St Ives (UK Parliament constituency)

St Ives
County constituency

St Ives shown within Cornwall, and Cornwall shown within England
Created: 1558
MP: Andrew George
Party: Liberal Democrat
Type: House of Commons
County: Cornwall
EP constituency: South West England

St Ives is a county constituency 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.

Contents

Current Boundaries

The constituency comprises the whole of Penwith and the southern part of Kerrier former districts. It also includes the Isles of Scilly, not shown on the map (and having only some 1,700 electors out of a total 70,000). It takes in the most southerly (The Lizard) and westerly (Land's End) points of the English mainland. Main towns are Penzance, St Ives and Helston.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Cornwall, the Boundary Commission for England has increased the county's representation by one seat. This has caused consequential changes to the existing constituencies.

The modified St Ives constituency will be formed from the following electoral wards':

History

St Ives has elected MPs to every Parliament since 1558, except for a brief period during the Protectorate. It was originally a parliamentary borough, and returned two MPs until the Great Reform Act of 1832, when its representation was cut to a single member. In 1885 the borough was abolished, but the St Ives name was transferred to the surrounding county constituency.

St Ives borough

The borough established under Queen Mary consisted of the parish of St Ives in western Cornwall, a seaport and market town in which the main economic interests were fishing and the export of ores mined nearby. In 1831, the population of the borough was 4,776, and contained 1,002 houses.

The franchise was initially restricted to the town corporation, but after a judgment in a disputed election in 1702, the right to vote was exercised by all inhabitants paying scot and lot; in the early 19th century this amounted to a little over 300 voters. This was a wide franchise for the period, and taken with the reasonable size of the town meant that St Ives was one of the few boroughs in Cornwall that could claim not to be a rotten borough.

Elections were usually contested, and although the local gentry were able to exercise considerable influence on the outcome, no one interest was entirely predominant; the result could rarely be taken for granted and it was necessary to court the voters assiduously. From the 17th century, there were at least three competing interests - those of the Hobart family (Earls of Buckinghamshire from 1746), the Praeds of Treventhoe, and the Dukes of Bolton (who owned one of the manors of St Ives) - and by the mid 18th century the Stephens family also had to be taken into account. In 1751, however, John Stephens, who had previously allied himself with the Earl of Buckinghamshire and managed the borough's elections on the Earl's behalf, struck out on his own account and secured the election of his son. Later in the decade Stephens and the Earl once more began to work together, but were unable to prevent Humphrey Mackworth Praed from establishing sufficient influence to secure a hold of one of the two seats.

But by 1761 the alliances had shifted again, Buckinghamshire and Praed on one side nominating candidates against Stephens and the Duke of Bolton on the other. The by-election in 1763, when Buckinghamshire's brother-in-law Charles Hotham was re-elected after being appointed to a position in the Royal Household, cost the Earl £1,175 even though his candidate was eventually returned unopposed - the expenditure included payments of 7 guineas to each of 124 people (all presumably qualified voters, ensuring that it would be futile for his opponents to put up a candidate).

There was a further bitterly-contested election in 1774: allegations of bribery were investigated by a House of Commons committee, whose proceedings are recounted at length by the contemporary historian of electoral abuses, Thomas Oldfield, in his Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland. Samuel Stephens, defeated by 7 votes, accused William Praed and Adam Drummond (the Duke of Bolton's candidate) of benefited from several types of corruption. Humphrey Mackworth Praed, the candidate's father, was said to have lent large sums to voters on the understanding that repayment would not be demanded provided they voted for Praed and Drummond; but the counsel for Praed and Drummond offered evidence that Stephens had also resorted to bribery. Furthermore, it was alleged that many of Stephens' supporters had been prevented from voting by rating them as not liable for the scot and lot and therefore not eligible to vote; this was a frequent abuse in scot and lot boroughs, but as the petitioners could not bring any evidence of criminal misconduct by the parish overseers the committee decided they had no jurisdiction to interfere at St Ives. In the end, the committee upheld Drummond's election but declared that neither Stephens nor Praed had been properly elected, and a writ was issued for a by-election to fill the second seat.

The cost of electioneering in St Ives seems eventually to have led to both Buckinghamshire and Bolton withdrawing, and by 1784 Praed was considered unchallenged as patron. Nevertheless, the Stephens influence was by no means entirely extinguished, and it was recorded that the patrons at the time of the Reform Act were Samuel Stephens of Tregarron and Sir Christopher Hawkins of Trewithan (who had purchased the manor from Mr Praed).

The Reform Act extended the boundaries of the constituency, bringing in the neighbouring parishes of Lelant and Towednack and increasing the population; nevertheless, the borough lost one of its two seats. There were 584 qualified voters at the first reformed election, that of 1832.

