Spen Valley (UK Parliament constituency)

History

The constituency was created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 for the 1885 general election, retained with altered boundaries in 1918, and abolished for the 1950 general election. In the 1901 Census, there were 13,557 inhabited houses in the division; there were 10,960 registered electors, of which 9,396 qualified by virtue of occupying property within the division, 1,490 by virtue of owning property, 67 by virtue of occupying land only within the division, and 7 qualifying as lodgers.

Political historian Henry Pelling noted that the constituency as it existed from 1885 to 1918 was dominated by the woollen industry and carpetmaking, where the vast bulk of the population were nonconformist: the Church of England parish of Birstall was said to have had only four clergymen in the eighteenth century (two of whom were schoolmasters). In 1922, membership of nonconformist circuits in the constituency is estimated at 2,759 for the Congregational Church, 1,065 Wesleyan Methodism, 1,027 United Methodist Church, 698 Primitive Methodism, and 328 Baptists, making it the second largest nonconformist attendance in the West Riding.

The death of the sitting MP in 1919 led to a sensational by-election gain for the Labour Party, which was described by historian Maurice Cowling as the worst result for the Coalition during the 1918–22 Parliament; John Ramsden admitted that Labour's win had a big psychological impact on the Coalition but thought the result was a "freak win" given that Labour had under 40% of the vote. At the ensuing general election, the Manchester Guardian described the constituency as "scattered between the three towns of Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield", centred on Cleckheaton, and populated by "woollen and wire workers, miners, card manufacturers". A significant presence of Irish voters was also noted. Sir John Simon, a former Home Secretary who had lost his seat in the 1918 election, regained the seat for the Liberals in 1922 and held it until given a Peerage in 1940. During this period Simon moved from declaring his basic sympathy with the Labour Party's objects, to forming the Liberal Nationals who went into alliance with the Conservatives. Simon found his constituency marginal, and had a majority of under 1,000 in his last election, and Labour gained it in the 1945 election landslide.

Boundary changes abolished the constituency in 1950. The bulk of the abolished constituency, including Cleckheaton, Gildersome and Spenborough, formed the eastern half of Brighouse and Spenborough; another large part including Gildersome, Birstall and Drighlington, formed part of Batley and Morley. Heckmondwike and Mirfield transferred to Dewsbury, while Kirkheaton moved to Colne Valley and other parts moved to Huddersfield East.

Boundaries

1885–1950

While originally devised by the Boundary Commissioners in 1885, the division was originally named as 'Birstal', "from the name of a large ancient parish". The naming of the new division led to a small struggle between the two Houses of Parliament during the passage of the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, when Alfred Illingworth (Liberal MP for Bradford) moved an amendment to replace 'Birstal' with 'Spen Valley'. Illingworth argued that Birstall contained only one-eighth of the population of the division, but Spen Valley was a name which represented several important towns, and his amendment was accepted without dissent by the House of Commons. When the Bill reached the House of Lords, the Conservative peer the Earl of Feversham moved an amendment to reinstate 'Birstal' claiming the support of the people in the area. The Earl contended that the Spen Valley was an unknown description and "was only remarkable for being the receptacle of all the sewage from Birstal", whereas Birstal was a very important parish. He had support from the Earl of Cranbrook and his amendment was also accepted without dissent.

When the Bill returned to the House of Commons, Alfred Illingworth again took up the issue and moved that the Commons disagree with the Lords. He again pointed to the small population of Birstall in comparison with other towns, and noted that the Sanitary district covering the area was known as Spen Valley and that the River Spen ran through the centre of the constituency whereas Birstall was in the extreme north-east corner of it. Conservative MP Edward Stanhope (Mid Lincolnshire) said that he had found feeling in the area to be in favour of 'Birstal', but the President of the Local Government Board Sir Charles Dilke, speaking for the Government, stated that the local boards in Heckmondwike, Liversedge and Cleckheaton (where a majority of the population lived) had sent a memorial in favour of 'Spen Valley'. He agreed that the name had been invented by the Local Government Board, but argued that there were "local jealousies" between the towns and that Birstall was unpopular with the others, and therefore personally supported 'Spen Valley'. After a brief debate, the House voted by 65 to 46 to insist on 'Spen Valley' as the name. The Lords then gave way, but not without further protest from the Earl of Feversham.

During this battle no alteration was made to the boundary. The new division was to consist of:

• the Parishes in the Sessional Division of Dewsbury of Gomersal, Heckmondwike and Liversedge, and
• the Parishes of Cleckheaton, Clifton, Hartshead, and Wyke.

