List of Parliamentary Constituencies in Leicestershire and Rutland - Historic Constituencies

Historic Constituencies

In the unreformed House of Commons, Leicestershire and Rutland were represented by two Knights of the Shire each, and the only parliamentary borough was Leicester, which sent two burgesses.

Under the Reform Act 1832, Leicestershire was split into two divisions, North and South, which each elected two members. The Reform Act 1885 redistributed these seats in four single-member divisions: Melton, or Eastern, Loughborough, or Mid, Harborough, or Southern, and Bosworth, or Western.

At the 1918 general election, the four divisions of the county were retained, and the borough of Leicester was split into three single-member constituencies, Leicester East, Leicester South, and Leicester West. From 1948 to 1970 Leicester had four constituencies, these being Leicester North East, Leicester North West, Leicester South East and Leicester South West: the three seat arrangement of South, East and West was reverted to thereafter.

Rutland constituted a constituency on its own until the 1918, when it became part of the Rutland and Stamford constituency, with nearby Stamford in Lincolnshire.

In 1983, seats in Leicestershire were shaken up. Rutland was associated with Melton to form Rutland and Melton, with Loughborough, Bosworth, and Harborough remaining as seat names. Two new seats were created: Blaby in the south-west, and in the north-west the North West Leicestershire constituency. A further constituency, Charnwood was created in the north for the 1997 election.