Chatham and Aylesford is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. It elects one Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is a marginal seat between the Labour Party and the Conservatives.

Boundaries

The constituency was created in 1997 from parts of the seats of Mid Kent and Tonbridge and Malling

Tonbridge and Malling (UK Parliament constituency)

Tonbridge and Malling is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It was created in 1974 from parts of the seats of Sevenoaks & Tonbridge...

. As its name suggests, it covers the towns of Chatham and Aylesford

Aylesford

Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, 4 miles NW of Maidstone in England.Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. One pub, a Post Office and four small independent shops remain...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. Labour are very strong in Chatham and Snodland, whereas the Tories' strength is concentrated in the smaller surrounding towns and villages.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Kent, the Boundary Commission for England has made major changes to existing constituencies as a consequence of population changes. The modified Chatham and Aylesford constituency has been formed with electoral wards from the boroughs of Medway

Medway

Medway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council and part of Kent County Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County...

 and Tonbridge and Malling

Tonbridge and Malling

Tonbridge and Malling is a local government district and borough in the English county of Kent.Tonbridge and Malling borough covers an area from the North Downs at Burham and Snodland in the north to the town of Tonbridge in the south...

;

• From Medway - Chatham Central, Lordswood and Capstone, Luton and Wayfield, Princes Park, and Walderslade
• From Tonbridge and Malling - Aylesford, Blue Bell Hill and Walderslade, Burham, Eccles and Wouldham, Ditton, Larkfield North, Larkfield South, Snodland
  Snodland
  Snodland is a small town in the county of Kent, England, located on the River Medway between Rochester and Maidstone. It has a population of about 12,000 people....
  
   East and Snodland West.
• The electoral ward of Luton should not be confused with the town
  Luton
  Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
  
   of the same name
• The electoral ward of Eccles should not be confused with the Salford
  City of Salford
  The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...
  
   town
  Eccles, Greater Manchester
  Eccles is a town in the City of Salford, a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England, west of Salford and west of Manchester city centre...
  
   of the same name

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...	Jonathan Shaw Jonathan Shaw Jonathan Rowland Shaw is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Chatham and Aylesford from 1997 to 2010...	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
	2010	Tracey Crouch Tracey Crouch Tracey Elizabeth Anne Crouch is a British Conservative Party politician. She is Member of Parliament for Chatham and Aylesford, having won the seat at the 2010 election.-Education:...	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s