A map of a country, divided into many smaller counties. One county, situated in a southern-central location, is highlighted in red
The county of Berkshire in relation to England

The ceremonial county of Berkshire (which is entirely made up of unitary authorities – Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham) is divided into eight parliamentary constituencies: two borough constituencies and six county constituencies.

Constituencies

  Conservative †   Labour ‡   Liberal Democrat ¤

Name[nb 1] Electorate[1] Majority[2][nb 2] Member of Parliament[2] Nearest opposition[2] Map
Bracknell CC 78,978 19,829   James Sunderland †   Paul Bidwell ‡
A large constituency in the south of the county.
Maidenhead CC 76,668 18,846 Theresa May †   Joshua Reynolds ¤
A medium-sized constituency located in the south east of the county.
Newbury CC 83,414 16,047 Laura Farris † Lee Dillon ¤
A medium-sized constituency, located to the north of the centre of the county. It is entirely bounded by other constituencies in the county.
Reading East BC 77,152 5,924   Matt Rodda ‡ Craig Morley †
A medium-to-large constituency, located in the southeast of the county.
Reading West CC 74,137 4,117 Alok Sharma † Rachel Eden ‡
A small constituency, located in the centre of the county, to the east of two other small constituencies.
Slough BC 86,818 13,640 Tan Dhesi ‡ Kanwal Toor Gill †
A small constituency, located in the centre of the county to the south of two equally small constituencies.
Windsor CC 75,038 20,079 Adam Afriyie †   Julian Tisi ¤
A small constituency, situated in the centre of the county to the west of two similarly sized constituencies.
Wokingham CC 83,953 7,383 John Redwood †   Dr Phillip Lee ¤
A small constituency, situated in the centre of the county to the west of two similarly sized constituencies.

2010 boundary review

Under the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the Boundary Commission for England[3] decided to retain Berkshire's 8 constituencies for the 2010 election, making minor changes to realign constituency boundaries with the boundaries of current local government wards, and to reduce the electoral disparity between constituencies, including the transfer of Bray from Windsor to Maidenhead, Binfield from Bracknell to Windsor and the return of Foxborough ward from Windsor to Slough.

NameBoundaries 1997-2010Boundaries 2010–present
1. Bracknell CC
2. Maidenhead CC
3. Newbury CC
4. Reading East BC
5. Reading West CC
6. Slough BC
7. Windsor CC
8. Wokingham CC

Proposed boundary changes

See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.

Following the abandonment of the Sixth Periodic Review (the 2018 review), the Boundary Commission for England formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021.[4] Initial proposals were published on 8 June 2021 and, following two periods of public consultation, revised proposals were published on 8 November 2022. The final proposals were published on 28 June 2023.

The commission has proposed that Berkshire be combined with Hampshire and Surrey as a sub-region of the South East Region. As a result, Windsor now includes Englefield Green in the Surrey borough of Runnymede. The two Reading constituencies (East and West) would be abolished and revert to a single constituency (Reading Central), with two new constituencies created, named Earley and Woodley, and Reading West and Mid Berkshire.[5][6]

The following constituencies are proposed:

Containing electoral wards from Bracknell Forest

Containing electoral wards from Reading

Containing electoral wards from Slough

Containing electoral wards from West Berkshire

  • Reading West and Mid Berkshire (part)
  • Newbury

Containing electoral wards from Windsor and Maidenhead

  • Maidenhead (part)
  • Windsor (part)1

Containing electoral wards from Wokingham

1also includes part in the Surrey borough of Runnymede

Results history

Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019[7]

2019

The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Berkshire in the 2019 general election were as follows:

Party Votes % Change from 2017 Seats Change from 2017
Conservative 222,532 50.1% Decrease3.8% 6 0
Labour 115,747 26.1% Decrease6.7% 2 0
Liberal Democrats 87,532 19.7% Increase9.4% 0 0
Greens 13,796 3.1% Increase1.5% 0 0
Brexit 2,284 0.5% new 0 0
Others 2,044 0.5% Decrease0.9% 0 0
Total 443,935 100.0 8

Percentage votes

Note that before 1983 Berkshire additionally covered the southern part of what is now Oxfordshire, and the Eton and Slough areas which now form part of Berkshire were part of Buckinghamshire.

