List of Parliamentary constituencies in Bedfordshire

The ceremonial county of Bedfordshire (which comprises Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton unitary authorities) is split into 6 seats - 3 Borough and 3 County constituencies.

Constituencies

  † Conservative †   ‡ Labour ‡

Name[nb 1]	Electorate[1]	Majority[2][nb 2]	Member of Parliament[2]		Nearest opposition[2]		Electoral wards[3][4]	Map
Bedford BC	71,581	145		Mohammad Yasin ‡		Ryan Henson †	Bedford Borough Council: Brickhill, Castle, Cauldwell, De Parys, Goldington, Harpur, Kempston East, Kempston North, Kempston South, Kingsbrook, Newnham, Putnoe, Queen's Park.
Luton North BC	68,185	9,247		Sarah Owen ‡		Jeet Bains †	Luton Borough Council: Barnfield, Bramingham, Challney, Icknield, Leagrave, Lewsey, Limbury, Northwell, Saints, Sundon Park.
Luton South BC	69,338	8,756		Rachel Hopkins ‡		Parvez Akhtar †	Luton Borough Council: Biscot, Crawley, Dallow, Farley, High Town, Round Green, South, Stopsley, Wigmore. Central Bedfordshire Council: Caddington, Hyde and Slip End.
Mid Bedfordshire CC	87,795	24,664		Nadine Dorries †		Rhiannon Meades ‡	Bedford Borough Council: Turvey, Wilshamstead, Wootton. Central Bedfordshire Council: Ampthill, Aspley Guise, Clifton and Meppershall, Cranfield, Flitton, Greenfield and Pulloxhill, Flitwick East, Flitwick West, Harlington, Houghton, Haynes, Southill and Old Warden, Marston, Maulden and Clophill, Shefford, Campton and Gravenhurst, Shillington, Stondon and Henlow Camp, Streatley, Silsoe, Toddington, Westoning and Tingrith.
North East Bedfordshire CC	90,678	24,283		Richard Fuller †		Julian Vaughan ‡	Bedford Borough Council: Bromham, Carlton, Clapham, Eastcotts, Great Barford, Harrold, Oakley, Riseley, Roxton, Sharnbrook. Central Bedfordshire Council: Arlesey, Biggleswade Holme, Biggleswade Ivel, Biggleswade Stratton, Langford and Henlow Village, Northill and Blunham, Potton and Wensley, Sandy Ivel, Sandy Pinnacle, Stotfold.
South West Bedfordshire CC	79,926	18,583		Andrew Selous †		Callum Anderson ‡	Central Bedfordshire Council: All Saints, Chiltern, Dunstable Central, Eaton Bray, Grovebury, Heath and Reach, Houghton Hall, Icknield, Kensworth and Totternhoe, Linslade, Manshead, Northfields, Parkside, Planets, Plantation, Southcott, Stanbridge, Tithe Farm, Watling.

2010 Boundary Review

The Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies resulted in only marginal changes due to revision of local authority wards.

Name	Pre-2010 Boundaries	Post-2010 Boundaries
Bedford BC Luton North BC Luton South BC Mid Bedfordshire CC North East Bedfordshire CC South West Bedfordshire CC	Parliamentary constituencies in Bedfordshire 1997 - 2005	Parliamentary constituencies in Bedfordshire 2010 - present

Proposed boundary changes

The Boundary Commission for England submitted their final proposals in respect of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies (the 2018 review) in September 2018. Although the proposals were immediately laid before Parliament they were not brought forward by the Government for approval. Accordingly, they did not come into effect for the 2019 election which took place on 12 December 2019, and which was contested using the constituency boundaries in place since 2010.

Under the terms of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, the Sixth Review was based on reducing the total number of MPs from 650 to 600 and a strict electoral parity requirement that the electorate of all constituencies should be within a range of 5% either side of the electoral quota.

On 24 March 2020, the Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, Chloe Smith, issued a written statement to Parliament setting out the Government's thinking with regard to parliamentary boundaries.[5] Subsequently, the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020[6] was passed into law on 14 December 2020. This formally removed the duty to implement the 2018 review and set out the framework for future boundary reviews. The Act provided that the number of constituencies should remain at the current level of 650, rather than being reduced to 600, while retaining the requirement that the electorate should be no more than +/- 5% from the electoral quota.

The Act specified that the next review should be completed no later than 1 July 2023 and the Boundary Commission formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021.[7] See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.

Results history

Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019[8]

2019

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

Party	Votes	%	Change from 2017	Seats	Change from 2017
Conservative	156,973	49.8%	0.5%	3	0
Labour	107,591	34.2%	7.8%	3	0
Liberal Democrats	28,276	9.0%	4.4%	0	0
Greens	9,126	2.9%	1.0%	0	0
Brexit	3,712	1.2%	new	0	0
Others	9,318	3.0%	1.7%	0	0
Total	314,996	100.0		6

Percentage votes

Election year	1950	1951	1955	1959	1964	1966	1970	1974 (Feb)	1974 (Oct)	1979	1983	1987	1992	1997	2001	2005	2010	2015	2017	2019
Conservative^1	44.5	49.7	53.5	49.9	47.8	43.8	50.5	39.7	40.4	51.3	51.0	54.2	53.2	38.6	39.4	40.6	44.7	47.2	50.3	49.8
Labour	42.4	45.3	44.7	38.8	43.9	45.6	40.9	34.0	37.3	32.9	22.6	24.2	30.3	44.0	42.8	34.2	27.1	29.5	42.0	34.2
Liberal Democrat^2	13.0	4.9	1.8	11.2	8.0	10.3	8.4	26.2	22.2	14.8	26.3	21.1	14.8	12.8	14.8	20.3	20.3	5.6	4.6	9.0
Green Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	*	*	*	0.7	3.6	1.9	2.9
UKIP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	*	3.8	13.5	0.8	*
Brexit Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1.2
Other	0.1	-	-	-	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.1	1.0	0.1	0.4	1.7	4.6	3.1	4.9	3.5	0.6	0.4	2.9

