Richmond (Yorks) is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It has the largest percentage Conservative majority in the country although the numerical majority is surpassed by the larger seat of Buckingham.

Boundaries

The Richmond constituency covers the Richmondshire district and the northern part of the Hambleton district. It is an affluent rural area with a significant commuter population, covering parts of the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales National Parks, including Wensleydale and Swaledale. It contains the market towns of Northallerton, Richmond, Stokesley and Great Ayton as well as surrounding villages. It also includes the large army base, Catterick Garrison.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in York and North Yorkshire, the Boundary Commission for England has recommended minor changes to the Richmond constituency, which will come into effect (subject to Parliamentary Approval)at the next general election.

The revised constituency comprises the following:

• the entire district of Richmondshire;
• the Hambleton wards of Bedale, Brompton, Broughton and Greenhow, Cowtons, Crakehall, Great Ayton, Leeming, Leeming Bar, Morton on Swale, Northallerton Broomfield, Northallerton Central, Northallerton North, Osmotherley, Romanby, Rudby, Stokesley, Swainby, and Tanfield.

History

Richmond was one of the seats in the Unreformed House of Commons, first being represented in 1585. In modern times it has been an ultra-safe seat for the Conservative Party, with them having held it continually since at least 1929.

From 1983, the seat was represented by the Conservative cabinet minister Leon Brittan, after boundary changes saw his Cleveland and Whitby seat abolished. He resigned his seat in December 1988 in order to take up the position of Vice-President of the European Commission. The ensuing by-election, held in February 1989, was won by William Hague, this would be the last by-election won by the Conservative Government of 1979-1997. The decision by the remnants of the Social Democratic Party and their former colleagues in the newly-merged Social and Liberal Democrats (who later renamed themselves the Liberal Democrats) to both contest the seat split their vote. The SDP candidate, local farmer Mike Potter, came second, and Hague's majority of 2,634 was considerably smaller than the number of votes for the Social and Liberal Democrat candidate Barbara Peace combined (11,589 votes in third place). Hague has retained the seat at every general election since then and significantly built up the Conservative majority to 17,807.

In 1992 the Labour candidate, David Abrahams was deselected after a series of rows within the local Labour party over his personal life and business interests. It emerged that he used the name David Martin when dealing with tenants in his various rental properties in the Newcastle area; and that he had claimed that he lived with his wife and son, though he had never been married. Divorcee Anthea Bailey later told a local newspaper she and her 11-year old son had posed as Mr Abrahams' family as part of a business arrangement so that Abrahams could create "the right impression". The Daily Mail suggested that this was done because the constituency in North Yorkshire would be averse to "a confirmed bachelor who enjoys musical theatre".

At the 2001 general election, Richmond became the Conservatives' safest seat in the UK, both in terms of the actual numerical majority and by percentage. Although the numerical majority was surpassed by Buckingham at the 2005 election, Richmond has a smaller electorate and consequently was able to retain its position of having the second largest percentage majority. With the abolition of Kensington and Chelsea, based on notional 2005 results Richmond is the safest Conservative seat in the country.

Members of Parliament

1585-1640

• 1585: Marmaduke Wyvill
• 1597-1598: Marmaduke Wyvill
• 1604-1611: Sir John Savile
• 1604-1611: Sir Richard Gargrave
• 1621-1622: Sir Talbot Bowes
• 1621-1622: William Bowes

