History
Cheltenham borough constituency was created in the Great Reform Act of 1832 and has returned nine Liberals (or Liberal Democrats) and nine Conservatives to Parliament since that time, along with one independent.
The Conservative Party held the constituency from 1950 until 1992. The Conservatives' campaign in the 1992 general election was marred by a local party member's racist remarks about their candidate, John Taylor, who is of West Indian descent. Taylor subsequently lost the election to Nigel Jones of the Liberal Democrats.
In 2000, Jones was nearly murdered in a horrific incident at one of his MP's surgeries; a man attacked him and an assistant with a samurai sword. His colleague, Andrew Pennington, was killed in the attack. Jones was made a life peer in 2005. The Liberal Democrats held Cheltenham in the 2005 election, with Martin Horwood taking the seat.
Read more about this topic: Cheltenham (UK Parliament Constituency)
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