Macclesfield - Governance

Governance

Macclesfield was first represented in Parliament after the Reform Act of 1832, from when it had two members of Parliament. This situation lasted until 1880, when after problems at the general election that year it was decided to declare the election void and suspend the writ of election (so no by-election could take place).

In September 1880 a Royal Commission was appointed to investigate further. A report of March 1881 confirmed the allegations of corruption. As a result the borough constituency was disenfranchised for corruption. The disenfranchisement took effect on 25 June 1885, when the town was transferred to the East Cheshire constituency.

However under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 the Macclesfield constituency was recreated with extended boundaries, as a county division, later in 1885. From the 1885 general election it has elected one MP.

Macclesfield has for some time been considered to be a safe seat for the Conservative Party, having been held by them since the 1918 general election.

Currently, Macclesfield is represents by Gravesend born, Dave Rutley(1961), a Conservative and practising Mormon. He was selected for this seat in 2010, when Sir Nicholas Winterton who had been the incumbent for 38 years, announced his retirement following unfavourable press coverage relating to the claiming of Parliamentary expenses. Sir Nicholas' wife Anne Winterton held the neighbouring seat of Congleton.

The Wintertons had been investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and he concluded that they misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. Once the mortgage had been fully repaid, the Wintertons transferred the ownership of the flat into a family trust. Further, on 18 February 2010 during a BBC Radio 5 Live interview he had defended MPs travelling first class by saying that people who travelled in standard class on trains were a "totally different type of people."

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