City of Durham is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Mary Kelly Foy of the Labour Party.
Constituency profile
The constituency contains a large minority of students, researchers and academics at the early 19th century founded University of Durham, that has a claim towards being the third oldest in England and has elected Labour MPs since 1935, although there have been strong SDP–Liberal Alliance and Liberal Democrat challenges to Labour since the 1980s.
The constituency includes a number of surrounding villages and suburbs as well as Durham itself, the largest of these are Brandon, Bowburn, Esh Winning, Framwellgate Moor, Sherburn, Ushaw Moor and Willington. The seat extends as far west as Satley and as far east as Shadforth.
The seat has traditionally been dominated by Labour, with support particularly strong in those villages historically connected to County Durham's mining industry. Durham is famous as an educational centre, for Durham University and the feepaying preparatory school, Chorister School where Tony Blair was educated. The city centre is more inclined to the Liberal Democrats. Like many other university cities such as Cambridge and Oxford, in the 2005 election it swung strongly towards the Liberal Democrats, one possible reason being these cities' sizeable student population who were viewed as being hostile to Labour's policies on areas such as top-up fees and the Iraq War. The Liberal Democrats were able to reduce Labour's majority by over 10,000 votes, although they were still unable to gain the seat from Labour, as was the case in the 2010 election. As reflected in throughout the country, the Liberal Democrat vote collapsed in the 2015 election.
History
The parliamentary borough (1678–1918)
The City of Durham was first given the right to return Members to Parliament by the Durham (Representation of) Act 1672 (25 Cha. 2. c. 9), although the first election was not held until 1678 due to drafting errors. It was the last new borough but one to be enfranchised before the Great Reform Act 1832. It was the only borough in County Durham, the county also having been unrepresented until the same act of Parliament also created two MPs for the county. Both constituencies were frequently referred to simply as Durham, which can make for some confusion.
The constituency as constituted in 1678 consisted only of the city of Durham itself, though this included its suburbs which were within the municipal boundary. The right to vote was held by the corporation and the freemen of the city, many of whom were not resident within the boundaries. Unlike the situation in many small rotten boroughs, the corporation had no jurisdiction over the creation of freemen: freemen were generally created by connection with companies of trade, either by apprenticeship or by birth (by being the son of an existing freeman), though the common council of the city had a power to create honorary freemen.
The creation of honorary freemen with the specific intention of swaying elections was a common abuse in a number of boroughs in the 18th century, and at the Durham election of 1762 became sufficiently controversial to force a change in the law. The election was disputed because 215 new freemen, most of them not resident in the city, had been made after the writ for the election was issued. The existing freemen petitioned against this dilution of their voting rights, the candidate who had been declared elected was unseated by the Commons committee which heard the case, and the following year the Freemen (Admission) Act 1763 (3 Geo. 3. c. 15) was passed to prevent any honorary freeman from voting in a borough election within twelve months of their being accorded that status.
Through having a freeman franchise the electorate was comparatively numerous for the period, though comprising only a small fraction of the city's population; at the time of the Reform Act 1832 there were between 1,100 and 1,200 freemen in total, of whom 427 were resident and 558 lived within seven miles, while the total population of the borough was 9,269. The Lambton and Tempest families were influential, and were generally able to secure election, but fell far short of the sort of control common in pocket boroughs.
The city retained both its MPs under the Reform Act 1832, with its boundaries adjusted only very slightly, although as elsewhere the franchise was reformed. The Reform Act 1867 extended the boundaries to include part of Framwellgate parish which had previously been excluded. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the borough's representation was reduced from the 1885 general election to a single MP. In the boundary changes of 1918, the borough was abolished, but a division of County Durham was named after the city.
County constituency (since 1918)
From 1918, Durham City was included in a county constituency officially called The Durham Division of (County) Durham, consisting of the central part of the county. In the 1983 boundary changes, the constituency officially acquired the unambiguous City of Durham name for the first time and its boundaries were realigned to match the new City of Durham local government district.
