Oldham East and Saddleworth
Encyclopedia
Oldham East and Saddleworth is a county constituency in Greater Manchester
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. Since January 2011, it has been represented by Debbie Abrahams
, a member of the Labour Party
.
. According to the Manchester Evening News
it is "a juxtaposition of downbeat urban terraces and the rolling Pennine hills", while UK Polling Report describes it as a "constituency at the eastern side of Greater Manchester, reaching from central Oldham up into the Pennines and Saddleworth Moor". Within its bounds are the eastern fringes of Oldham
(such as Derker
, Glodwick
, Greenacres
, and Sholver
), Shaw and Crompton
, Lees
, and Saddleworth
(the latter of which includes the rural villages of Denshaw
, Diggle
, Dobcross
, Greenfield
and Uppermill
). Culturally, The Guardian
describes the constituency as a "shotgun marriage", likened to "Coronation Street
meets Last of the Summer Wine
, Salford combined with Holmfirth
"; East Oldham is noted as "an area of deprived terraces and racial tensions", Shaw and Crompton as a "relatively prosperous (and unusually named) town" and Saddleworth as composed of "middle-class villages and hamlets". Between 1997 and 2010, Oldham East and Saddleworth incorporated the suburban town of Milnrow
in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
, before boundary reforms placed it in the neighbouring Rochdale constituency
.
and Oldham Central and Royton
constituencies. Whilst Oldham Central and Royton was a safe Labour
seat, Littleborough and Saddleworth had been held by the Conservatives
until a 1995 by-election
, when it was lost to the Liberal Democrats
.
Since the 1997 general election
, the seat has been a Labour/Liberal Democrat marginal. Although Phil Woolas
of Labour (who was their defeated candidate in the 1995 by-election) has been victorious in all three general elections since then, his majorities have not been substantial and the Conservative vote has increased from 16% to 24%.
The constituency "gained notoriety" at the 2001 general election
, when the British National Party
gained over 5,000 votes (an 11.2% share), retaining their deposit. Along with the BNP's showing in the neighbouring Oldham West and Royton constituency, this was interpreted as a reaction to the 2001 Oldham race riots. At the 2005 election
the BNP's share of the vote dropped to 4.9%.
For the 2010 General election the seat lost the Milnrow
and Newhey
ward to the neighbouring Rochdale constituency and gained part of Alexandra ward from Oldham West and Royton
.
After losing the 2010 election by 103 votes, Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins
submitted a petition
for a hearing by an election court
, claiming that campaign literature issued by his Labour opponent Phil Woolas
breached the Representation of the People Act 1983
by making false statements about his personal character. On 5 November 2010, the election court, presided over by Mr Justice Nigel Teare and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, upheld the petition and declaring the election void after finding Phil Woolas guilty of making false election statements. Woolas sought a judicial review
of the decision in the High Court, but was unsuccessful overall as that Court upheld the decision of the Election Court in relation to two statements, whilst quashing the decision in relation to a third. As a result, the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, 2011
, was required to take place, by which time the constituency was described as an "ultra-marginal between Labour and the Liberal Democrats". The by-election took place on 13 January 2011. Ten candidates were nominated to contest the by-election, which was won by the Labour Party candidate Debbie Abrahams
.
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
. It elects one Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) by the first past the post system of election. Since January 2011, it has been represented by Debbie Abrahams
Debbie Abrahams
Deborah Angela Elspeth Abrahams is a British politician, who has been the Labour Member of Parliament for the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency since a by-election in January 2011. Her previous career was as a public health consultant.-Early and professional life:Abrahams was born in...
, a member of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
.
Boundaries
Oldham East and Saddleworth is the largest constituency in Greater Manchester by area, and one of three covering the Metropolitan Borough of OldhamMetropolitan Borough of Oldham
The Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of 219,600, and spans . The borough is named after its largest town, Oldham, but also includes the outlying towns of Chadderton, Failsworth, Royton and Shaw and Crompton, the village of...
