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The Cotswolds
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of The Cotswolds in Gloucestershire for the 2010 general election
Location of Gloucestershire within England
County	Gloucestershire
Electorate	78,439 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of Parliament	Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative)
Seats	One
Created from	Cirencester and Tewkesbury

The Cotswolds is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1997 creation by Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a Conservative.

Members of Parliament

Constituency profile

The Cotswolds is a safe Conservative seat in an area of natural beauty and heritage, with its market towns constructed of rare cream-to-yellow Cotswold stone. The area is welcoming to tourists and tourism has overtaken agriculture as the largest single employer in the area.

The largest town in the constituency is Cirencester, a compact traditional town. Other settlements include Andoversford, Bourton-on-the-Water, Chipping Campden, Fairford, Lechlade, Moreton-in-Marsh, Northleach, Stow-on-the-Wold, Tetbury (and the neighbouring village of Doughton, location of Highgrove, the Prince of Wales's estate), and Wotton-under-Edge.

The seat has the highest number of listed buildings of any constituency in Britain. It also contains eight of the 20 most popular attractions in Gloucestershire, including Westonbirt Arboretum, Hidcote Manor, and Chedworth Roman Villa.

Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.6% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.

This was also the constituency, when declared during the 2015 UK General Election, saw the Conservatives gain a surprising majority that re-elected David Cameron as a hung parliament had been widely considered.

Boundaries

The constituency was created in 1997 as Cotswold, mostly from the former seat of Cirencester and Tewkesbury. In 2010 the name was changed to The Cotswolds to reflect the local district name.

2010-present: The District of Cotswold, and the District of Stroud wards of Kingswood, Minchinhampton, and Wotton-under-Edge.

1997-2010: The District of Cotswold, and the District of Stroud ward of Wotton and Kingswood.

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2017: The Cotswolds

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Geoffrey Clifton-Brown	36,201	60.1	4.1
	Labour	Mark Huband	10,702	17.9	8.7
	Liberal Democrats	Andrew Gant	9,748	16.3	2.3
	Green	Sabrina Poole	1,747	2.9	1.7
	UKIP	Chris Harlow	1,197	2	8.9
	Independent	Sandy Steel	107	0.2	N/A
Majority			25,499	42.3	4.8
Turnout			59,702	74.2	1.8
Registered electors			80,449
	Conservative hold		Swing	2.3

General Election 2015: The Cotswolds

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Geoffrey Clifton-Brown	32,045	56.5	3.5
	Liberal Democrats	Paul Hodgkinson	10,568	18.6	10.9
	UKIP	Chris Harlow	6,188	10.9	6.7
	Labour	Manjinder Kang	5,240	9.2	1.5
	Green	Penny Burgess	2,626	4.6	2.9
Majority			21,477	37.9	14.4
Turnout			56,667	72.4	0.9
Registered electors			78,292		+2.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	7.2

General Election 2010: The Cotswolds

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Geoffrey Clifton-Brown	29,075	53.0	3.7
	Liberal Democrats	Mike Collins	16,211	29.6	1.5
	Labour	Mark Edward Dempsey	5,886	10.7	7.9
	UKIP	Adrian Blake	2,292	4.2	1.0
	Green	Kevin Lister	940	1.7	N/A
	Independent	Alex Steel	428	0.8	N/A
Majority			12,864	23.5	2.2
Turnout			54,832	71.5	4.2
Registered electors			76,728		+2.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	1.1

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Cotswold

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Geoffrey Clifton-Brown	23,326	49.3	1.0
	Liberal Democrats	Philip Beckerlegge	13,638	28.8	4.6
	Labour	Mark Edward Dempsey	8,457	17.9	4.7
	UKIP	Richard Buckley	1,538	3.2	0.3
	Independent	James Derieg	392	0.8	N/A
Majority			9,688	20.5	−5.6
Turnout			47,351	66.7	0.8
Registered electors			71,039		+4.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	2.8

General Election 2001: Cotswold

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Geoffrey Clifton-Brown	23,133	50.3	4.0
	Liberal Democrats	Angela Lawrence	11,150	24.2	1.3
	Labour	Richard Leslie Wilkins	10,383	22.6	0.1
	UKIP	Jill Stopps	1,315	2.9	N/A
Majority			11,983	26.1	2.7
Turnout			45,981	67.5	8.5
Registered electors			68,157		+1.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	1.3

Elections in the 1990s

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Gloucestershire

Notes and references

Notes

1. A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
2. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.

References

1. "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 6)
3. Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
4. BBC - Election 2017 - Cotswolds, The
5. http://www.cotswold.gov.uk/media/1510200/Declaration-of-result-Parliamentary-election-8-June-2017.pdf 9 June 2017
6. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
7. http://www.cotswold.gov.uk/media/1178863/Declaration-of-result-PARLIAMENTARY-ELECTION-2015.pdf 19 June 2015
8. http://electionresults.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/cotswolds-2015.html
9. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 26 July 2013 suggested (help)
10. BBC - Election 2010 - Cotswolds, The
11. Percentage change and swing for 2010 is calculated relative to the PA (Rallings and Thrasher) 2005 notional result, not actual 2005 result "Press Association Elections". Press Association. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
12. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
13. "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
14. "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
15. Percentage change and swing for 1997 is calculated relative to the Rallings and Thrasher 1992 notional constituency result, not actual 1992 result. See C. Rallings & M. Thrasher, The Media Guide to the New Parliamentary Constituencies (Plymouth: LGC Elections Centre, 1995)

• Parliamentary constituencies in South West England
• United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies established in 1997
• Politics of Gloucestershire
• Cotswolds