Halifax is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Kate Dearden of the Labour Party.
Constituency profile
The Halifax constituency is located in the borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire on the edge of the Pennines. It contains the large town of Halifax, the connected town of Sowerby Bridge and the nearby villages of Northowram, Southowram and Shelf. Halifax was traditionally an industrial mill town, primarily involved in the wool trade. The town's Dean Clough mill complex was once the largest carpet factory in the world. The town is highly deprived, with most of it falling within the top 10% most-deprived areas in England. Sowerby Bridge is a small market town and has average levels of wealth. The average house price in the constituency is low compared to the rest of Yorkshire and less than half the national average.
In general, residents of the constituency have low levels of education, income and professional employment. At the local borough council, most of the constituency is represented by the Labour Party, with some Liberal Democrats elected in the western suburbs and Greens in Northowram and Shelf. An estimated 60% of voters in the constituency supported leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, higher than the nationwide figure of 52%.
This constituency covers the large town of Halifax in West Yorkshire and includes the smaller town of Sowerby Bridge which adjoins Halifax but until 1974 was a separate Urban District and was part of the Sowerby constituency until 1983.
History
To 1918
The parliamentary borough was granted in the Great Reform Act 1832 and returned from that year until 1918 two members. A county borough recognized the density of the developed area in 1888 which provided most functions for inhabitants, retaining the West Yorkshire ceremonial county. The municipal or county borough was under a mayor, five aldermen and 45 councillors and had an area of . Camden, about the end of the 17th century, wrote that "the people are very industrious, so that though the soil about it be barren and improfitable, not fit to live on, they have so flourished ... by the clothing trade that they are very rich and have gained a reputation for it above their neighbours." The manufacturing standards and trade were improved by the arrival of certain merchants and clothworkers driven from the Spanish Netherlands by the persecution by the Duke of Alva.!!1st Party!!colspan="2"|2nd Member
|rowspan="5" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="6"| Sir Charles Wood
|rowspan="5"| Whig
|-
| 1835
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| James Stuart-Wortley
| Conservative
|-
| 1847
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Henry Edwards
| Conservative
|-
| 1852
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Sir Francis Crossley
| Radical
|-
| 1859
|rowspan="6" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="6"| Sir James Stansfeld
|rowspan="6"| Liberal
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| rowspan="10" |Liberal
|-
| 1865
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Edward Akroyd
|-
| 1874
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| John Crossley
|-
| 1877 by-election
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| John Dyson Hutchinson
|-
| 1882 by-election
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Thomas Shaw
|-
| 1893 by-election
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="2"| William Rawson Shaw
|-
| 1895
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="2"| Alfred Arnold
|rowspan="2"| Conservative
|-
| 1897 by-election
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Alfred Billson
|-
| 1900
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| Sir Savile Crossley
| Liberal Unionist
|rowspan="2" style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
|rowspan="2"| John Henry Whitley
|-
| 1906
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| James Parker
| Labour
|}
MPs since 1918
Representation reduced to one member, 1918
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!colspan="2"|Election!!Member
Elections in the 2010s
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" | 2019 notional result
|-
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="130px" colspan="2" | Party
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="50px" | Vote
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="30px" | %
|-
|
| Labour ||align=right| 21,819 ||align=right| 45.6
|-
|
| Conservative ||align=right| 19,917 ||align=right| 41.7
|-
|
| Brexit Party ||align=right| 2,813 ||align=right| 5.9
|-
|
| Liberal Democrats ||align=right| 2,302 ||align=right| 4.8
|-
|
| Green ||align=right| 946 ||align=right| 2.0
|-
|colspan="4" bgcolor="#EAECF0"|
|-
|colspan="2"|Turnout
|align=right|47,797
|align=right|64.1
|-
|colspan="2"|Electorate
|align=right|74,563
|}
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
Elections in the 1980s
Elections in the 1970s
Elections in the 1960s
Elections in the 1950s
- Blackburn was a vice-president of the Bradford Conservative Association. He was nominated after the Conservative and Liberal associations in the division had failed to reach agreement on the proposal for a joint anti-Labour candidate.
Elections in the 1940s
Elections in the 1930s
Elections in the 1920s
thumb|120px|Harry Barnes
Elections in the 1910s
thumb|120px|Whitley
thumb|350px|Crossley, Whitley and Parker
Elections in the 1870s
- Caused by Crossley's resignation.