This constituency dates back to 1983 but Hertford itself has a long and illustrious parliamentary history. Hertford first sent representatives to Parliament in 1298 and continuously from the 1600s. Before 1868 it returned two members and one member from then until 1885. In its time it sent several members of the locally and nationally important Cecil family to parliament and the last member for the borough was Arthur Balfour of that ilk and a future Prime Minister. As a two-member borough it tended to split representation between Whig and Tory, Liberal and Conservative, but was continuously Conservative held as a single member seat.
In 1885 Hertford gave its name to a county constituency which covered a large area of Eastern Hertfordshire, encompassing the whole of this constituency and more – basically the whole of the current East Herts and Broxbourne districts. This arrangement endured for 70 years during which time this was always a safe Conservative seat although it was represented by a couple of Independents between 1916 and 1922 including the colourful Noel Pemberton Billing.
From 1955 the bulk of this constituency remained intact as East Hertfordshire while Hertford itself formed a new Hertford constituency together with Welwyn and Hatfield. Then in 1974, Hertford shifted its orientation yet again, joining Ware and the Hertford Rural district in a new Hertford & Stevenage which was electorally dominated by the latter named town. This was represented by Shirley Williams for Labour until she was narrowly and surprisingly defeated in 1979. A further reorganisation followed swiftly, and Hertford and Ware were reunited with Bishops Stortford and a chunk of rural East Hertfordshire to form this seat. In 1997 most of the rural area in the north of the seat was ceded to NE Herts and the area to the south was picked up from Broxbourne. There were only minor changes in 2010 consequent upon ward boundary changes.
Although Hertford is the better-known town, as the administrative centre of Hertfordshire, Bishops Stortford is now by some way the largest town in this constituency. This old market town on the border with Essex, birthplace of the great British Imperialist, Cecil Rhodes, has grown substantially in the post-war years both as London commuter base and due to the proximity of Stansted Airport.
Bishops Stortford is probably the most Conservative of the three main towns in this constituency but there is some variety here. The Conservatives won every seat in East Hertfordshire in 2015 but lost a number in 2019 to various parties – 4 of the 6 Lib Dem seats won were in Bishops Stortford where they comfortably regained All Saints (an area of longstanding strength) and picked up one seat in Meads, topping the poll. Central ward is socially mixed, with a fair amount of social housing and Labour have been competitive there in good years - It was virtually a three-way marginal in 2019. But the Conservatives still win most of the seats in the town and it is solid for them in general elections.
Hertford has been the best area for Labour generally, partly perhaps due to the public-sector employment consequent upon the county council offices being located there, partly because of a bit of an industrial heritage (brewing etc). Labour could compete in most of the wards in Hertford in a good year, but the only stronghold was the ward of Sele in the North West which is dominated by the quite deprived council estate of that name. Even so they lost that ward in 2003 and had fallen some way behind in recent years suggesting that they were falling out of contention in the long-term. It was therefore a bit of a surprise that Labour regained the ward quite comfortably in May 2019.
The third and un-named town of this constituency is Ware which is more or less a satellite of Hertford. Ware enjoyed (if that is the right word) a quite long period of Lib Dem local dominance from the 1980s to the 2000s, especially in the Northern wards of St Marys and Trinity.
Trinity is Ware’s ‘council-estate’ ward and has some latent Labour support too. The Lib Dems have fallen away in Ware in the last decade or so though and the anti-Conservative vote in May 2019 seems to have rallied significantly behind the Green party who actually topped the poll in Trinity ward (they also won one of the three seats in Hertford Bengeo – it is perhaps surprising all things considered that these facts have not hitherto been mentioned on this thread).
All three of the main towns are generally reliable for the Conservatives in general elections, except in exceptional circumstances – Labour may have carried Hertford in the Blair landslides for example.
As (almost) always, the rural areas are even more Conservative (though this is really an urban seat – close to 80% of the electorate now live in the three main towns).
Sawbridgeworth is a large village close to Harlow in Essex and is very solidly Conservative as are the other smaller villages. The Lib Dems did gain Stanstead Abbots last May, but this was a rather aberrant result in a previously safe Conservative ward, probably linked to local issues concerning housing development in the area.
Hertford Heath is not an urban ward with the Hertford prefix but a distinct village to the South of Hertford. It is home to Haileybury college, founded by the East India Company for training colonial administrators – appropriate in this land of ‘Cecils’ (Rhodes and Gascoyne), but also the alma mater of Clement Attlee, the man who gave away India and other leading Labour party figures like Barry Gardiner.
There are still some elements of truly bucolic countryside in Much Hadham and Hunsdon but even here there is development afoot with 8,000 houses planned in Gilston, just North of Harlow in the Hundson ward.
This is already an oversized seat and there isn’t much scope for reducing the rural element further. More likely, in the near future, Hertford and Bishop’s Stortford will need to be separated again and Hertford will have to find yet another area to be paired with. It’s likely that whatever future constituencies Hertford and Bishops Stortford find themselves in will be very safely Conservative.
Map shows leading party in May 2019 local elections
| 1. Ware Trinity | 5. Hertford Kingsmead | 10. Great Amwell | 15. Bishop's Stortford South |
| 2. Ware Christchurch | 6. Hertford Bengeo | 11. Stanstead Abbots | 16. Bishop's Stortford Central |
| 3. Ware St Marys | 7. Hertford Sele | 12. Hunsdon | 17. Bishop's Stortford Silverleys |
| 4. Ware Chadwell | 8. Hertford Castle | 13. Much Hadham | 18. Bishop's Stortford Meads |
| | 9. Hertford Heath | 14. Sawbridgeworth | 19. Bishop's Stortford All Saints |
2019 General Election
| Con | 33,712 | 56.1% |
| Lab | 14,092 | 23.4% |
| LD | 8,596 | 14.3% |
| Grn | 2,705 | 4.5% |
| UKIP | 681 | 1.1% |
| Ind | 2,367 | 0.5% |
| | | |
| Majority | 19,620 | 32.7% |
2017 General Election
| Con | 36,184 | 60.3% |
| Lab | 17,149 | 28.6% |
| LD | 4,845 | 8.1% |
| Grn | 1,814 | 3.0% |
| | | |
| Majority | 19,035 | 31.7% |
2015 General Election
| Con | 31,593 | 56.1% |
| Lab | 10,084 | 17.9% |
| UKIP | 7,534 | 13.4% |
| LD | 4,385 | 7.8% |
| Grn | 2,681 | 4.8% |
| | | |
| Majority | 21,509 | 38.2% |
2016 EU referendum (Hanratty estimate)
| | % | Rank | | % | Rank | | % | Rank | | % | Rank |
| Owner Occupied | 71.0 | 176 | White | 94.9 | 260 | Christian | 61.7 | 289 | Graduates | 33.9 | 93 |
| Social Rented | 12.7 | 395 | Asian | 2.2 | 328 | Muslim | 0.8 | 326 | No Qualifications | 16.9 | 495 |
| Private Rented | 14.1 | 308 | Black | 0.8 | 282 | Hindu | 0.5 | 268 | | | |
| | | | Mixed | 1.7 | 246 | Sikh | 0.1 | 296 | Students | 6.8 | 288 |
| | | | Other | 0.3 | 317 | Jewish | 0.3 | 105 | | | |
| | | | | | | None | 28.5 | 152 | Prof/Man | 45.4 | |
| | | | | | | | | | Routine/ | 19.3 | |
| | | | | | | | | | Semi Routine | | |
