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City of Durham County constituency
City of Durham shown within County Durham, and County Durham shown within England
Created:	1678
MP:	Roberta Blackman-Woods
Party:	Labour
Type:	House of Commons
County:	County Durham
EP constituency:	North East England

City of Durham is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It has elected Labour MPs since 1935, although there have been strong Liberal-SDP Alliance and Liberal Democrat challenges to Labour since the 1980s.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The parliamentary borough (1678-1918) 1.2 County constituency (since 1918) 2 Current Boundaries 3 Members of Parliament 3.1 Durham City (borough) 3.1.1 1678-1885 3.1.2 1885-1918 3.2 Durham, Durham/City of Durham (county constituency) 3.2.1 1918-present 3.3 Notes 4 Elections 5 See also 6 References

The City of Durham was first given the right to return Members to Parliament by an Act of Parliament in 1678, the last new borough but one to be enfranchised before the Great Reform Act of 1832. It was the only borough in County Durham, the county also having been unrepresented until the same Act of Parliament, which created two MPs for the county and two for the city. Both constituencies were frequently referred to simply as Durham, which can make for some confusion.

The constituency as constituted in 1678 consisted only of the city of Durham itself, though this included its suburbs which were within the municipal boundary. The right to vote was held by the corporation and the freemen of the city, many of whom were not resident within the boundaries. Unlike the situation in many small rotten boroughs, the corporation had no jurisdiction over the creation of freemen: freemen were generally created by connection with companies of trade, either by apprenticeship or by birth (by being the son of an existing freeman), though the common council of the city had a power to create honorary freemen.

The creation of honorary freemen with the specific intention of swaying elections was a common abuse in a number of boroughs in the 18th century, and at the Durham election of 1762 became sufficiently controversial to force a change in the law. The election was disputed because 215 new freemen, most of them not resident in the city, had been made after the writ for the election was issued. The existing freemen petitioned against this dilution of their voting rights, the candidate who had been declared elected was unseated by the Commons committee which heard the case, and the following year an Act of Parliament was passed to prevent any honorary freeman from voting in a borough election within twelve months of their being accorded that status.

Through having a freeman franchise the electorate was comparatively numerous for the period, though comprising only a small fraction of the city's population; at the time of the Reform Act there were between 1,100 and 1,200 freemen in total, of whom 427 were resident and 558 lived within seven miles, while the total population of the borough was 9,269. The Lambton and Tempest families were influential, and were generally able to secure election, but fell far short of the sort of control common in pocket boroughs.

The city retained both its MPs under the 1832 Reform Act, with its boundaries adjusted only very slightly, although as elsewhere the franchise was reformed. In 1867 the boundaries were extended to include part of Framwellgate parish which had previously been excluded. From 1885 the borough's representation was reduced to a single MP. In the boundary changes of 1918, the borough was abolished, but a division of County Durham was named after the City.

From 1918, Durham City was included in a county constituency officially called The Durham Division of (County) Durham, consisting of the central part of the county. Until 1974 it included the town of Hetton-le-Hole and between 1950 and 1974 that of Spennymoor, as well as the rural districts in between, in which coal mining was the principal industry. The Durham county constituency from 1974 to 1983 included Durham itself, the Durham Rural District except Brancepeth and Sedgefield Rural District. In the 1983 boundary changes the constituency officially acquired the unambiguous City of Durham name for the first time, and its boundaries were realigned to match the new City of Durham local government district.

The constituency corresponds to the City of Durham local government district and as such includes a number of surrounding villages and suburbs as well as Durham itself, the largest of these are Brandon, Coxhoe, Bowburn, Framwellgate Moor, Sherburn and Ushaw Moor. The constituency expands as far west as Waterhouses and as far east as Ludworth. The seat has traditionally been dominated by Labour, with support particularly strong in those villages historically connected to County Durham's mining industry. Durham is famous as an educational centre, for Durham University and the feepaying preparatory school, Chorister School where Tony Blair was educated. The city centre is more inclined to the Liberal Democrats. Like many other university cities such as Cambridge and Oxford, in the 2005 election it swung strongly towards the Liberal Democrats, one possible reason being these cities' sizeable student population who were viewed as being hostile to Labour's policies on areas such as top-up fees and the Iraq War. The Liberal Democrats were able to reduce Labour's majority by over 10,000 votes, although they were still unable to gain the seat from Labour.

Following a review of parliamentary representation in County Durham, the Boundary Commission for England has made no changes to the City of Durham constituency, which will remain co-terminous with the boundaries of the district. However as a result of local government reform it is possible that the district council will have been abolished by the time of the next general election.