Even with a further extension of the franchise in 1868, the electorate never passed 1,500, and had fallen to barely 1,000 by the next Reform Act, under which the borough was abolished with effect from the general election of 1885.

St Ives county constituency

With the division of counties into new single-member constituencies effected in 1885, Cornwall had six county divisions. The westernmost of these, in which St Ives stood, was formally named The Western or St Ives Division of Cornwall; it was often referred to simply as St Ives or as West Cornwall.

This new constituency also included the towns of Penzance, Paul, Ludgvan and St Just, and stretched not only from Land's End to St Erth but also included the Isles of Scilly. It was a constituency abnormally low in owner-occupiers, with a strong non-conformist presence, and the Conservatives were consequently very weak. However, local sentiment was strongly against Irish Home Rule or independence, seen as a particular threat to the livelihood of the fishermen and other maritime employees who made up much of the electorate, and St Ives therefore became a Liberal Unionist stronghold from 1886. (Even though its MP from 1906, Sir Clifford Cory, was nominally a Liberal rather than a Unionist and standing against Liberal Unionist candidates, he opposed Home Rule and was careful to explain this to the voters at each election.)

After the boundary revisions introduced at the general election of 1918, which brought in most of the villages on the Lizard Peninsula (though not Helston), the constituency was simply called Cornwall, St Ives. It underwent further boundary changes in 1950, bringing Helston into the constituency, and in 1983, when it was again extended to include all those parts of the new Penwith local government district which had previously been excluded.

The character of the constituency was little changed any of these revisions, but party loyalties may have been disrupted by the 1918 changes. Labour put up a candidate for the first time in 1918, and took more than a third of the vote; at the next election, with Labour withdrawing and the Irish issue no longer able to help Cory, a Conservative was elected for the first time. For the next decade St Ives was a Conservative-Liberal marginal, and changed hands four times in the 1920s. However, the split of the National Liberals from the Liberals apparently offered a compromise which suited the voters, and St Ives was thereafter a safe seat for that party, and later for the Conservatives when the National Liberals finally merged with them in the 1960s, until the formation of the Liberal Democrats re-invigorated the competition in the 1990s. Andrew George captured the seat after the retirement of the sitting Conservative MP in 1997, and took over half the vote in both 2001 and 2005.

At general elections, the constituency is usually one of the last in Great Britain to declare a result; the delay in bringing the ballot boxes over from the Isles of Scilly means that counting does not begin until the following day.[1]

Members of Parliament

St Ives borough

1558-1640

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1640-1832

Year First member First party Second member Second party
November 1640 Lord Lisle [2] Parliamentarian Francis Godolphin Parliamentarian
1641 (?) Edmund Waller Royalist
July 1643 Waller disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1647 John Feilder
December 1648 Godolphin not recorded as sitting after Pride's Purge
1653 St Ives was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659 John St Aubyn Peter Silly
May 1659 John Feilder One seat vacant
May 1660 [3] James Praed John St Aubyn
July 1660 Edward Nosworthy, senior
March 1661 James Praed
December 1661 John Basset
1662 Daniel O'Neill
1665 Edward Nosworthy, senior
1679 Edward Nosworthy, junior
1681 James Praed
1685 Charles Davenant James St Amand
1689 James Praed Walter Vincent
1690 William Harris
1695 John Michell
1698 Sir Charles Wyndham
January 1701 Benjamin Overton
December 1701 Sir John Hawles
1702 Richard Chaundler
1702 John Pitt
1705 Sir Bartholomew Gracedieu John Borlase
1708 John Praed
1710 John Hopkins
1713 Sir William Pendarves
1715 Lord Harry Powlett Sir John Hobart
1722 Henry Knollys
1727 Major-General Sir Robert Rich
1734 William Mackworth Praed
1741 John Bristow Lieutenant-Colonel Gregory Beake
July 1747 Lord Hobart [4]
December 1747 John Plumtre
1751 Samuel Stephens
1754 Hon. George Hobart James Whitshed
1761 Humphrey Mackworth Praed Colonel Charles Hotham
1768 Thomas Durrant Adam Drummond
1774 William Praed [5]
1775 Thomas Wynn [6]
1778 Philip Dehany
1780 William Praed Abel Smith
1784 Richard Barwell
1790 William Mills
1796 Sir Richard Glyn
1802 Jonathan Raine
1806 Samuel Stephens Francis Horner
1807 Sir Walter Stirling, 1st Baronet
1812 William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley
1818 Samuel Stephens
1820 Lyndon Evelyn Tory James Graham Whig
1821 Sir Christopher Hawkins
1826 James Halse
1828 Charles Arbuthnot
1830 William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley Ultra Tory James Morrison
1831 James Halse Tory Edward Bulwer-Lytton Whig
1832 Representation reduced to one member

