Post by Robert Waller on Nov 27, 2023 19:37:12 GMT
This is based on the original by Devil Wincarnate, with his kind permission, plus boundary change contributions by Pete Whitehead, and additions and updates by myself
Stockport has a long history of political prominence for its size. Unfortunately, this includes being described by Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England as “excessively repellent”. Nonetheless, the chief town of the upper reaches of the Mersey has provided a number of crucial political events and figures, as well as some unusual sideshows.
Straddling the River Mersey not far from its union with the Tame and Goyt, the area has been a transport hub for centuries if not two millennia, but has also led to early complications as the town fell under Lancashire and Cheshire at different times and in different parts. Stockport was a major market town as a result of its connections. Stockport briefly became a silk town, but this ultimately vanished and its most emblematic industry, hat-making, took over, only truly vanishing as fashions changed after the Second World War. The arrival of the railways also transformed local fortunes, as multiple major lines converged at Teviot Dale and Edgeley, with the town’s greatest symbol being built as a result: the sweeping viaduct over the Mersey valley. Textiles collapsed in the Fifties and Sixties, and this had a particularly devastating effect on the north of the borough, which has economically never truly recovered. This seat covers almost all of Stockport MBC’s poorer wards. There has been some urban revival in recent years, focussed on the medieval market place and the attractive Georgian shopping streets of the old town. The town’s most famous exports these days are Robinson’s beer and the local football team, Stockport County.
The original constituency emerged as a two-member seat in 1832. Representation was quite varied, with Radicals, Conservatives, Liberals and Labour all holding the seat at some point. The MPs included figures who are now relatively forgotten, but who were extremely important and well-known in their day. Edward Watkin, railway entrepreneur whose schemes are the forerunners to the Channel Tunnel and Wembley Stadium; Louis Jennings, Tory radical and unusually the scourge of the Democratic Party’s Tammany Hall corruption machine; and James Duckworth, the founder of a Rochdale-based chain of early supermarkets (James Duckworth’s, or “Jimmy Duck’s”) that lasted well past his death in 1915 and only eventually vanished in 1975. But it was 1841-1847 that saw the town represented by its most prominent figure to date: Richard Cobden. Cobden was a vehement opponent of the Corn Laws, and at their final repeal, was credited by his political opponent, Robert Peel. Although probably better commemorated in Manchester and elsewhere, there remains a statue of him in the town today. Cobden is still regarded as a major figure in classical liberalism. This first seat was abolished in 1950 and replaced by two one-member seats, Stockport North and Stockport South.
Stockport North inherited one MP, Norman Hulbert. For most of its history, it consisted of the north of the old seat, covering the Heatons, Reddish and the town centre. Marginal, the seat changed hands between Labour and Conservative on several occasions. After the defeat of the Tory Idris Owen in February 1974 (despite the Welsh name, he was a Stopfordian), Labour’s Andrew Bennett held on until abolition in 1983. Stockport South inherited the other MP, Arnold Gridley, although by 1964 this had fallen to Labour, never to return. The final Labour MP, Tom McNally, infamously joined the “Gang of Four” who formed the SDP. At this point, the seats were abolished, and the new Stockport constituency emerged. Parts were transferred to Hazel Grove and Denton & Reddish (which inherited Andrew Bennett).
The new Stockport seat was won by the Conservative Tony Favell, helped by McNally’s new outfit. Indeed, in 1983, the SDP nearly beat Labour into second place. Favell hung on in 1987 but was defeated in 1992 and went on to become a councillor in the Hope Valley. His replacement, Ann Coffey, ultimately enjoyed a safe Labour seat. In 2019, Coffey became Stockport’s second representative to join a Labour splinter group when she defected to the short-lived Change UK. In December 2019, the seat was easily brought back into the Labour fold by Nav Mishra.
The seat did not see major boundary changes from 1983 through the 2019 election, though the Labour stronghold of Brinnington was excluded in in 1983 then restored in 1997, but the Conservative vote has ebbed away over the last forty years. Demographic change is at the heart of this. Wealthier residents have left for the outer Stockport seats, and Brinnington emerged as a large slum-clearance estate. The Heatons, where the Tory vote could once be weighed rather than counted, have swung decisively to Labour and are popular with those priced out of neighbouring Didsbury. It now seems incredible that the north of Stockport could have once made for a marginal seat here. In fact, 1975 saw the Conservative victors in Heaton Mersey & Heaton Morris and Heaton Moor & Heaton Chapel wards hold larger majorities than the sitting MP.
