Truro and St Austell (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 50°18′58″N 4°54′54″W / 50.316°N 4.915°W / 50.316; -4.915

Truro and St Austell
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Truro and St Austell in Cornwall for the 2005 general election.
Location of Cornwall within England.
County	Cornwall
Major settlements	Truro and St Austell
1997–2010
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Truro and Falmouth, St Austell and Newquay
Created from	Truro

Truro and St Austell was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

The District of Carrick wards of Boscawen, Chacewater, Feock, Kea, Kenwyn, Moresk, Newlyn, Perranzabuloe, Probus, Roseland, St Agnes, St Clement, Tregolls, and Trehaverne, and the Borough of Restormel wards of Crinnis, Mevagissey, Poltair, Rock, St Ewe, St Mewan, St Stephen-in-Brannel, Trevarna, and Treverbyn.

The constituency was centred on the former district of Carrick, which contains the city of Truro, and the former borough of Restormel which contains the town of St Austell.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Cornwall, the Boundary Commission for England created an extra seat for the county which meant consequential changes for the existing seats. Truro and St Austell was abolished, and was partly succeeded by St Austell and Newquay.

The city of Truro forms part of the newly created Truro and Falmouth constituency.

History

The constituency has existed in a number of different forms. The Truro constituency, up until 1885 elected two members to parliament; this was reduced to one. In 1918 the constituency was abolished but it was recreated again in 1950.

In 1997, in spite of the fact that no boundary changes were made to Truro on that occasion, the Boundary Commission nonetheless saw fit to change its name to Truro and St. Austell, reflecting the fact that St Austell has a larger population than Truro. The Truro seat became a safe Liberal seat due to the popularity of its former MP, David Penhaligon. He died in a car crash in 1986, aged 42 and was succeeded at a by-election the following year by Matthew Taylor, who held the seat comfortably until his retirement, and the constituency's abolition, in 2010.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member^[1]	Party
	1997	Matthew Taylor	Liberal Democrat
	2010	constituency abolished: see Truro and Falmouth and St Austell and Newquay

Elections

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Truro and St Austell
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	Matthew Taylor	24,089	46.7	-1.6
	Conservative	Fiona Kemp	16,686	32.4	+0.1
	Labour	Charlotte Mackenzie	6,991	13.6	-0.1
	UKIP	David Noakes	2,736	5.3	+2.0
	Mebyon Kernow	Conan Jenkin	1,062	2.1	-0.2
Majority			7,403	14.4
Turnout			51,564	64.2	0.7
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	-0.8

General Election 2001: Truro and St Austell
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	Matthew Taylor	24,296	48.3	-0.2
	Conservative	Timothy Peter Carleton Bonner	16,231	32.3	+5.8
	Labour	David Mervyn Phillips	6,889	13.7	-1.6
	UKIP	James Alan Wonnacott	1,664	3.3	+2.3
	Mebyon Kernow	Conan James Trevenen Jenkin	1,137	2.3	+1.5
	Independent	John Willis Lee	78	0.2	-0.3
Majority			8,065	16.0
Turnout			50,295	63.5	-10.6
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	-3.0

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Truro and St Austell
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal Democrat	Matthew Taylor	27,502	48.5
	Conservative	Neil Badcock	15,001	26.4
	Labour	Michael Dooley	8,697	15.3
	Referendum	Carl Hearn	3,682	6.5
	UKIP	Alan Haithwaite	576	1.0
	Green	Dorienne Robinson	482	0.8
	Mebyon Kernow	Davyth Hicks	450	0.8
	Independent	Lorna Yelland	240	0.4
	Natural Law	Peter Bolland	117	0.2
Majority			12,501	22.0
Turnout			56,747	74.0
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

For elections before 1997, see Truro

Notes and references

↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "T" (part 2)

Sources

Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)

Constituencies in South West England (55)

Conservative (51)	Bath Bournemouth East Bournemouth West Bridgwater and West Somerset Bristol North West Camborne and Redruth Central Devon Cheltenham Chippenham Christchurch Devizes East Devon Filton and Bradley Stoke Forest of Dean Gloucester Kingswood Mid Dorset and North Poole Newton Abbot North Cornwall North Devon North Dorset North East Somerset North Somerset North Swindon North Wiltshire Plymouth Moor View Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Poole Salisbury Somerton and Frome South Dorset South East Cornwall South Swindon South West Devon South West Wiltshire St Austell and Newquay St Ives Stroud Taunton Deane Tewkesbury The Cotswolds Thornbury and Yate Tiverton and Honiton Torbay Torridge and West Devon Totnes Truro and Falmouth Wells West Dorset Weston-super-Mare Yeovil

Labour (4)	Bristol East Bristol South Bristol West Exeter

South West England European constituency: Conservative (2) Green (1) Labour (1) UKIP (2)

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