Banbury is a constituency in Oxfordshire created in 1553 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Its current MP is Sean Woodcock of the Labour Party, who gained the seat at the 2024 general election.
The constituency is located in Oxfordshire and stretches over parts of the Cherwell and West Oxfordshire local government districts. It is largely rural and agricultural, with the western area forming part of the Cotswolds. The constituency includes the large market town of Banbury, the small towns of Chipping Norton and Charlbury, and many smaller villages.
Banbury is an important local centre for commerce and industry, especially in the motorsport sector. In 2016 the town had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Chipping Norton is known for the Chipping Norton set, a group of high-profile media and political personalities who live in the area. Residents of the constituency are wealthier than the national average and around 90% of the population are white.
At the most recent local elections in 2024, voters in Banbury elected mostly Labour councillors, whilst the seats in the rural parts of the constituency mostly went to the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The constituency is estimated to have voted marginally in favour of remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
The constituency was created as a parliamentary borough, consisting of the town of Banbury, on 26 January 1554 through the efforts of Henry Stafford and Thomas Denton. It was one of the few in England in the unreformed House of Commons to elect only one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of England until 1707, then to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and finally to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 onwards. As such, it used the first past the post system.
It was the seat represented by Lord North, the prime minister during the American War of Independence.
Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the Parliamentary Borough was abolished and was reconstituted as the Northern or Banbury Division of Oxfordshire when the three-member Parliamentary County of Oxfordshire was divided into the three single-member seats: Banbury, Woodstock and Henley. It comprised the north-western part of Oxfordshire, including Chipping Norton as well as the abolished borough. Banbury has remained as such since then with varying boundaries (see below).
Banbury had a post-World War I unbroken Conservative representation and significant local support for the party for more than a century, from 1922 to 2024; during that period, the largest vote had been for a Conservative. Since then, its representatives have all served long terms in office, and its MPs from 1922 to 2015 have all been knighted. Although the seat saw a very close election in 1923, the seat would turn out to be one of the Tories' safe seats in the succeeding elections: in 2010, Tony Baldry (Conservative) almost doubled his majority, while the 2015 result made the seat the 125th safest of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority. Victoria Prentis would hold the seat for the Conservatives for nine more years after 2015, until the 2024 general election saw the Labour candidate, Sean Woodcock, win the seat; consequently, this was the first time that the constituency elected a Labour Party MP.
In June 2016, an estimated 50.35% of local adults voting in the EU membership referendum chose to leave the European Union instead of to remain.
Four of the six parties' candidates achieved more than the deposit-retaining threshold of 5% of the vote in 2015. In 2001, the Labour Party candidate Lesley Silbey won the largest opposing-party share of the vote since 1974 â 35% of the vote. Prior to 1974, the highest percentage of votes for the second-placed candidate was in 1945 â 48% of the vote.
The constituency was expanded to include the western half of the abolished Woodstock Division, including Witney and Woodstock.
Change to contents due to reorganisation of rural districts. Marginal loss to the Oxford constituency as a result of the expansion of the County Borough of Oxford.
The Urban and Rural Districts of Witney and the parts of the Rural District of Ploughley, including Kidlington, formed the basis of the new constituency of Mid-Oxon.ÃÂ Bicester and northern parts of the Rural District of Ploughley transferred from Henley.
Gained a small part of the abolished constituency of Mid-Oxon, to the south of Bicester.ÃÂ The bulk of the area comprising the former Urban and Rural Districts of Chipping Norton transferred to the new constituency of Witney.
Minor loss to Witney, comprising the two wards in the District of West Oxfordshire.
Two wards in the District of Cherwell to the south of Bicester (Kirtlington and Otmoor) transferred to Henley.
The 2010 constituency covered the north-east of Oxfordshire, around Banbury and Bicester and largely corresponded to the Cherwell local government district, with the principal exception of the large village of Kidlington on the outskirts of Oxford which lies in the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency, and some smaller villages to the north-east of Oxford that lie in the Henley constituency.
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which became effective for the 2024 general election, the constituency is composed of the following electoral wards (as they existed on 1 December 2020):
Major changes, with the town of Bicester and surrounding areas, comprising 38.5% of the existing electorate', being included in the newly created constituency of Bicester and Woodstock. This was partly offset by the transfer from Witney of north-western parts of the District of West Oxfordshire, including Chipping Norton and Charlbury.
Constituency created 1554. (Even before the Reform Act 1832, Banbury only returned one member to Parliament)
General Election 1939âÂÂ40: 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;
General Election 1914âÂÂ15: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
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