Manchester, Withington is a parliamentary constituency

United Kingdom constituencies

In the United Kingdom , each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one or more members to a parliament or assembly.Within the United Kingdom there are now five bodies with members elected by constituencies:...

 in the city of Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

. It returns 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) to the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 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...

, elected by the first past the post system. The current MP is John Leech

John Leech (politician)

John Sampson Macfarlane Leech is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington since 2005...

 of the Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

, first elected at the 2005 general election.

Boundaries

The current Manchester wards in the constituency are Burnage

Burnage

Burnage is a neighbourhood of the city of Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire it was included in the county of Greater Manchester in 1974. It is about south of Manchester city centre, bisected by the busy dual carriageway of Kingsway, part of the A34...

, Chorlton

Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of the city of Manchester, England. It is known locally as Chorlton. It is situated about four miles southwest of Manchester city centre. Pronunciation varies: and are both common....

, Chorlton Park, Didsbury East, Didsbury West, Old Moat

Old Moat

Old Moat is an electoral district or ward in the south of the City of Manchester, England. Voters from this ward elect three councillors to Manchester City Council. Currently all three councillors, Andrew Fender, Brian Harrison and Jeff Smith are members of the Labour Party...

 and Withington

Withington

Withington is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury, and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near the centre-to-south edges of the Greater Manchester Urban Area; in the...

.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

 in the 2000s, the Boundary Commission for England made minor changes to the Withington constituency, creating a modified seat from the same electoral wards as above, with the new boundaries following any minor alterations made to the shapes of the wards.

History

A seat with a large student population, Manchester Withington was once a Conservative stronghold. It even resisted being gained by Labour in its massive landslide victories in 1945 and 1966. However, although Margaret Thatcher helped the Conservative majority grow in two elections, in 1987 the seat turned red for the first time and remained so until 2005 when it was gained by the Liberal Democrats, a reaction by many student voters opposing Labour's policy of top-up fees. The Conservatives have since dropped into third place and the Lib Dems have taken many of the former Labour votes.

Members of Parliament

John Leech

John Leech (politician)

John Sampson Macfarlane Leech is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington since 2005...

 is the current Liberal Democrat MP

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,...

 for the constituency. He was elected at the 2005 general election, defeating the 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...

 incumbent Keith Bradley

Keith Bradley, Baron Bradley

Keith John Charles Bradley, Baron Bradley PC is a British Labour Party politician and life peer. He was formerly the Labour Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington from 1987 until 2005.-Early life:...

 who had held the seat since 1987.

Election		Member	Party
	1918 United Kingdom general election, 1918 The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...	Alfred Deakin Carter	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...
	1922 United Kingdom general election, 1922 The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...	Dr. Thomas Watts Thomas Watts (politician) Sir Thomas Watts was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.He was Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington from 1922 to 1923, and from 1924 to 1929.- External links :...	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...
	1923 United Kingdom general election, 1923 -Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...	Ernest Darwin Simon	Liberal Liberal Party (UK) The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
	1924 United Kingdom general election, 1924 - Seats summary :- References :* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* - External links :* * *...	Sir Thomas Watts Thomas Watts (politician) Sir Thomas Watts was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.He was Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington from 1922 to 1923, and from 1924 to 1929.- External links :...	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...
	1929 United Kingdom general election, 1929 -Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...	Ernest Darwin Simon	Liberal Liberal Party (UK) The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
	1931 United Kingdom general election, 1931 The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...	Edward Fleming Edward Fleming Edward Lascelles Fleming was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.He unsuccessfully contested the Leigh constituency at the 1922 general election, and did not stand again until the 1931 general election, when he won the Manchester Withington seat...	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...
	1950 United Kingdom general election, 1950 The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...	Frederick Cundiff Frederick Cundiff Frederick William Cundiff was a British soldier, politician and businessman.He was the son of Sir Wiliam Cundiff, a prominent businessman and politician in Manchester who held the office of Lord Mayor in 1922-23....	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...
	1951 United Kingdom general election, 1951 The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...	Sir Robert Cary, Bt Sir Robert Cary, 1st Baronet Sir Robert Archibald Cary, 1st Baronet was a British Conservative politician.The son of Robert Cary and Alice Day, he was educated at Ardingly College and at the Royal Military College Sandhurst. Serving to the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, Cary fought in the First World War and Second World War...	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...
	Feb 1974 United Kingdom general election, February 1974 The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...	Fred Silvester Frederick Silvester Frederick John Silvester is a retired British Conservative Party politician.Silvester was educated at Sir George Monoux Grammar School, Walthamstow and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He became a barrister, called to the bar by Gray's Inn in 1957, and was an advertising executive...	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...
	1987 United Kingdom general election, 1987 The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...	Keith Bradley Keith Bradley, Baron Bradley Keith John Charles Bradley, Baron Bradley PC is a British Labour Party politician and life peer. He was formerly the Labour Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington from 1987 until 2005.-Early life:...	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...
	2005 United Kingdom general election, 2005 The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....	John Leech John Leech (politician) John Sampson Macfarlane Leech is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington since 2005...	Liberal Democrat

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Election in the 1940s