When redefined by the Boundary Commission in 1917, the county division was defined as consisting of the Urban Districts of Birkenshaw, Birstall, Drighlington, Gildersome, Heckmondwike, Hunsworth, Kirkheaton, Lepton, Mirfield, Spenborough and Whitley Upper.

The effect of the boundary change in 1918 was as shown in the table:

Of the 59,643 population in Spen Valley before the boundary change, 49,960 (83.8%) remained in the division after it. 6,145 (10.3%) moved to Bradford South while 3,538 (5.9%) moved to Elland. The new constituency was made up primarily of the old Spen Valley (65.3%), with 11,712 (15.3%) from Morley, 8,433 (11.0%) from Pudsey, and 6,450 (8.4%) from Holmfirth.

2024–present

Further to the 2023 periodic review of Westminster constituencies which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the re-established constituency comprises the following wards of the Borough of Kirklees:

• Birstall and Birkenshaw; Cleckheaton; Dalton (polling district DA06); Heckmondwike; Liversedge and Gomersal; Mirfield.

The majority of the electorate comes from the abolished seat of Batley and Spen – excluding the town of Batley itself. Mirfield was transferred in from the abolished Dewsbury constituency, and the small part of Dalton ward, which includes the village of Kirkheaton, from Huddersfield.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1885–1950

Eastern West Riding of Yorkshire prior to 1885

MPs since 2024

Batley and Spen prior to 2024

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Election results 1885–1950

Elections in the 1880s

|reg. electors = 9,645

|reg. electors = 9,645

Elections in the 1890s

|reg. electors = 11,038

|reg. electors = 10,492

Elections in the 1900s

|reg. electors = 10,858

|reg. electors = 11,300

Elections in the 1910s

|reg. electors = 11,631

|reg. electors = 11,631

Note: 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:

• Liberal: Thomas Whittaker

|reg. electors = 38,327

|reg. electors = 39,667

Elections in the 1920s

|reg. electors = 40,107

|reg. electors = 40,678

|reg. electors = 40,978

|reg. electors = 53,480

Elections in the 1930s

|reg. electors = 54,097

|reg. electors = 55,358

Note: 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 and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected:

• Liberal National: William Woolley
• Labour: Ivor Thomas

Elections in the 1940s

|reg. electors = 55,218

References

References

1. "Yorkshire and the Humber {{!}} Boundary Commission for England".
2. "Parliamentary Constituencies (Electors, &c.) (United Kingdom)", House of Commons Paper no. 85 of session 1901, p. 7.
3. [[Henry Pelling]], "Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910", Macmillan, 1967, p. 302.
4. Michael Kinnear, "The British Voter" 2nd edition, Batsford Academic, 1981, p. 128.
5. Maurice Cowling, "The Impact of Labour, 1920–1924", Cambridge University Press, 1971, p. 112.
6. John Ramsden, "Newport and the fall of the Coalition" in "By-Elections in British Politics", Macmillan Press, 1973, p. 18.
7. "The Second Round in Spen Valley: Sir John Simon and Mr. Tom Myers", ''Manchester Guardian'', 9 November 1922, p. 12.
8. David Dutton, "Liberals in Schism: A history of the National Liberal Party", Tauris Academic Studies, 2008, p. 42.
9. "County of York (Eastern Division of the West Riding)" in "Report of the Boundary Commissioners for England Wales, 1885" (C.-4287), vol I p. 185-7.
10. ''[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1885/apr/16/england#S3V0296P0_18850416_HOC_234 Hansard]'' 3ser vol 296 col 1937.
11. ''[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1885/jun/08/disqualification-of-voters-for-corrupt#S3V0298P0_18850608_HOL_142 Hansard]'' 3ser vol 298 col 1394.
12. ''[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1885/jun/15/clause-a-acceleration-of-registration-in#S3V0298P0_18850615_HOC_188 Hansard]'', 3ser vol 298 cols 1581-2.
13. ''[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1885/jun/23/consideration-of-commons-reasons#S3V0298P0_18850623_HOL_23 Hansard]'' 3ser vol 298 cols 1610–11.
14. [[Redistribution of Seats Act 1885]]
15. "46. County of York, West Riding" in "Report of the Boundary Commission (England and Wales)", Cd. 8757, vol II.
16. "The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023".
17. "Spen Valley results". BBC News.
18. "Election results for Spen Valley".
19. Thomas Whittaker died on 9 November 1919.
20. ‘FAIRFAX, Col Bryan Charles’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U225243, accessed 20 Sept 2017]
21. Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
22. Sir John Simon was appointed Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain on 20 May 1940.