Boundaries
1918–1950
:* the Borough of Durham
:* the Urban District of Hetton
:* the Rural District of Durham except the parish of Brancepeth
:* in the Rural District of Houghton-le-Spring, the parishes of East Rainton, Great Eppleton, Little Eppleton, Moor House, Moorsley, and West Rainton.
Spennymoor and the parish of Brancepeth transferred in from the abolished constituency of Spennymoor. Other minor changes (the Rural District of Houghton-le-Spring had been abolished and absorbed into neighbouring local authorities).
1974–1983
:* the Borough of Durham and Framwelgate
:* the Rural District of Sedgefield and the Rural District of Durham except the parish of Brancepeth.
Hetton transferred back to Houghton-le-Spring, and Spennymoor and Brancepeth now included in Durham North West. Gained the Rural District of Sedgefield from the abolished constituency of Sedgefield.
1983–2024
:* The City of Durham.
Sedgefield returned to the re-established constituency thereof. Gained the area comprising the former Urban District of Brandon and Byshottles which had been absorbed into the District of the City of Durham, previously part of North West Durham.
2024–present
:* The County of Durham electoral districts of: Belmont; Brandon; Deerness; Durham South; Elvet and Gilesgate; Esh and Witton Gilbert; Framwellgate and Newton Hall; Neville's Cross; Sherburn; and Willington and Hunwick.
:Coxhoe was transferred to the new constituency of Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor, offset by gains from the abolished constituency of North West Durham, including the communities of Esh and Willington.
Members of Parliament
Durham City (borough)
- Constituency created 1678
MPs 1678–1885
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year!!!!First member!!First party!!!!Second member
| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1762
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: white" |
|rowspan="2"| Major General John Lambton
|rowspan="2"| <!-- party -->
|-
| 1768
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="2"| John Tempest
|rowspan="2"| Tory
|-
| 1794
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="2"| Sir Henry Vane-Tempest
|rowspan="2"| Tory
| Tory
| Tory
|-
| 1835
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Hon. Arthur Trevor
| Conservative
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Robert FitzRoy
| Conservative
|-
|April 1843
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| The Viscount Dungannon
| Conservative
|-
|July 1852
|rowspan="3" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="4"| William Atherton
|rowspan="3"| Radical
|-
|December 1852
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Lord Adolphus Vane
| Conservative
|-
| 1853
|rowspan="3" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="3"| John Mowbray
|rowspan="3"| Conservative
|-
| 1859
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|Liberal
|-
| 1864
|rowspan="4" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="4"| John Henderson
|rowspan="4"| Liberal
|-
| 1868
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| John Robert Davison
| Liberal
|-
| 1871
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| John Lloyd Wharton
| Conservative
|-
|February 1874
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Thomas Charles Thompson
| Liberal
|-
|June 1874
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="2"| Farrer Herschell
|rowspan="2"| Liberal
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Sir Arthur Middleton
| Liberal
|-
| 1880
| style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Thomas Charles Thompson
| Liberal
|-
|1885
|colspan="6"| Representation reduced to one member
|}
MPs 1885–1918
thumb|120px|Matthew Fowler
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="2"|Election!!Member!!Party
|-
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|| 1885 || Thomas Milvain ||Conservative
|-
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|| 1892 || Matthew Fowler ||Liberal
|-
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|| 1898 by-election || Arthur Elliot ||Liberal Unionist
|-
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|| 1906 ||John Hills ||Liberal Unionist
|-
|
| 1918
|colspan="2"|Parliamentary borough abolished
|}
Durham, Durham/City of Durham (county constituency)
MPs since 1918
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="2"|Year!!Member
Elections in the 2010s
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 1980s
Elections in the 1970s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1950s
Election in the 1940s
Elections in the 1930s
Elections in the 1920s
Elections in the 1910s
Elections in the 1870s
- Caused by the 1874 election being declared void on petition.
- Caused by the earlier by-election being declared void on petition due to bribery.
- Caused by Granger's death.
- Caused by the by-election being declared void on petition due to bribery by Hill-Trevor's agents.