Huntingdon is a constituency west of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire and including its namesake town of Huntingdon. It has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Benjamin Obese-Jecty of the Conservative Party.
Before 2024, Huntingdon was considered a safe Conservative seat and was the seat of John Major, the Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997.
First established around the time of the Model Parliament in 1295, Huntingdon was the seat of Oliver Cromwell in 1628âÂÂ1629 and 1640âÂÂ1642.
Huntingdon is a rural constituency located in Cambridgeshire, although it was previously within the now-defunct county of Huntingdonshire. Its largest town is Huntingdon, which has a population of around 26,000. Other settlements in the constituency include the towns of Godmanchester and St Ives and the villages of Brampton, Buckden, Sawtry, Warboys and Somersham. The constituency includes a number of current and former Royal Air Force bases; RAF Molesworth, RAF Alconbury and RAF Wyton are still operational. Huntingdon, Godmanchester and St Ives are historic, agricultural market towns. The area is generally wealthy with low levels of deprivation. House prices in the constituency are in line with the national average.
In general, residents have average levels of education and high rates of household income. A high proportion of residents work in the manufacturing and defence industries. White people made up 91% of the population at the 2021 census. At the local council level, the towns are mostly represented by Liberal Democrats and independents whilst the rural areas in the constituency's north and west elected Conservative councillors. An estimated 53% of voters in the constituency supported leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, similar to the nationwide figure of 52%.
The constituency of Huntingdon has existed in three separate forms: as a parliamentary borough from 1295, represented in the House of Commons of England until 1707, then in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and then in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885; as a division of a parliamentary county from 1885 to 1918; and as a county constituency from 1983 until the present day.
Representatives for the seat, the standard two burgesses per parliamentary borough, were summoned to form the first fully assembled parliament, the Model Parliament in 1295 and at all parliaments assembled from then until 1868, in which year the constituency was reduced to a single-member borough in accordance with the Reform Act 1867. In the mid-17th century, this was Oliver Cromwell's constituency.
Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the parliamentary borough was abolished altogether and the two-member parliamentary county of Huntingdonshire was replaced by the two-single member seats formally known as the Northern or Ramsey Division and the Southern or Huntingdon Division. It was abolished under the Representation of the People Act 1918 when it was re-combined with Ramsey and Huntingdonshire was re-established as a single member constituency.
As a result of the Local Government Act 1972, the two counties of Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, and Huntingdon and Peterborough were merged to form the non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire, with effect from 1 April 1974. However, the next redistribution did not come into effect until the 1983 general election, when the Huntingdonshire constituency was abolished once again, with the majority comprising the re-established county constituency of Huntingdon which also included rural areas to the west of Peterborough.
There were significant boundary changes at the 1997 general election, when the neighbouring seat of North West Cambridgeshire was created from areas previously in the seats of Huntingdon and Peterborough.
The former Conservative Prime Minister (1990âÂÂ1997) John Major represented the seat from its re-creation in 1983 until his retirement in 2001. His majority in 1992 (36,230) was the largest majority for any member of parliament post-1832 until 2017, in which George Howarth won a 42,214 vote majority in Knowsley.
The constituency consists of the towns of Huntingdon, St Ives, Godmanchester and a number of smaller settlements in Western Cambridgeshire.
The new county division incorporated the towns of Huntingdon, Godmanchester, and St Neots.
Following the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency is composed of the following electoral wards:
<section begin="General Election 1997"/>
The constituency underwent boundary changes prior to the 1997 election and the changes are not based on the 1992 result. <section end="General Election 1997"/>
<section begin="General Election 1992"/>
<section end="General Election 1992"/>
<section begin="General Election 1987"/>
<section end="General Election 1987"/>
<section begin="General Election 1983"/>
<section end="General Election 1983"/>
Seat reduced to one member
Wells and Sweeting were put forward as candidates, and received "a show of hands of ten to one" against Calvert and Stuart, who had received seven and five respectively. However, the mayor declared Stuart and Calvert as having the majority of legal votes and the seat was not put to a poll.