Staffordshire Moorlands (UK Parliament Constituency) - Boundaries

Boundaries

The constituency succeeded the former constituency of Leek and was first contested at the 1983 General election. The boundary changes which took effect for the 1997 General election proved to be among the most controversial of all those proposed by the Boundary Commission. Initially only minor changes were to be made to Staffordshire Moorlands, with two rural wards transferring to the new Stone constituency. However in the same proposed boundary changes, the neighbouring community of Kidsgrove had been split between two constituencies, with two wards remaining in the constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North and two wards transferring to Newcastle-under-Lyme. At the local enquiry into the changes, it was argued that this division of Kidsgrove was unacceptable and the assistant commissioner consequently recommended that all four Kidsgrove wards be transferred instead to Staffordshire Moorlands. To make way for the 19,000 voters in Kidsgrove, a heavily Labour supporting community, two wards, Endon & Stanley and Brown Edge were transferred to Stoke-on-Trent North, while two more rural wards were transferred to the Stone constituency. It was estimated that if the constituency had been fought on the 1997 boundaries that Labour would have won the seat by about 1,500 votes as opposed to the actual majority of 7,410 which Conservative MP David Knox had received at the 1992 General election .

The boundary changes which took effect at the 2010 General election effectively reversed these changes and restored the Status quo ante. Four of the five Kidsgrove wards were transferred back to Stoke-on-Trent North with only one mainly rural ward, Newchapel remaining in Staffordshire Moorlands. Brown Edge and Endon & Stanley return to Staffordshire Moorlands. It was estimated that if the constituency had been fought at the 2005 election, Labour would have lost the seat by 1,035 votes as opposed to the 2,438 votes that Charlotte Atkins won on that occasion.