There are some fairly major boundary changes for 2024, though. The southeasternmost ward, Manor, the furthest away from the centres of Stockport and Manchester, is transferred to the undersized Hazel Grove. In more than exchange, the two wards of Reddish North and Reddish South are brought in from the Denton & Reddish constituency, which had spanned the boundaries of Tameside and Stockport borough since 1983. Manor ward has been held by Labour since 2016, though over the previous thirty years it had often been won by the Liberal Democrats, whose strong second place in May 2023 suggests it will fit in well in their target Tory marginal of Hazel Grove. Reddish, which is directly north of Stockport town centre and extends towards Manchester’s Levenshulme and Belle Vue, has inner city characteristics; though parts, especially Central Reddish, have quite a high proportion of middle class and degree-holding residents, as it adjoins the Heatons. It has voted solidly Labour since the creation of the metropolitan borough in 1973, with the exception of Green victories in 2021, 2022 and 2023 in Reddish South ward (which also includes the neighbourhood of Lancashire Hill). The Greens finished fifth and last in Stockport in the general election of December 2023, so although their vote is growing, the arrival of the Reddishes will not significantly affect Stockport’s status as a a safe Labour seat nowadays.
The boundary changes do not transform this constituency’s demographic indicators, though they make it a little more working class. But overall Stockport, despite its status as the only Labour seat in its eponymous borough, still has strong middle class areas. For example, the Heatons, despite their transformation to be solidly Labour supporting since 2011, still have high proportions of professional and managerial occupations: 50.5% in Heaton Mersey MSOA, 53.2% in Heaton Moor, 49.6% in Heaton Chapel & Shaw Road. Nearly half of these figures, indeed, are in the higher professional and managerial category, not the lower. These are figures comparable with or higher than in Bramhall, for example, a highly favoured residential area in Cheadle constituency, and definitely not known for Labour support. There are also middling social class areas further out in Davenport. At the other end of the scale, over 36% of workers in Brinnington were in routine and semi-routine jobs in 2021, as were over 30% in the MSOA covering Central Stockport, Portwood and Shaw Heath. Similarly, overall Stockport has a well above proportion of residents with degrees: nearly 54% in Heaton Mersey, nearly 57% in Heaton Moor. But 29% in Brinnington have no educational qualifications. A majority (57%) of housing in ‘Brinny’ is still social rented, as is nearly half in Central Stockport.
Despite these contrasts in the figures, the two Heatons wards in 2023 where almost as strongly Labour as the Brinnington & Stockport Central ward, which might almost be drawn to be a Labour stronghold. This is probably due to the self-selection of the type of people who now live in the Heatons: professional and managerial, yes, but probably public sector, and the high proportion of graduates indicating intellectualism rather than materialism. Over 14% in the Heatons worked in education for example, at the time of the 2021 census. In these senses Stockport is to Greater Manchester what some of the inner to middle boroughs are to Greater London: getting increasingly left wing, and definitely opposed to what are perceived as suburban values. This also has something to do with region, as like Merseyside these parts of Greater Manchester very much resisted any so called red wall type movement in the 2019 general election. Although more than 85% of the population in this constituency were white in 2021 – there are no strong concentration of any ethnic minority group in any part of the seat, these starting quite suddenly and significantly as soon as the border with Manchester is crossed - Stockport’s transition from classic marginal territory to safe Labour citadel seems likely only to continue.
2021 Census, new boundaries
Age 65+ 15.1% 442/575
Owner occupied 60.1% 397/575
Private rented 19.9% 211/575
Social rented 20.0% 144/575
White 85.3% 360/575
Black 2.0% 235/575
Asian 7.6% 208/575
Managerial & professional 34.4% 244/575
Routine & Semi-routine 23.8% 286/575
Degree level 35.4% 195/575
No qualifications 17.9% 270/575
Students 5.4% 320/575
General Election 2019: Stockport
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Navendu Mishra 21,695 52.0 -11.3
Conservative Isy Imarni 11,656 27.9 -0.5
Liberal Democrats Wendy Meikle 5,043 12.1 +7.8
Brexit Party Lee Montague-Trenchard 1,918 4.6 New
Green Helena Mellish 1,403 3.4 +2.0
Majority 10,039 24.1 -10.8
Turnout 41,715 64.1 -0.6
Labour hold
Swing 5.4 Lab to C
Boundary Changes
Stockport consists of
83.8% of Stockport
31.5% of Denton & Reddish
(seat loses Manor ward and gains the Reddishes)
Map
boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/review2023/9bc0b2ea-7915-4997-9d4a-3e313c0ceb51/north-west/North%20West_270_Stockport_Portrait.pdf
2019 Notional results on new boundaries (Rallings & Thrasher
Stockport has a long history of political prominence for its size. Unfortunately, this includes being described by Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England as “excessively repellent”. Nonetheless, the chief town of the upper reaches of the Mersey has provided a number of crucial political events and figures, as well as some unusual sideshows.
