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North East Somerset (UK Parliament constituency)

North East Somerset was a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It was represented for the whole of its creation since the 2010 general election by Jacob Rees-Mogg of the Conservative Party.

The seat was abolished following the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. For the 2024 general election, the seat will be subject to major boundary changes and will be reformed as North East Somerset and Hanham.

Boundaries

The constituency covered the part of Bath and North East Somerset District that was not in the Bath constituency and as such contained 18 whole electoral wards and two parishes of Newbridge ward of Bath and North East Somerset:

Bathavon North – the Civil Parishes ('Parishes') of Batheaston, Bathford, Bathampton, Charlcombe, St Catherine and Swainswick
Bathavon South – the Parishes of Camerton, Claverton, Combe Hay, Dunkerton, Englishcombe, Freshford, Hinton Charterhouse, Marksbury, Monkton Combe, Priston, Shoscombe, South Stoke and Wellow
Chew Valley – the Parishes of Chew Magna, Chew Stoke, Compton Martin, Nempnett Thrubwell, Norton Malreward, Stanton Drew, Stowey-Sutton and Ubley
Clutton and Farmborough – the Parishes of Chelwood, Clutton and Farmborough
High Littleton – the Parishes of Farrington Gurney and High Littleton
Keynsham North
Keynsham South
Keynsham East
Mendip – the Parishes of Cameley, East Harptree, Hinton Blewett and West Harptree
Midsomer Norton North
Midsomer Norton Redfield
Newbridge – the Parishes of Kelston and North Stoke
Paulton – the Parish of Paulton
Peasedown – the Parish of Peasedown St John
Publow and Whitchurch – the Parishes of Publow and Whitchurch
Radstock
Saltford – the Parishes of Compton Dando, Corston, Newton St Loe and Saltford
Timsbury – the Parish of Timsbury
Westfield

Origin of first boundaries

Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which transferred all the electoral wards in Wandsyke constituency save for its four wards in South Gloucestershire to this new seat. To compensate the new seat gained the whole of the large wards in the valley of the City, Bathavon North, and the rest of Bathavon South, both from the Bath constituency.

Boundary changes

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be subject to major boundary changes, with south-eastern areas, including the communities of Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Peasedown St John, being incorporated into the newly created constituency of Frome and East Somerset, and the Bathavon North ward transferred to Bath. To compensate, the boundaries will be extended northwards into the District of South Gloucestershire, adding the wards of Bitton and Oldland Common, Hanham, Longwell Green, and Parkwall and Warmley. As a consequence, the constituency will be renamed North East Somerset and Hanham, to be first contested at the 2024 general election.

Constituency profile

This area is marked by significant agriculture and green belts around almost all of its settlements, which consist largely of detached and semi-detached properties, with a low rate of unemployment and negligible social housing tenancy.

An unusually shaped seat that contained all the western part of the Bath and North East Somerset council area, and the rural outskirts of Bath in the east, meaning the Bath constituency was entirely surrounded by a thin belt of North East Somerset. The seat contained some contrasting areas. The northern parts of the seat, especially the town of Keynsham, are commuter areas for Bath and Bristol. To the west the seat is more rural, covering the patchwork of farmland and rural villages that make up the Chew Valley. The southern part around Midsomer Norton and Radstock is part of the old Somerset Coalfield. The last of the coal mines closed in the 1970s, to be replaced by light industry, but the close knit industrial heritage of the area remains.

North East Somerset is estimated to have voted to Leave the European Union by 51.6% in the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.

Members of Parliament

Elections

See North East Somerset and Hanham for 2024 general election, and onwards.

Elections in the 2010s

* Served in the 2005–2010 Parliament as MP for Wansdyke

The changes in vote share are compared to a notional calculation of the 2005 result. Although the Wansdyke seat had been held by Labour for 13 years, this seat was already notionally a Conservative seat by a margin of 0.4%. This means that, if the seat in current boundaries had been contested in 2005, the Conservatives would have won by a few hundred votes.