Westmorland and Lonsdale (UK Parliament constituency)

Westmorland and Lonsdale
County constituency for the House of Commons
120px Boundary of Westmorland and Lonsdale in Cumbria.
120px Location of Cumbria within England.
County	Cumbria
Electorate	66,609 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of parliament	Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat)
Number of members	One
Created from	Morecambe and Lonsdale and Westmorland
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	North West England

Westmorland and Lonsdale is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Boundaries

The constituency is based on the South Lakeland district of Cumbria. Important towns by size in the constituency include Kendal, Windermere and Kirkby Lonsdale. It is named for the Westmorland and Lonsdale districts of Cumbria.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Cumbria, the Boundary Commission for England created a modified Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency, to deal with population changes.

The electoral wards used to create the modified seat, contested for the first time at the 2010 general election, are entirely within the South Lakeland district.

• Arnside and Beetham, Burneside, Burton and Holme, Cartmel, Coniston, Crooklands, Grange, Hawkshead, Holker, Kendal Castle, Kendal Far Cross, Kendal Fell, Kendal Glebelands, Kendal Heron Hill, Kendal Highgate, Kendal Kirkland, Kendal Mintsfeet, Kendal Nether, Kendal Oxenholme, Kendal Parks, Kendal Stonecross, Kendal Strickland, Kendal Underley, Kirkby Lonsdale, Lakes Ambleside, Lakes Grasmere, Levens, Lyth Valley, Milnthorpe, Natland, Sedbergh, Staveley-in-Cartmel, Staveley-in-Westmorland, Whinfell, Windermere Applethwaite, Windermere Bowness North, Windermere Bowness South and Windermere Town

This removed Broughton-in-Furness from the constituency.

History

Having been a Conservative seat since its creation in 1983, the 1997 election saw the Tory majority cut to less than than 5,000 votes. This was further reduced at the 2001 election. In 2005, the constituency featured among a list of seats held by high-profile Conservatives (in this case, the Education spokesperson Tim Collins) targeted by Liberal Democrats by deploying supporters from across each region in what was referred in the media as a "decapitation strategy". In the event, this was the only one of the "decapitation" seats to change hands in 2005, with Tim Farron gaining the seat by a marginal majority.

In the 2010 general election, this constituency recorded the largest swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats (11.1% Con-LD) in a seat where those two parties were in the top two positions. The constituency also produced the lowest share of the vote for Labour (2.2%, one of five lost deposits for Labour nationally). With 96.2% of votes cast for either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat candidates, Westmorland and Lonsdale also had the highest combined share of the vote cast for the Coalition parties.

Contrasting with its Conservative history the combined Conservative/UKIP vote narrowly failed to reach 40% in 2015. This was also the only constituency in that entire general election in which a Liberal Democrat candidate secured an absolute majority (i.e. over 50%) of all votes cast.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1983	Michael Jopling	Conservative
	1997	Tim Collins	Conservative
	2005	Tim Farron	Liberal Democrat

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Westmorland and Lonsdale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Tim Farron	25,194	51.5	−8.5
	Conservative	Ann Myatt	16,245	33.2	−3.0
	UKIP	Alan Piper	3,031	6.2	+4.6
	Labour	John Bateson	2,661	5.4	+3.2
	Green	Chris Loynes	1,798	3.7	N/A
Majority			8,949	18.3
Turnout			48,929	74.3
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	−2.75

General Election 2010: Westmorland and Lonsdale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Tim Farron	30,896	60.0	+14.1
	Conservative	Gareth McKeever	18,632	36.2	−8.1
	Labour	Jonathan Todd	1,158	2.2	−5.6
	UKIP	John Mander	801	1.6	+0.2
Majority			12,264	23.8
Turnout			51,487	75.8	+5.1
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	+11.1

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Westmorland and Lonsdale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Tim Farron	22,569	45.5	+5.1
	Conservative	Tim Collins	22,302	44.9	−2.0
	Labour	John Reardon	3,796	7.6	−3.3
	UKIP	Robert Gibson	660	1.3	+0.1
	Independent	Anthony Kemp	309	0.6	N/A
Majority			267	0.5
Turnout			49,636	71.6	+3.8
	Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative		Swing	+3.5

General Election 2001: Westmorland and Lonsdale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tim Collins	22,486	46.9	+4.7
	Liberal Democrat	Tim Farron	19,339	40.4	+7.0
	Labour	John Anthony Bateson	5,234	10.9	−9.7
	UKIP	Robert Gibson	552	1.2	N/A
	Independent	Timothy John Bell	292	0.6	N/A
Majority			3,147	6.5
Turnout			47,903	67.8	−6.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	−1.2

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Westmorland and Lonsdale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tim Collins	21,463	42.3	−14.6
	Liberal Democrat	Stanley Bernard Collins	16,492	33.4	+5.9
	Labour	John Harding	10,452	20.6	+5.5
	Referendum	Michael H. Smith	1,924	3.8	N/A
Majority			4,521	9.0
Turnout			50,781	74.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	−10.3

General Election 1992: Westmorland and Lonsdale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Jopling	31,798	56.9	−0.7
	Liberal Democrat	Stanley Bernard Collins	15,362	27.5	−1.7
	Labour	Dickon J. Abbott	8,436	15.1	+1.9
	Natural Law	Robert Johnstone	287	0.5	N/A
Majority			16,436	29.4	+1.0
Turnout			55,883	77.8	−3.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.5

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Westmorland and Lonsdale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Jopling	30,259	57.6	−3.7
	Liberal	Stanley Bernard Collins	15,339	29.2	+2.1
	Labour	Shaun Patrick Halfpenny	6,968	13.2	+3.3
Majority			14,920	28.4
Turnout			52,566	74.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	−2.9

General Election 1983: Westmorland and Lonsdale

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Jopling	29,775	61.3	N/A
	Liberal	Dr. Ken Hulls	13,188	27.1	N/A
	Labour	Chris Stott	4,798	9.9	N/A
	Ecology	Robert Anthony Gibson	805	1.7	N/A
Majority			16,587	34.2	N/A
Turnout			48,566	72.3	N/A
	Conservative win (new seat)

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Cumbria

Notes and references

Notes

References