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Batley and Spen is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is a marginal seat between Labour and the Conservatives.
[edit] Boundaries
This West Yorkshire constituency covers Batley, Birkenshaw, Birstall, Cleckheaton, East Bierley, Gomersal, Hunsworth and Liversedge. Traditionally Batley has been inclined to vote Labour, while the other settlements have been more inclined to Conservative. The exception is Cleckheaton which has returned Liberal Democrat members for the local council.
The seat has swung in Labour's favour since 1997.
For the purposes of the next general election, a neighbouring town, Heckmondwike will be included as part of the constituency. Heckmondwike, also considered to be part of the Spen Valley (although it was never included in the former Spenborough Urban district) is a ward that is typically a Labour/British National Party[1] stronghold, especially in the local elections. The BNP's representation in the town was cut in half due to a broad-based community campaign by Labour at the 2008 council elections which saw the sitting BNP councillor defeated.
The population in the district is diverse. Cleckheaton and many of the villages in the Spen Valley have few residents from non-white heritage backgrounds, while Batley has a sizeable number residents with South Asian backgrounds, namely Pakistani (9.2%) and Indian (Gujarati) (15.9%). Heckmondwike also has a sizeable South Asian community with 16.9% residents having Pakistani heritage.[3]
[edit] Members of Parliament
The seat did not exist in its present form prior to 1983. It has seen not insignificant boundary changes during that time - most notably those changes that took effect for the 1997 General Election.
[edit] Election results
[edit] References
[edit] See also