. According to the Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
The Manchester Evening News is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. It is published every day except Sunday and is owned by Trinity Mirror plc following its sale by Guardian Media Group in early 2010. It has an average daily circulation of 90,973 copies...
it is "a juxtaposition of downbeat urban terraces and the rolling Pennine hills", while UK Polling Report describes it as a "constituency at the eastern side of Greater Manchester, reaching from central Oldham up into the Pennines and Saddleworth Moor". Within its bounds are the eastern fringes of Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
(such as Derker
Derker
Derker is an area of Oldham, a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies in north-central Oldham, close to the boundary with Royton.Historically a part of Lancashire, Derker was recorded as a place of residence in 1604 with the name Dirtcar....
, Glodwick
Glodwick
Glodwick is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is south-east of Oldham town centre.Glodwick is a multi-ethnic residential area in the south of the Oldham, home particularly to a large community of Pakistanis and British Pakistanis....
, Greenacres
Greenacres, Greater Manchester
Greenacres , or archaically Greenacres Moor, is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the west side of the River Medlock opposite the village of Lees....
, and Sholver
Sholver
Sholver is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. An elevated, residential area, it lies near the middle of the Oldham part of the valley of the River Beal, northeast of Oldham's commercial centre, nearly at the northeastern-most extremity of the town, by open countryside close to the...
), Shaw and Crompton
Shaw and Crompton
Shaw and Crompton is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, north of Oldham, southeast of Rochdale, and to the northeast of the city of Manchester...
, Lees
Lees, Greater Manchester
The village consists of a small cluster of shops and businesses on either side of the A669 Lees Road, surrounded by some terraced houses and some small estates...
, and Saddleworth
Saddleworth
Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets amongst the west side of the Pennine hills: Uppermill, Greenfield, Dobcross, Delph, Diggle and others...
(the latter of which includes the rural villages of Denshaw
Denshaw
Denshaw is a village in Saddleworth—a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies by the source of the River Tame, high amongst the Pennines above the village of Delph, northeast of Oldham, and north-northwest of Uppermill...
, Diggle
Diggle, Greater Manchester
Diggle is a village within the Saddleworth parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. The village is situated on the moorlands of the Pennine hills....
, Dobcross
Dobcross
Dobcross is a village in Saddleworth—a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is located in a valley in the South Pennines, along the course of the River Tame and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, east-northeast of Oldham and west-southwest of...
, Greenfield
Greenfield, Greater Manchester
Greenfield is a village in the Saddleworth parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It is east of Oldham, and east-northeast of the city of Manchester...
and Uppermill
Uppermill
Uppermill is a village in Saddleworth—a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It lies on the River Tame in a valley amongst the South Pennines, east of Oldham, and east-northeast of Manchester...
). Culturally, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
describes the constituency as a "shotgun marriage", likened to "Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
meets Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...
, Salford combined with Holmfirth
Holmfirth
Holmfirth is a small town located on the A6024 Woodhead Road in the Holme Valley, within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Centred upon the confluence of the Holme and Ribble rivers, Holmfirth is south of Huddersfield and from Glossop. It mostly consists of...
"; East Oldham is noted as "an area of deprived terraces and racial tensions", Shaw and Crompton as a "relatively prosperous (and unusually named) town" and Saddleworth as composed of "middle-class villages and hamlets". Between 1997 and 2010, Oldham East and Saddleworth incorporated the suburban town of Milnrow
Milnrow
Milnrow is a suburban town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with Rochdale...
in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England. It is named after its largest town, Rochdale, but spans a far larger area which includes the towns of Middleton, Heywood, Littleborough and Milnrow, and the village of Wardle.The borough was...
, before boundary reforms placed it in the neighbouring Rochdale constituency
Rochdale (UK Parliament constituency)
Rochdale is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
.
History
The seat was established in 1997, from parts of the former Littleborough and SaddleworthLittleborough and Saddleworth (UK Parliament constituency)
Littleborough and Saddleworth was a parliamentary constituency in Greater Manchester, England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
and Oldham Central and Royton
Oldham Central and Royton (UK Parliament constituency)
Oldham Central and Royton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Oldham and Royton areas in the north-west of Greater Manchester, England...
constituencies. Whilst Oldham Central and Royton was a safe Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
seat, Littleborough and Saddleworth had been held by the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
until a 1995 by-election
Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election, 1995
A by-election was called in the constituency of Littleborough and Saddleworth in Greater Manchester, England, on 27 July 1995 following the death of Conservative Party MP Geoffrey Dickens on 17 May of that year....