Straddling the River Mersey not far from its union with the Tame and Goyt, the area has been a transport hub for centuries if not two millennia, but has also led to early complications as the town fell under Lancashire and Cheshire at different times and in different parts. Stockport was a major market town as a result of its connections. Stockport briefly became a silk town, but this ultimately vanished and its most emblematic industry, hat-making, took over, only truly vanishing as fashions changed after the Second World War. The arrival of the railways also transformed local fortunes, as multiple major lines converged at Teviot Dale and Edgeley, with the town’s greatest symbol being built as a result: the sweeping viaduct over the Mersey valley. Textiles collapsed in the Fifties and Sixties, and this had a particularly devastating effect on the north of the borough, which has economically never truly recovered. This seat covers almost all of Stockport MBC’s poorer wards. There has been some urban revival in recent years, focussed on the medieval market place and the attractive Georgian shopping streets of the old town. The town’s most famous exports these days are Robinson’s beer and the local football team, Stockport County.
The original constituency emerged as a two-member seat in 1832. Representation was quite varied, with Radicals, Conservatives, Liberals and Labour all holding the seat at some point. The MPs included figures who are now relatively forgotten, but who were extremely important and well-known in their day. Edward Watkin, railway entrepreneur whose schemes are the forerunners to the Channel Tunnel and Wembley Stadium; Louis Jennings, Tory radical and unusually the scourge of the Democratic Party’s Tammany Hall corruption machine; and James Duckworth, the founder of a Rochdale-based chain of early supermarkets (James Duckworth’s, or “Jimmy Duck’s”) that lasted well past his death in 1915 and only eventually vanished in 1975. But it was 1841-1847 that saw the town represented by its most prominent figure to date: Richard Cobden. Cobden was a vehement opponent of the Corn Laws, and at their final repeal, was credited by his political opponent, Robert Peel. Although probably better commemorated in Manchester and elsewhere, there remains a statue of him in the town today. Cobden is still regarded as a major figure in classical liberalism. This first seat was abolished in 1950 and replaced by two one-member seats, Stockport North and Stockport South.
Stockport North inherited one MP, Norman Hulbert. For most of its history, it consisted of the north of the old seat, covering the Heatons, Reddish and the town centre. Marginal, the seat changed hands between Labour and Conservative on several occasions. After the defeat of the Tory Idris Owen in February 1974 (despite the Welsh name, he was a Stopfordian), Labour’s Andrew Bennett held on until abolition in 1983. Stockport South inherited the other MP, Arnold Gridley, although by 1964 this had fallen to Labour, never to return. The final Labour MP, Tom McNally, infamously joined the “Gang of Four” who formed the SDP. At this point, the seats were abolished, and the new Stockport constituency emerged. Parts were transferred to Hazel Grove and Denton & Reddish (which inherited Andrew Bennett).
The new Stockport seat was won by the Conservative Tony Favell, helped by McNally’s new outfit. Indeed, in 1983, the SDP nearly beat Labour into second place. Favell hung on in 1987 but was defeated in 1992 and went on to become a councillor in the Hope Valley. His replacement, Ann Coffey, ultimately enjoyed a safe Labour seat. In 2019, Coffey became Stockport’s second representative to join a Labour splinter group when she defected to the short-lived Change UK. In December 2019, the seat was easily brought back into the Labour fold by Nav Mishra.
The seat did not see major boundary changes from 1983 through the 2019 election, though the Labour stronghold of Brinnington was excluded in in 1983 then restored in 1997, but the Conservative vote has ebbed away over the last forty years. Demographic change is at the heart of this. Wealthier residents have left for the outer Stockport seats, and Brinnington emerged as a large slum-clearance estate. The Heatons, where the Tory vote could once be weighed rather than counted, have swung decisively to Labour and are popular with those priced out of neighbouring Didsbury. It now seems incredible that the north of Stockport could have once made for a marginal seat here. In fact, 1975 saw the Conservative victors in Heaton Mersey & Heaton Morris and Heaton Moor & Heaton Chapel wards hold larger majorities than the sitting MP.
