Politics
Election results 2005 & 2010The county has five parliamentary constituencies, four of which returned Conservative MPs at the 2005 general election and one, Telford, returned a Labour MP. This is a marked change from the 2001 general election result, where the county returned only one Conservative, three Labour and a Liberal Democrat to the Commons (see maps to the right) (Labour = Red, Conservatives = Blue and Liberal Democrats = Orange).
The current MPs of Shropshire are:
- David Wright, Labour, Telford (covering the town of Telford)
- Owen Paterson, Conservative, North Shropshire (covering the former North Shropshire and Oswestry districts, now coextensive with the North area committee)
- Philip Dunne, Conservative, Ludlow (covering the former South Shropshire and (the majority of) Bridgnorth districts; now coextensive with the South area committee except for the part covered by the Wrekin constituency)
- Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative, Shrewsbury and Atcham (covering the former Shrewsbury and Atcham district; now coextensive with the Central area committee)
- Mark Pritchard, Conservative, The Wrekin (covering Telford and Wrekin borough, minus Telford, and including a small area of the former Bridgnorth district/South area committee)
In 2005 there was also a County Council election in which the Conservatives gained overall control of the shire county. Telford and Wrekin Borough Council remained at the time under Labour control but has since gone to no-overall control, with a Conservative executive. Being a rural county, there are a number of independent councillors on the various councils in the county.
The Conservatives gained complete control of Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council in the May 2006 local elections.
| Constituency | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ludlow | CON Christopher Gill | LD Matthew Green | CON Philip Dunne | ||
| North Shropshire | CON John Biffen | CON Owen Paterson | |||
| Shrewsbury & Atcham | CON Derek Conway | LAB Paul Marsden | LD Paul Marsden | CON Daniel Kawczynski | |
| Telford | LAB Bruce Grocott* | LAB Bruce Grocott | LAB David Wright | ||
| The Wrekin | LAB Peter Bradley | CON Mark Pritchard | |||
- Note (*), The Wrekin (historic UK Parliament constituency) was split at the 1997 election.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of Shropshire
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“A baby changes your dinner party conversation from politics to poops.”
—Maurice Johnstone (20th century)
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)
“All you can be sure about in a political-minded writer is that if his work should last you will have to skip the politics when you read it. Many of the so-called politically enlisted writers change their politics frequently.... Perhaps it can be respected as a form of the pursuit of happiness.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)