Post by YL on Dec 10, 2023 11:36:14 GMT
This constituency lies in the northern part of the City of Bradford Metropolitan District, and consists of a number of communities most of which were separate from Bradford before 1974, and which tend to maintain a distinct identity; indeed proposals to separate these areas from Bradford are sometimes put forward. It is an unusually shaped constituency, and is not in fact connected by road, but it is almost entirely unchanged in the current boundary review, and has been little changed since 1983. Historically it has usually been represented by the Conservative Party, though its more recent results suggest that it is currently a key marginal, with Labour winning it in 2024. It is a varied constituency demographically, though it averages out as rather on the middle class side and with education levels a little above average.
The core of Shipley itself is situated just to the west of where the Bradford Beck, running north from Bradford city centre, joins the River Aire. It is contiguous with Bradford's urban area and feels like a relatively middle class and vibrant suburb of the city, though it is not without some deprivation. In at least one way it is better connected than Bradford itself, with its unusual triangular railway station situated on the Midland Railway's main line north-west from Leeds, which eventually becomes the famous Settle to Carlisle route. Just to the west of the town centre is the model village World Heritage Site of Saltaire, built by the wool magnate Titus Salt to house the workforce at Salt's Mill. The model village housing is now in high demand, and Salt's Victorian moralism is challenged by the presence of a pub with the name "Don't Tell Titus". In terms of local politics Shipley ward, covering the town centre and Saltaire, is a stronghold of the Green Party, who have won every election here since 2004 barring a single loss to Labour in 2018.
On the other side of Bradford Beck from the town centre is the ward of Windhill & Wrose. Part of this was also formerly part of Shipley Urban District, but it is not included in the current Shipley Town Council area and it is demographically rather different, being more working class and with high deprivation levels. It is currently a reasonably secure Labour ward, though it did vote Lib Dem a couple of times in pre-Coalition days.
Up the Aire valley from Shipley, along that railway line north as well as the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, is the textile town of Bingley, which many people will associate with the building society whose headquarters used to be a prominent landmark in the town. The canal also provides a well known feature here, with the Five Rise Locks close to the town centre. Bingley is a relatively prosperous town, with its northern side on the hills towards Ilkley Moor being particularly middle class, though again there is some deprivation especially in the valley. Bingley ward voted consistently Conservative until recently, but Labour took a seat in 2021 and followed up by taking the other two in the next two years.
Two more wards surround Bingley and Shipley: to the south, sprawling over the Pennine foothills, is the ward of Bingley Rural, covering the communities of Denholme, Cullingworth, Wilsden, Harden and Cottingley, while to the north of Shipley is the town of Baildon, with its own ward. Both of these wards are for the most part prosperous middle class areas with a somewhat less "progressive" feel than Shipley town; both currently have full slates of Conservative councillors, though Labour came close in Baildon in 2023 and the Liberal Democrats were once competitive there.
Finally the constituency includes the ward called Wharfedale, which in fact only contains part of even the Bradford council area's part of that dale; it includes the towns of Burley in Wharfedale and Menston, east of Ilkley. This ward is on the other side of Ilkley Moor (or rather its eastern extension) from the rest of the constituency, to which it is only connected by a narrow neck on the moors, not traversed by any road. (It is not, however, too hard to get there from Shipley and Baildon, either by road or rail; it's just that this involves passing through parts of the Leeds council area.) Like the rest of Bradford's part of Wharfedale, this is a high status and well educated area, and it had a long history of voting Conservative locally, but in 2023 Labour took a seat by the narrow margin of 26 votes, while in 2024 the Conservatives held on by 67 votes.
The constituency had some Labour history before 1950, but it then contained areas now in Leeds. After 1950, with similar boundaries to the current seat (though not gaining the Wharfedale bits before 1983) it became reliably Conservative, and was for many years represented by Marcus Fox, who was Chairman of the 1922 Committee in the 1990s. He was defeated in 1997 by Labour's Chris Leslie, who became the Baby of the House, and represented the seat for 8 years until narrowly defeated by the Conservative Philip Davies in 2005; Leslie would later return for Nottingham East, but leave Parliament in 2019 after his involvement in the ill fated Change UK venture. Davies, who is the son of Doncaster's one time English Democrat mayor Peter Davies and who is now married to fellow Tory MP Esther McVey, is a maverick right winger who is something of a Marmite character with some quite controversial views which were maybe not the best fit for areas like Shipley town and Wharfedale, but he did also have a strong following as a local MP. His majority was cut substantially in 2017 and, after a small rise in 2019, in 2024 he was heavily defeated by Labour's Anna Dixon, whose majority is substantially higher than either of those won by Chris Leslie.