, when it was lost to the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
.
Since the 1997 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
, the seat has been a Labour/Liberal Democrat marginal. Although Phil Woolas
Phil Woolas
Philip James Woolas was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth from his election in 1997 to 2010. He was the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration in the Home Office, as well as being the Minister of State for the Treasury...
of Labour (who was their defeated candidate in the 1995 by-election) has been victorious in all three general elections since then, his majorities have not been substantial and the Conservative vote has increased from 16% to 24%.
The constituency "gained notoriety" at the 2001 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
, when the British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
gained over 5,000 votes (an 11.2% share), retaining their deposit. Along with the BNP's showing in the neighbouring Oldham West and Royton constituency, this was interpreted as a reaction to the 2001 Oldham race riots. At the 2005 election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
the BNP's share of the vote dropped to 4.9%.
For the 2010 General election the seat lost the Milnrow
Milnrow
Milnrow is a suburban town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with Rochdale...
and Newhey
Newhey
Newhey is a suburban village in the Milnrow area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England...
ward to the neighbouring Rochdale constituency and gained part of Alexandra ward from Oldham West and Royton
Oldham West and Royton
Oldham West and Royton is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...
.
After losing the 2010 election by 103 votes, Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins
Elwyn Watkins
Robert Elwyn James Watkins, born in Rochdale, is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He narrowly lost to Labour Party candidate Phil Woolas for the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat in the 2010 general election, but the result was overturned by an election court, which found that Woolas had...
submitted a petition
Election petition
An election petition refers to the procedure for challenging the result of a Parliamentary election or local government election in the United Kingdom and in Hong Kong.- Outcomes :...
for a hearing by an election court
Election court
An Election Court is, in United Kingdom election law, a special court convened to hear a petition against the result of a local government or Parliamentary election. The court is created to hear the individual case, and ceases to exist when it has made its decision.- Statutory basis :Election...
, claiming that campaign literature issued by his Labour opponent Phil Woolas
Phil Woolas
Philip James Woolas was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth from his election in 1997 to 2010. He was the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration in the Home Office, as well as being the Minister of State for the Treasury...
breached the Representation of the People Act 1983
Representation of the People Act 1983
The Representation of the People Act 1983 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It changed the British electoral process in the following ways:* Amended the Representation of the People Act 1969....
by making false statements about his personal character. On 5 November 2010, the election court, presided over by Mr Justice Nigel Teare and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, upheld the petition and declaring the election void after finding Phil Woolas guilty of making false election statements. Woolas sought a judicial review
Judicial review
Judicial review is the doctrine under which legislative and executive actions are subject to review by the judiciary. Specific courts with judicial review power must annul the acts of the state when it finds them incompatible with a higher authority...
of the decision in the High Court, but was unsuccessful overall as that Court upheld the decision of the Election Court in relation to two statements, whilst quashing the decision in relation to a third. As a result, the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, 2011
Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, 2011
The 2011 by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth was a by-election for the Parliament of the United Kingdom's House of Commons constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth held on 13 January 2011...
, was required to take place, by which time the constituency was described as an "ultra-marginal between Labour and the Liberal Democrats". The by-election took place on 13 January 2011. Ten candidates were nominated to contest the by-election, which was won by the Labour Party candidate Debbie Abrahams
Debbie Abrahams
Deborah Angela Elspeth Abrahams is a British politician, who has been the Labour Member of Parliament for the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency since a by-election in January 2011. Her previous career was as a public health consultant.-Early and professional life:Abrahams was born in...
.
Members of Parliament
| Election | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general... |
Phil Woolas Phil Woolas Philip James Woolas was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth from his election in 1997 to 2010. He was the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration in the Home Office, as well as being the Minister of State for the Treasury... |
Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after... |
|
| 5 November 2010 | Vacant | ||
| 2011 by-election Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, 2011 The 2011 by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth was a by-election for the Parliament of the United Kingdom's House of Commons constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth held on 13 January 2011... |
Debbie Abrahams Debbie Abrahams Deborah Angela Elspeth Abrahams is a British politician, who has been the Labour Member of Parliament for the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency since a by-election in January 2011. Her previous career was as a public health consultant.-Early and professional life:Abrahams was born in... |
Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after... |
|