1640-1868

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		April 1640	Sir William Pennyman, Bt.	Royalist	?
		November 1640			Sir Thomas Danby	Royalist
		August 1642	Pennyman disabled to sit - seat vacant (Pennyman died August 1643)
		September 1642			Danby disabled to sit - seat vacant
		1645	Thomas Chaloner		Francis Thorpe
		1653	Richmond was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
		1654	John Wastal		Richmond had only one seat in the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
		1656	John Bathurst
		January 1659	Sir Christopher Wyvill, Bt.		John Bathurst
		May 1659	Thomas Chaloner		Francis Thorpe
		April 1660	James Darcy		Sir Christopher Wyvill, Bt.
		1661	Sir John Yorke		Joseph Cradock
		1662			John Wandesford
		1664	Sir William Killigrew
		1665			Marmaduke Darcy
		1679	Humphrey Wharton		Thomas Cradock
		1681			John Darcy, Lord Conyers
		1685	Thomas Cradock
		January 1689	Thomas Yorke
		February 1689			Philip Darcy
		1690	Sir Mark Milbanke, Bt		Theodore Bathurst
		1695	Thomas Yorke		Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, Bt.
		1698			James Darcy
		1701			John Hutton
		1702			James Darcy
		May 1705			Wharton Dunch
		December 1705			William Walsh
		1708			Harry Mordaunt
		1710	John Yorke
		1713	Thomas Yorke
		1717	John Yorke
		1720			Richard Abell
		1722			Conyers Darcy
		1727	Charles Bathurst		Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, Bt.
		1728	John Yorke		Sir Conyers Darcy
		1747			Earl of Ancram
		1757	Thomas Yorke
		1761	Sir Ralph Milbanke
		1763			Thomas Dundas
		March 1768	Alexander Wedderburn		Sir Lawrence Dundas, Bt
		November 1768			William Norton
		1769	Charles John Crowle
		1774	Thomas Dundas		Sir Lawrence Dundas, Bt
		January 1775			Charles Dundas
		December 1775	William Norton
		1780	Marquess of Graham		Sir Lawrence Dundas, Bt
		1781			George Fitzwilliam
		1784	The Earl of Inchiquin		Charles Dundas
		1786			Sir Grey Cooper
		1790			Lawrence Dundas	Whig
		1796	Charles George Beauclerk
		1798	Arthur Shakespeare	Whig
		1802			George Heneage Lawrence Dundas	Whig
		1806			Charles Lawrence Dundas	Whig
		1808	Lawrence Dundas	Whig
		1810			Robert Chaloner	Whig
		January 1812	George Heneage Lawrence Dundas	Whig
		October 1812	Dudley Long North	Whig
		1818	Thomas Dundas	Whig	Viscount Maitland	Whig
		1820			Samuel Barrett Moulton Barrett	Whig
		1828			Hon. Sir Robert Dundas	Whig
		1830	Hon. John Dundas	Whig
		1835	Alexander Speirs	Whig	Hon. Thomas Dundas	Whig
		1839			Hon. Sir Robert Dundas	Whig
		February 1841	Hon. George Wentworth-FitzWilliam	Whig
		June 1841	Hon. John Dundas	Whig	Hon. William Colborne	Whig
		1846			Henry Rich	Whig, later Liberal
		1847	Marmaduke Wyvill	Whig, later Liberal
		1861			Sir Roundell Palmer	Liberal
		1865	Hon. John Dundas	Liberal
		1866	Marmaduke Wyvill	Liberal

1868-present

The seat has been represented since a by-election in 1989 by William Hague, former Leader of the Opposition and current Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Election		Member	Party
	1868	Sir Roundell Palmer	Liberal
	1872	Lawrence Dundas	Liberal
	1873	Hon. John Dundas	Liberal
	1885	Sir Frederick Milbank, Bt	Liberal
	1886	George Elliot	Conservative
	1895	John Hutton	Conservative
	1906	Francis Dyke Acland	Liberal
	Jan 1910	Hon. William Orde-Powlett	Conservative
	1918	Sir Murrough John Wilson	Unionist
	1929	Thomas Dugdale	Conservative
	1959	Timothy Kitson	Conservative
	1983	Leon Brittan	Conservative
	1989 by-election	Rt Hon William Hague	Conservative

Notes

Election results

Notes

1. Profile: reclusive Labour donor David Abrahams The Times - 26 November, 2007
2. Profile of David Abrahams BBC News - 27 November, 2007
3. The fantasy world of Labour's dodgy donor, by Richard Pendlebury, Daily Mail, 27th November 2007
4. At the general election of 1727, Wyvill and Bathurst were returned as elected, but on petition they were unseated in favour of Yorke and Darcy, the dispute turning on who had the right to vote
5. Sir Conyers Darcy was re-elected in 1747 but had also been elected for Yorkshire, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Richmond
6. Sir Lawrence Dundas was also elected for Edinburgh, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Richmond
7. Thomas Dundas was also elected for Stirlingshire, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Richmond in this parliament
8. Sir Lawrence Dundas was also elected for Edinburgh, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Richmond
9. Styled Lord Dundas after his father was created an Earl in 1838
10. Later Sir George Elliott

References

• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [138185]
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
• The Constitutional Yearbook for 1913 (London: National Unionist Association, 1913)

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in North Yorkshire