2019 result (negligible boundary change):
Con 27437 (50.8%)
Lab 21195 (39.2%)
Lib Dem 3188 (5.9%)
Green 1301 (2.4%)
Other 883 (1.6%)
Con majority 6242 (11.6%)
2024 result:
Anna Dixon (Lab) 21738 (45.0%)
Philip Davies (Con) 13135 (27.2%)
Simon Dandy (Reform UK) 7238 (15.0%)
Kevin Warnes (Green) 3605 (7.5%)
Graham Reed (Lib Dem) 1341 (2.8%)
Will Grant (Yorkshire Party) 447 (0.9%)
Nagbea (Ind) 297 (0.6%)
Waqas Khan (Workers Party) 269 (0.6%)
Paul Shkurka (SDP) 137 (0.3%)
Darryl Morton-Wright (Christian People's Alliance) 96 (0.2%)
The core of Shipley itself is situated just to the west of where the Bradford Beck, running north from Bradford city centre, joins the River Aire. It is contiguous with Bradford's urban area and feels like a relatively middle class and vibrant suburb of the city, though it is not without some deprivation. In at least one way it is better connected than Bradford itself, with its unusual triangular railway station situated on the Midland Railway's main line north-west from Leeds, which eventually becomes the famous Settle to Carlisle route. Just to the west of the town centre is the model village World Heritage Site of Saltaire, built by the wool magnate Titus Salt to house the workforce at Salt's Mill. The model village housing is now in high demand, and Salt's Victorian moralism is challenged by the presence of a pub with the name "Don't Tell Titus". In terms of local politics Shipley ward, covering the town centre and Saltaire, is a stronghold of the Green Party, who have won every election here since 2004 barring a single loss to Labour in 2018.
On the other side of Bradford Beck from the town centre is the ward of Windhill & Wrose. Part of this was also formerly part of Shipley Urban District, but it is not included in the current Shipley Town Council area and it is demographically rather different, being more working class and with high deprivation levels. It is currently a reasonably secure Labour ward, though it did vote Lib Dem a couple of times in pre-Coalition days.
Up the Aire valley from Shipley, along that railway line north as well as the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, is the textile town of Bingley, which many people will associate with the building society whose headquarters used to be a prominent landmark in the town. The canal also provides a well known feature here, with the Five Rise Locks close to the town centre. Bingley is a relatively prosperous town, with its northern side on the hills towards Ilkley Moor being particularly middle class, though again there is some deprivation especially in the valley. Bingley ward voted consistently Conservative until recently, but Labour took a seat in 2021 and followed up by taking the other two in the next two years.
Two more wards surround Bingley and Shipley: to the south, sprawling over the Pennine foothills, is the ward of Bingley Rural, covering the communities of Denholme, Cullingworth, Wilsden, Harden and Cottingley, while to the north of Shipley is the town of Baildon, with its own ward. Both of these wards are for the most part prosperous middle class areas with a somewhat less "progressive" feel than Shipley town; both currently have full slates of Conservative councillors, though Labour came close in Baildon in 2023 and the Liberal Democrats were once competitive there.
Finally the constituency includes the ward called Wharfedale, which in fact only contains part of even the Bradford council area's part of that dale; it includes the towns of Burley in Wharfedale and Menston, east of Ilkley. This ward is on the other side of Ilkley Moor (or rather its eastern extension) from the rest of the constituency, to which it is only connected by a narrow neck on the moors, not traversed by any road. (It is not, however, too hard to get there from Shipley and Baildon, either by road or rail; it's just that this involves passing through parts of the Leeds council area.) Like the rest of Bradford's part of Wharfedale, this is a high status and well educated area, and it had a long history of voting Conservative locally, but in 2023 Labour took a seat by the narrow margin of 26 votes, while in 2024 the Conservatives held on by 67 votes.
The constituency had some Labour history before 1950, but it then contained areas now in Leeds. After 1950, with similar boundaries to the current seat (though not gaining the Wharfedale bits before 1983) it became reliably Conservative, and was for many years represented by Marcus Fox, who was Chairman of the 1922 Committee in the 1990s. He was defeated in 1997 by Labour's Chris Leslie, who became the Baby of the House, and represented the seat for 8 years until narrowly defeated by the Conservative Philip Davies in 2005; Leslie would later return for Nottingham East, but leave Parliament in 2019 after his involvement in the ill fated Change UK venture. Davies, who is the son of Doncaster's one time English Democrat mayor Peter Davies and who is now married to fellow Tory MP Esther McVey, is a maverick right winger who is something of a Marmite character with some quite controversial views which were maybe not the best fit for areas like Shipley town and Wharfedale, but he did also have a strong following as a local MP. His majority was cut substantially in 2017 and, after a small rise in 2019, in 2024 he was heavily defeated by Labour's Anna Dixon, whose majority is substantially higher than either of those won by Chris Leslie.
2019 result (negligible boundary change):
Con 27437 (50.8%)
Lab 21195 (39.2%)
Lib Dem 3188 (5.9%)
Green 1301 (2.4%)
Other 883 (1.6%)
Con majority 6242 (11.6%)
2024 result:
Anna Dixon (Lab) 21738 (45.0%)
Philip Davies (Con) 13135 (27.2%)
Simon Dandy (Reform UK) 7238 (15.0%)
Kevin Warnes (Green) 3605 (7.5%)
Graham Reed (Lib Dem) 1341 (2.8%)
Will Grant (Yorkshire Party) 447 (0.9%)
Nagbea (Ind) 297 (0.6%)
Waqas Khan (Workers Party) 269 (0.6%)
Paul Shkurka (SDP) 137 (0.3%)
Darryl Morton-Wright (Christian People's Alliance) 96 (0.2%)
