1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Bury wards of Besses, Holyrood, Pilkington Park, Radcliffe Central, Radcliffe North, Radcliffe South, St Mary's, and Sedgley.
2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Bury wards of Besses, Holyrood, Pilkington Park, Radcliffe East, Radcliffe North, Radcliffe West, St Mary's, Sedgley, and Unsworth.
The constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the former seats of
Middleton and Prestwich &
Bury and Radcliffe, both of which were Labour-Conservative marginals, held by Labour on slim majorities at the 1979 election. It covers the suburban towns of
Radcliffe,
Whitefield and
Prestwich. The constituency does not contain any area of the town of
Bury itself (which is in
Bury North), apart from Unsworth,
but only towns in the south of the
Metropolitan Borough of Bury.
The Metropolitan Borough of Bury wards of: Besses; Holyrood; Pilkington Park; Radcliffe East; Radcliffe West; St. Mary’s; Sedgley; Unsworth.
The City of Salford ward of Kersal & Broughton Park.[5]
The Radcliffe North ward will be transferred to
Bury North, offset by the gain of the City of Salford ward of Kersal & Broughton Park from
Blackley and Broughton (to be abolished).
History
Between 1997 and 2019, the seat was represented by
Ivan Lewis. Lewis belonged to the Labour Party, but was suspended in 2018 due to allegations of indecent behaviour. He stood unsuccessfully as an independent in the 2019 election. Prior to 1997, it had been represented by Conservative
David Sumberg since the constituency's creation in 1983.
The seat was contested by future cabinet minister
Hazel Blears in 1992, narrowly losing and would later be elected in her hometown in nearby
Salford the following election until retiring in 2015. The
2017 General Election saw
Robert Largan as the runner-up
Conservative candidate, who would later be elected for
High Peak at the following general election in 2019.
Constituency profile
The seat covers Prestwich, Whitefield and Radcliffe, towns that were absorbed into the
Metropolitan Borough of Bury in 1974. The western border contains much of Bury's green belt land including
Philips Park in Whitefield,
Prestwich Clough and
Drinkwater Park, making up 500 acres of green space. Prestwich and Whitefield are residential areas with one of the largest Jewish communities outside London. Radcliffe is a former mill town which declined after the loss of industry, with its only secondary school shut down; it is attempting regeneration as a commuter suburb and features a large park-and-ride
Metrolink station. North Radcliffe includes
Ainsworth, a rural area, along with
Simister to the east of Prestwich which still has some farmland, now under threat from development. Overall this is an economically diverse area, as there are pockets of social housing in each town, while houses in areas such as Ringley Road in Whitefield, and Sheepfoot Lane in Prestwich, facing
Heaton Park, can sell for over £1 million, with mostly owner-occupied semi-detached housing in between. The proportion of graduates and those employed in managerial/professional occupations is slightly above the national average.[6]
At local elections, Prestwich mostly returns Labour and
Liberal Democrat councillors, with some
Conservative representation in Sedgley. Whitefield is a mix of safe Conservative and safe Labour, and
Unsworth marginally Labour. Radcliffe was generally Labour with the exception of Radcliffe North. In 2019, the Conservatives gained their second Radcliffe North seat, and Labour lost both Radcliffe East and West wards to an independent local party, Radcliffe First.