There are some fairly major boundary changes for 2024, though. The southeasternmost ward, Manor, the furthest away from the centres of Stockport and Manchester, is transferred to the undersized Hazel Grove. In more than exchange, the two wards of Reddish North and Reddish South are brought in from the Denton & Reddish constituency, which had spanned the boundaries of Tameside and Stockport borough since 1983. Manor ward has been held by Labour since 2016, though over the previous thirty years it had often been won by the Liberal Democrats, whose strong second place in May 2023 suggests it will fit in well in their target Tory marginal of Hazel Grove. Reddish, which is directly north of Stockport town centre and extends towards Manchester’s Levenshulme and Belle Vue, has inner city characteristics; though parts, especially Central Reddish, have quite a high proportion of middle class and degree-holding residents, as it adjoins the Heatons. It has voted solidly Labour since the creation of the metropolitan borough in 1973, with the exception of Green victories in 2021, 2022 and 2023 in Reddish South ward (which also includes the neighbourhood of Lancashire Hill). The Greens finished fifth and last in Stockport in the general election of December 2023, so although their vote is growing, the arrival of the Reddishes will not significantly affect Stockport’s status as a a safe Labour seat nowadays.
The boundary changes do not transform this constituency’s demographic indicators, though they make it a little more working class. But overall Stockport, despite its status as the only Labour seat in its eponymous borough, still has strong middle class areas. For example, the Heatons, despite their transformation to be solidly Labour supporting since 2011, still have high proportions of professional and managerial occupations: 50.5% in Heaton Mersey MSOA, 53.2% in Heaton Moor, 49.6% in Heaton Chapel & Shaw Road. Nearly half of these figures, indeed, are in the higher professional and managerial category, not the lower. These are figures comparable with or higher than in Bramhall, for example, a highly favoured residential area in Cheadle constituency, and definitely not known for Labour support. There are also middling social class areas further out in Davenport. At the other end of the scale, over 36% of workers in Brinnington were in routine and semi-routine jobs in 2021, as were over 30% in the MSOA covering Central Stockport, Portwood and Shaw Heath. Similarly, overall Stockport has a well above proportion of residents with degrees: nearly 54% in Heaton Mersey, nearly 57% in Heaton Moor. But 29% in Brinnington have no educational qualifications. A majority (57%) of housing in ‘Brinny’ is still social rented, as is nearly half in Central Stockport.
Despite these contrasts in the figures, the two Heatons wards in 2023 where almost as strongly Labour as the Brinnington & Stockport Central ward, which might almost be drawn to be a Labour stronghold. This is probably due to the self-selection of the type of people who now live in the Heatons: professional and managerial, yes, but probably public sector, and the high proportion of graduates indicating intellectualism rather than materialism. Over 14% in the Heatons worked in education for example, at the time of the 2021 census. In these senses Stockport is to Greater Manchester what some of the inner to middle boroughs are to Greater London: getting increasingly left wing, and definitely opposed to what are perceived as suburban values. This also has something to do with region, as like Merseyside these parts of Greater Manchester very much resisted any so called red wall type movement in the 2019 general election. Although more than 85% of the population in this constituency were white in 2021 – there are no strong concentration of any ethnic minority group in any part of the seat, these starting quite suddenly and significantly as soon as the border with Manchester is crossed - Stockport’s transition from classic marginal territory to safe Labour citadel seems likely only to continue.
2021 Census, new boundaries
Age 65+ 15.1% 442/575
Owner occupied 60.1% 397/575
Private rented 19.9% 211/575
Social rented 20.0% 144/575
White 85.3% 360/575
Black 2.0% 235/575
Asian 7.6% 208/575
Managerial & professional 34.4% 244/575
Routine & Semi-routine 23.8% 286/575
Degree level 35.4% 195/575
No qualifications 17.9% 270/575
Students 5.4% 320/575
General Election 2019: Stockport
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Navendu Mishra 21,695 52.0 -11.3
Conservative Isy Imarni 11,656 27.9 -0.5
Liberal Democrats Wendy Meikle 5,043 12.1 +7.8
Brexit Party Lee Montague-Trenchard 1,918 4.6 New
Green Helena Mellish 1,403 3.4 +2.0
Majority 10,039 24.1 -10.8
Turnout 41,715 64.1 -0.6
Labour hold
Swing 5.4 Lab to C
Boundary Changes
Stockport consists of
83.8% of Stockport
31.5% of Denton & Reddish
(seat loses Manor ward and gains the Reddishes)
Map
boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/review2023/9bc0b2ea-7915-4997-9d4a-3e313c0ceb51/north-west/North%20West_270_Stockport_Portrait.pdf
2019 Notional results on new boundaries (Rallings & Thrasher
| Lab | 24980 | 54.3% |
| Con | 12968 | 28.2% |
| LD | 3986 | 8.7% |
| BxP | 2448 | 5.3% |
| Grn | 1635 | 3.6% |
| Majority | 12012 | 26.1% |
