Conservatives until 1997 when it was lost to Labour, who held it up to 2019 when it was regained by the Conservatives. The 2018 Boundary Commission Review, which aimed to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600, and was subsequently shelved, had proposed to restore the Prestwich and Middleton seat.

Boundaries

1918–1950: The Borough of Middleton, and the Urban Districts of Chadderton and Prestwich. 1950–1983: The Boroughs of Middleton and Prestwich, and the Urban District of Whitefield.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1939–40: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected; *Conservative:

Ernest Gates Major Ernest Everard Gates (29 May 1903 – 12 October 1984) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Middleton and Prestwich constituency in Lancashire from 1940 until he stood down at the 1951 ...

*Labour:

Mabel Tylecote Dame Mabel Tylecote (née Phythian; 4 February 1896 – 31 January 1987) was a British Labour Party politician, activist, humanitarian, and educationist from Manchester, England. Biography Born on 4 February 1896 to John Ernest Phythian and Ad ...

Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939 However, the sitting MP, Nairne Sandeman, died on 23 April 1940, resulting in a by-election. Due to an electoral pact during World War II not to contest by-elections, the Labour candidate did not stand.

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1970s

References

* *{{Rayment-hc, m, 2, date=March 2012 Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1918 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1983 Middleton, Greater Manchester