• Constituency created (1678)

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
1678		Sir Ralph Cole			John Parkhurst
February 1679					William Tempest
September 1679		William Blakiston			Sir Richard Lloyd
1681		William Tempest
1685		Charles Montagu
1689		George Morland			Henry Liddell
1690					William Tempest
1695		Charles Montagu			Henry Liddell
1698					Thomas Conyers
1701					Sir Henry Belasyse
1702		Thomas Conyers
1708					James Nicolson
1710					Sir Henry Belasyse
1712					Robert Shafto
1713					George Baker
1722					Charles Talbot
1727		Robert Shafto
1730		John Shafto
1734					Henry Lambton
1742		John Tempest
1761					Ralph Gowland
1762					John Lambton
1768		John Tempest
1787					William Henry Lambton
1794		Sir Henry Vane-Tempest
1798					Ralph John Lambton
1800		Michael Angelo Taylor	Whig
1802		Richard Wharton [1]	Independent
1804		Robert Eden Duncombe Shafto
1806		Richard Wharton
1813					George Allan
1818					Michael Angelo Taylor	Whig
1820		Sir Henry Hardinge	Tory
1830		Sir Roger Gresley
March 1831		William Chaytor	Whig
May 1831					Arthur Trevor
1832					William Charles Harland	Whig
1835		Hon. Arthur Trevor	Conservative
1841		Thomas Colpitts Granger	Whig		Robert FitzRoy	Conservative
April 1843					The Viscount Dungannon [2]	Conservative
July 1843					John Bright	Radical/Anti-Corn Law
1847					Henry John Spearman	Whig
July 1852					William Atherton [3]	Liberal
December 1852		Lord Adolphus Vane [4]	Conservative
1853		John Mowbray	Conservative
1864					John Henderson	Liberal
1868		John Robert Davison	Liberal
1871		John Lloyd Wharton	Conservative
February 1874		Thomas Charles Thompson	Liberal
June 1874 [5]		Farrer Herschell	Liberal		Sir Arthur Middleton	Liberal
1880					Thomas Charles Thompson	Liberal
1885	Representation reduced to one member

Year		Member	Party
	1885	Thomas Milvain	Conservative
	1892	Matthew Fowler	Liberal
	1898	Arthur Elliot	Liberal Unionist
	1906	John Waller Hills	Conservative
	1910		Liberal Unionist

Year		Member	Party
	1918	John Waller Hills	Liberal Unionist
	1922	Joshua Ritson	Labour
	1931	William McKeag	Liberal
	1935	Joshua Ritson	Labour
	1945	Charles Grey	Labour
	1970	Mark Hughes	Labour
	1987	Gerry Steinberg	Labour
	2005	Roberta Blackman-Woods	Labour

1. ^ Wharton was unseated on petition for illegal practices during the election
2. ^ Dungannon's election at the by-election of April 1843 was declared void on petition and a new election held
3. ^ Sir William Atherton from 1861
4. ^ Vane's election at the by-election of December 1852 was declared void on petition and a new election held
5. ^ Henderson and Wharton were re-elected at the general election of 1874, but the election was declared void on petition, and neither stood in the ensuing by-election

General Election 2005: City of Durham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Roberta Blackman-Woods	20,928	47.2	-8.9
	Liberal Democrat	Carol Woods	17,654	39.8	+16.1
	Conservative	Ben Rogers	4,179	9.4	-7.9
	Veritas	Tony Martin	1,603	3.6	+3.6
Majority			3,274	7.4
Turnout			44,364	62.1	+2.5
	Labour hold		Swing	-12.5

General Election 2001: City of Durham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gerry Steinberg	23,254	56.1	-7.2
	Liberal Democrat	Carol Woods	9,813	23.7	+8.4
	Conservative	Nick Cartmell	7,167	17.3	-0.2
	UK Independence	Chris Williamson	1,252	3.0	N/A
Majority			13,441	32.4
Turnout			41,486	59.6	-11.2
	Labour hold		Swing

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in County Durham

• F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885" (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Michael Kinnear, "The British Voter" (London: Batsford, 1968)
• E Porritt and AG Porritt, "The Unreformed House of Commons, Vol I: England and Wales" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903)
• Robert Waller, "The Almanac of British Politics" (3rd edition, London: Croom Helm, 1987)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
• The Constitutional Yearbook, 1913" (London: National Unionist Association, 1913)

This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.

Constituencies in North East England
Labour	Bishop Auckland | Blaydon | Blyth Valley | City of Durham | Darlington | Easington | Gateshead East and Washington West | Hartlepool | Houghton and Washington East | Jarrow | Middlesbrough | Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland | Newcastle upon Tyne Central | Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend | Newcastle upon Tyne North | North Durham | North Tyneside | North West Durham | Redcar | Sedgefield | South Shields | Stockton North | Stockton South | Sunderland North | Sunderland South | Tyne Bridge | Tynemouth | Wansbeck
Liberal Democrat	Berwick-upon-Tweed
Conservative	Hexham
North East European constituency: Labour (1) | Conservative (1) | Liberal Democrats (1)