Election year 1922 1923 1924 1929 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (F) 1974 (O) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019
Conservative 54.2 48.2 60.4 48.6 47.0 50.0 56.2 58.5 59.7 47.7 46.5 53.6 44.4 44.2 54.3 54.7 57.2 55.3 42.2 40.2 43.5 50.6 54.3 53.9 50.1
Labour 13.8 16.2 22.9 22.4 37.9 38.1 42.3 39.4 37.1 33.5 39.1 33.3 26.0 28.3 23.5 16.0 16.5 19.8 28.5 30.7 24.0 18.0 21.9 32.8 26.1
Liberal Democrat1 32.1 35.6 16.7 28.9 13.8 11.7 1.4 2.1 3.3 18.5 14.4 12.8 29.2 27.3 21.2 28.1 25.2 23.5 24.6 26.0 27.4 25.2 8.9 10.3 19.7
Green Party - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * * * 1.3 3.9 1.6 3.1
UKIP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * * * 3.0 10.6 0.8 *
Brexit Party - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0.5
Other - - - - 1.3 0.2 - - - 0.2 - 0.3 0.3 0.2 1.0 1.2 1.1 1.4 4.7 3.1 5.0 2.0 0.4 0.6 0.5

1pre-1979: Liberal Party; 1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance

* Included in Other

Accurate vote percentages for the 1918, 1931 and 1935 elections are unavailable because some candidates were elected unopposed.

Seats

Election year 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019
Conservative 7 7 7 4 4 6 7 7 6 6
Labour 0 0 0 3 3 2 1 1 2 2
Liberal Democrat1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Total 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

11983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance

Maps

1885-1910

1918-1945

1950-1979

1983-present

Historical representation by party

1885 to 1918

  Conservative   Liberal

Constituency 1885 1886 90 1892 1895 98 1900 01 04 1906 Jan 1910 Dec 1910 13 16
Abingdon Wroughton A. K. Loyd Strauss Henderson A. K. Loyd
Newbury W. G. Mount W. A. Mount Mackarness W. A. Mount
Reading Murdoch Palmer Murdoch Palmer Isaacs Wilson
Windsor Richardson-Gardner Barry Mason
Wokingham Russell Young Gardner

1918 to 1950

  Conservative   Labour   Liberal

Constituency 1918 21 22 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 42 1945
Abingdon Wigan A. T. Loyd Lessing Glyn
Newbury W. A. Mount Brown Stranger Brown Hurd
Reading Wilson Cadogan Hastings Williams Hastings Howitt Mikardo
Windsor Gardner Somerville Mott-Radclyffe

1950 to 1983

  Conservative   Labour

Constituency 1950 1951 53 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 Feb 74 Oct 74 1979
Abingdon Glyn Neave T. Benyon
Newbury Hurd Astor McNair-Wilson
Reading North K. Mackay Bennett Durant
Reading South (1950–55, 74–83) / Reading (1955–74) Mikardo Emery Lee Vaughan
Windsor / Windsor and Maidenhead (1974) Mott-Radclyffe Glyn
Wokingham Remnant van Straubenzee

1983 to present

  Conservative   Labour   Liberal Democrats

Constituency 1983 1987 1992 93 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 19 2019
Newbury McNair-Wilson Chaplin Rendel R. Benyon Farris
Reading West Durant Salter Sharma
Reading East Vaughan Griffiths Wilson Rodda
Windsor and Maidenhead / Windsor (1997) Glyn Trend Afriyie
Wokingham van Straubenzee Redwood
Slough Watts Mactaggart Dhesi
East Berkshire / Bracknell (1997) A. MacKay Lee → Sunderland
Maidenhead May

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ BC denotes borough constituency, CC denotes county constituency.
  2. ↑ The majority is the number of votes the winning candidate receives more than their nearest rival.

References

General
  • "Boundary Commission for England: Fifth Periodical Report" (PDF). Boundary Commission for England. Crown Copyright. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
  • Craig, Frederick Walter Scott (1972). Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972. Chichester, Sussex: Political Reference Publications. ISBN 0-900178-13-2.
Specific
  1. ↑ Baker, Carl; Uberoi, Elise; Cracknell, Richard (28 January 2020). "General Election 2019: full results and analysis". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. 1 2 3 "Constituencies A-Z - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  3. ↑ "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 2007". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  4. ↑ "2023 Review | Boundary Commission for England". boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 7 October 2021.
  5. ↑ "Constituency boundary review 2021: what the changes mean for Berkshire". Reading Chronicle. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  6. ↑ "The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report | Boundary Commission for England". boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk. paras 876-889. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  7. ↑ Watson, Christopher; Uberoi, Elise; Loft, Philip (17 April 2020). "General election results from 1918 to 2019". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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