Our Campaigns - Race Detail Page



New User Account

"A collaborative political resource."

UK Parliament - Heywood & Middleton

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> United Kingdom > England > North West > North West > Heywood & Middleton

Office

Parliament

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

April 19, 2005 - 12:00pm

Polls Open

May 05, 2005 - 01:00am

Polls Close

May 05, 2005 - 05:00pm

Term Start

May 17, 2005 - 12:00pm

Term End

May 17, 2010 - 11:00am

Contributor

Wishful Thinking

Last Modified

Wishful Thinking June 14, 2005 08:04pm

Data Sources

[Link]

Description

This is the southern section of the Greater Manchester borough of Rochdale, comprised of the two settlements from which the constituency takes its name. Both used to be heavily reliant on textiles but engineering, plastics and chemicals are now important. As befits a constituency close to the birthplace of the Co-operative Society, retail plays an important part - 21.5% are employed in this sector. Housing is varied, with almost 70% owner occupation and 18% council rented. It ranges from council estates such as Langley in Middleton with a strong tendency towards Labour, through middle-class suburbs such as Castleton, staunchly Liberal Democrat and the larger residences in Norden & Bamford which tend to vote Tory. The arrival of Castleton and Norden after the last boundary review have made the seat more diverse but has not altered its overall political persuasion. Before the new seat was formed, Labour's Jim Callaghan [not the former prime minister] represented the old Middleton and Prestwich from February 1974 and then the newly named seat from 1983 to 97. Joel Barnett, former chief secretary to the Treasury and inventor of the local government 'Barnett formula', sat for Heywood and Royton during the 1970s. Labour's Jim Dobbin was elected in 1997 with a 17,542 majority, which dropped to 11,670 in 2001.