¹Includes National Liberal Party up to 1966

²1950-1979 - Liberal; 1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance

* Included in Other

Seats

Election year	1950	1951	1955	1959	1964	1966	1970	1974 (Feb)	1974 (Oct)	1979	1983	1987	1992	1997	2001	2005	2010	2015	2017	2019
Conservative^1	3	4	4	4	3	1	4	3	3	5	5	5	5	3	3	3	4	4	3	3
Labour	1	0	0	0	1	3	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	3	3	3	2	2	3	3
Total	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

¹Includes National Liberal Party up to 1966

Maps

• 
  1950
• 
  1951
• 
  1955
• 
  1959
• 
  1964
• 
  1966
• 
  1970
• 
  Feb 1974
• 
  Oct 1974
• 
  1979
• 
  1983
• 
  1987
• 
  1992
• 
  1997
• 
  2001
• 
  2005
• 
  2010
• 
  2015
• 
  2017
• 
  2019

Timeline

  Former constituency   Current constituency

Constituency	1295-1885	1885-1918	1918-1950	1950-1974	1974-1983	1983-1997	1997-present
Bedfordshire	1295-1885
Bedford	1295-1983						1997-present
North Bedfordshire						1983-1997
North East Bedfordshire							1997-present
Biggleswade		1885-1918
Mid Bedfordshire			1918-present
South Bedfordshire				1950-1983
South West Bedfordshire						1983-present
Luton		1885-1974
Luton East					1974-1983
Luton West					1974-1983
Luton North						1983-present
Luton South						1983-present

Historical representation by party

A cell marked → (with a different colour background to the preceding cell) indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.

1802 to 1837

  Conservative   Tory   Whig

Constituency	1802	1806	1807	1812	15	1818	1820	1826	1830	1831	1832	34	1835
Bedford	Antonie			G. Russell					Polhill		Crawley
	S. Whitbread				Waldegrave	W. Whitbread							Polhill
Bedfordshire	Osborn		FitzPatrick	F. Russell							C. Russell
	St John	Pym				Osborn	Pym	Macqueen	Stuart	Payne	Stuart	→	Egerton

1837 to 1885

  Conservative   Liberal   Whig

Constituency	1837	38	1841	47	1847	51	1852	54	1857	1859	1865	1868	72	1874	75	1880
Bedford	Stuart	Crawley	H. Stuart					W. Stuart	Barnard	W. Stuart		Howard		Polhill-Turner		Magniac
	Polhill				Verney		Whitbread			→
Bedfordshire	C. Russell		Astell	C. Russell	F. Russell					→			Bassett		G. Russell
	Egerton					Gilpin										Howard

1885 to 1918

  Conservative   Liberal   Liberal Unionist

Constituency	1885	1886	1892	92	1895	1900	1906	Jan 1910	Dec 1910	11
Bedford	Whitbread				Pym		Barlow	Attenborough	Kellaway
Biggleswade	Magniac	Baring	Russell		Compton		Black
Luton	Flower			Whitbread	Ashton					Harmsworth

1918 to 1974

  Coalition Liberal (1918-22) / National Liberal (1922-23)   Conservative   Labour   Liberal   National Liberal (1931-68)

Constituency	1918	1922	1923	1924	1929	31	1931	1935	1945	1950	1951	1955	1959	60	63	1964	1966	1970
Bedford	Kellaway	Wells							Skeffington-Lodge	Soames							Parkyn	Skeet
Bedfordshire Mid	Townley	Linfield		Warner	Gray		Lennox-Boyd							Hastings
Bedfordshire South										Moeran	Cole					→	Roberts	Madel
Luton	Harmsworth	Hewett	Howard	O'Connor	Burgin	→			Warbey	Hill					Howie			Simeons

1974 to present

  Change UK   Conservative   Independent   The Independents   Labour

Constituency	Feb 1974	Oct 1974	1979	1983	1987	1992	1997	2001	2005	2010	2015	2017	17	19	19	2019
Bedford (1974–83, 1997–present) / North Bedfordshire (1983–97)	Skeet						Hall			Fuller		Yasin
Bedfordshire Mid	Hastings			Lyell			Sayeed		Dorries
North East Bedfordshire							Lyell	Burt								Fuller
Bedfordshire South / South West Bedfordshire (1983)	Madel							Selous
Luton East / Luton South (1983)	Clemitson		Bright				Moran			Shuker				→	→	R. Hopkins
Luton West / Luton North (1983)	Sedgemore		Carlisle				K. Hopkins						→			Owen

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in the East of England (region)
• History of Parliamentary constituencies and boundaries in Bedfordshire

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

1. Baker, Carl; Uberoi, Elise; Cracknell, Richard (2020-01-28). "General Election 2019: full results and analysis". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
2. "Constituencies A-Z - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
3. "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 2007, page 4". Office of Public Sector Information. Crown copyright. 13 June 2007. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
4. Boundary Commission for England pp. 1004–1007
5. "Update: Strengthening Democracy:Written statement - HCWS183". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
6. "Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020".
7. "2023 Review launched | Boundary Commission for England". Retrieved 2021-01-08.
8. Watson, Christopher; Uberoi, Elise; Loft, Philip (2020-04-17). "General election results from 1918 to 2019". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)