Halifax (UK Parliament constituency)

Boundaries

1918–1983: The County Borough of Halifax.

1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale wards of Illingworth, Mixenden, Northowram and Shelf, Ovenden, St John's, Skircoat, Sowerby Bridge, Town, and Warley.

2010–2024: The Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale wards of Illingworth and Mixenden, Northowram and Shelf, Ovenden, Park, Skircoat, Sowerby Bridge, Town, and Warley.

2024–present: Same as above apart from the addition of part of the Ryburn ward (polling districts MB, MC and MD) from Calder Valley as part of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, thus bringing the whole of Sowerby Bridge within the constituency.

This constituency covers the large town of Halifax in West Yorkshire and includes the smaller town of Sowerby Bridge which adjoins Halifax but until 1974 was a separate Urban District and was part of the Sowerby constituency until 1983.

History

To 1918

The parliamentary borough was granted in the Great Reform Act 1832 and returned from that year until 1918 two members. A county borough recognized the density of the developed area in 1888 which provided most functions for inhabitants, retaining the West Yorkshire ceremonial county. The municipal or county borough was under a mayor, five aldermen and 45 councillors and had an area of 13967 acre.

At the time of the Norman Conquest, Halifax formed part of the extensive manor of Wakefield, which belonged to the king, but in the 13th century was in the hands of John Earl de Warrenne aka. Earl of Surrey (1231–1304). The prosperity of the town began with the first woollen products workshop established here in 1414, when there are said to have been only thirteen houses, which before the end of the 16th century had increased to 520. Camden, about the end of the 17th century, wrote that "the people are very industrious, so that though the soil about it be barren and improfitable, not fit to live on, they have so flourished ... by the clothing trade that they are very rich and have gained a reputation for it above their neighbours." The manufacturing standards and trade were improved by the arrival of certain merchants and clothworkers driven from the Spanish Netherlands by the persecution by the Duke of Alva.

Halifax was a borough by prescription rather than a medieval parliamentary borough, its privileges{{#tag:ref|Among the curious customs of Halifax was the Gibbet Law, which was probably established by a prescriptive right to protect the wool trade, and gave the inhabitants the power of executing anyone taken within their liberty, who, when tried by a jury of sixteen of the frith-burgesses, was found guilty of the theft of any goods of the value of more than 13d. The executions took place on market days on a hill outside the town, the gibbet somewhat resembling a guillotine. The first execution recorded under this law took place in 1541, and the right was exercised in Halifax longer than in any other town, the last execution taking place in 1650.

In 1635, the king granted the inhabitants of Halifax licence to found a workhouse in a large house given to them for that purpose by Nathaniel Waterhouse, and incorporated them under the name of the master and governors. Nathaniel Waterhouse was appointed the first master, his successors being elected every year by the twelve governors from among themselves.|group= n}} growing up with the increased prosperity brought by the cloth trade, but it was not incorporated until 1848. From 1832 until 1918 the town's property-qualifying residents paying scot and lot returned two members to parliament.

Recent political history

Apart from the four years following the 1983 general election, when it was held by a Conservative MP, the seat has been held by an MP representing the Labour Party since 1964.

Prior to the 2017 general election, the Conservative Party launched its election manifesto at Dean Clough Mill in Halifax, and targeted the seat fairly heavily, for two years earlier the Labour majority in the constituency had fallen to just 428 votes, or 1% of the total vote. However, Holly Lynch increased her majority by almost 5,000 votes, giving Labour its biggest majority in Halifax since 2001.

Lynch retained the seat in 2019 and, after she stood down for the 2024 election, it was won by fellow Labour Party member Kate Dearden.

Constituency profile

As of 2001, the town in the Pennines was relatively affluent, not afflicted by the high levels of unemployment, underemployment and crime seen in a few wards of the Yorkshire and Humber region but most constituents had modest incomes and there was some social housing in certain wards.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1832–1918

MPs since 1918

Representation reduced to one member, 1918

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1950s

• Blackburn was a vice-president of the Bradford Conservative Association. He was nominated after the Conservative and Liberal associations in the division had failed to reach agreement on the proposal for a joint anti-Labour candidate.

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1920s

|reg. electors = 69,301

|reg. electors = 52,013

Elections in the 1910s

|reg. electors = 49,017

|reg. electors = 15,528

|reg. electors = 15,528

Elections in the 1900s

|reg. electors = 15,316

|reg. electors = 14,879

Elections in the 1890s

|reg. electors = 14,290

• Caused by Shaw's resignation.

|reg. electors = 13,844

|reg. electors = 13,317

• Caused by Shaw's death

|reg. electors = 13,177

Elections in the 1880s

|reg. electors = 12,269

• Caused by Stansfeld's appointment as President of the Local Government Board.

|reg. electors = 12,269

• Caused by Hutchinson's resignation.

|reg. electors = 11,728

Elections in the 1870s

|reg. electors = 11,737

• Caused by Crossley's resignation.

|reg. electors = 11,282

• Caused by Crossley's appointment as President of the Poor Law Board.

Elections in the 1860s

• Caused by Stansfeld's appointment as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury.

|reg. electors = 9,328

|reg. electors = 1,771

• Caused by Stansfeld's appointment as Civil Lord of the Admiralty.

Elections in the 1850s

• Caused by Wood's appointment as Secretary of State for India.

|reg. electors = 1,521

|reg. electors = 1,488

• Caused by Wood's appointment as First Lord of the Admiralty

|reg. electors = 1,218

• Caused by Wood's appointment as President of the Board of Control.

|reg. electors = 1,200

Elections in the 1840s

|reg. electors = 1,022

• Caused by Wood's appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer

|reg. electors = 78.3

Elections in the 1830s

|reg. electors = 970

|reg. electors = 648

|reg. electors = 531

Notes

References

Sources

• Victoria County History, Yorkshire
• T. Wright, The Antiquities of the Town of Halifax (Leeds, 1738)
• John Watson, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax (London, 1775)
• John Crabtree, A Concise History of the Parish and Vicarage of Halifax (Halifax and London, 1836).

References

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