1832-1885

Year Member Party
1832 James Halse Conservative
1838 by-election William Tyringham Praed Conservative
1846 by-election Lord William Powlett Conservative
1852 Robert Laffan Conservative
1857 Henry Paull Conservative
1868 Charles Magniac Liberal
1874 Edward Gershour Davenport Conservative
1874 by-election Charles Tyringham Praed Conservative
1880 Sir Charles Reed Liberal
1881 by-election Charles Campbell Ross Conservative
1885 Borough abolished; name transferred to county division

St Ives county constituency (1885-present)

Year Member Party
1885 Sir John St Aubyn Liberal
1886 Liberal Unionist
1887 by-election Thomas Bedford Bolitho Liberal Unionist
1900 Edward Hain Liberal Unionist
190x Liberal
1906 Clifford John Cory Liberal
1922 John Anthony Hawke Conservative
1923 Clifford John Cory Liberal
1924 John Anthony Hawke Conservative
1928 by-election Hilda Runciman Liberal
1929 Walter Runciman Liberal
1931 National Liberal
1937 by-election Alec Beechman National Liberal
1950 Greville Howard National Liberal
1966 John Nott National Liberal
1968 Conservative
1983 David Harris Conservative
1997 Andrew George Liberal Democrat

Election results

Elections in the 2000s

Next United Kingdom general election: St Ives[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
UK Independence Mick Faulkner
Liberal Democrat Andrew George
Labour Philippa Latimer
Mebyon Kernow Simon Reed
Conservative Derek Thomas
General Election 2005: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat Andrew George 25,577 50.7% -0.9%
Conservative Christian Mitchell 13,968 27.7% -3.5%
Labour Michael Dooley 6,583 13.1% -0.2%
UK Independence Michael Faulkner 2,551 5.1% +1.2%
Green Katrina Slack 1,738 3.4% N/A
Majority 11,609 23.0% 12.7%
Turnout 50,417 72.4% +2.3%
Liberal Democrat hold Swing +1.3%
General Election 2001: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat Andrew George 25,413 51.6% +7.1%
Conservative Joanna Richardson 15,360 31.2% 0%
Labour William Morris 6,567 13.3% -1.9%
UK Independence Michael Faulkner 1,926 3.9% +2.9%
Majority 10,053 20.4% 53.4%
Turnout 49,266 66.3% -8.9%
Liberal Democrat hold Swing -3.6%

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat Andrew George 23,966 44.5
Conservative W Rogers 16,796 31.2
Labour C Fegan 8,184 15.2
Referendum Party Michael Faulkner 3,714 6.9
UK Independence P Garnier 1,926 3.9
Liberal G Stephens 425 0.8
Independent K Lippiat 178 0.3
Independent W Hitchins 71 0.1
Majority 7,170 13.3
Turnout 75.2
Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative Swing 8.1

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
National Liberal Alec Beechman 14,256 47.3 -3.1
Labour H Brinton 8,190 27.2
Liberal E F Allison 7,692 25.5 -24.1
Majority 6,066 20.1 +19.3
Turnout 30,138 70.6 +4.5
National Liberal hold Swing

Elections in the 1930s

By-election 1937: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
National Liberal Alec Beechman 13,044 50.4
Liberal Isaac Foot 12,834 49.6
Majority 210 0.8
Turnout 25,878 66.1
National Liberal hold Swing
General election of 1935

In the 1935 UK general election, Walter Runciman, National Liberal was elected unopposed.

General election of 1931

In the 1931 UK general election, Walter Runciman, National Liberal was elected unopposed.

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1929: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Walter Runciman 12,433 43.2 +0.6
Conservative A Caird 11,411 39.7 +0.3
Labour W E Arnold-Forster 4,920 17.1 -0.9
Majority 1,032 3.5 +0.3
Turnout 28,764 76.5 -0.9
Liberal hold Swing
By-election 1928: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Hilda Runciman 10,241 42.6 -4.4
Conservative A Caird 9,478 39.4 -13.6
Labour F J Hopkins 4,343 18.0
Majority 763 3.2
Turnout 24,062 77.4 +8.3
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing
General Election 1924: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative John Anthony Hawke 11,159 53.0 +12.4
Liberal Sir Clifford Cory 9,912 47.0 +0.5
Majority 1,247 6.0
Turnout 21,071 69.1 -2.3
Conservative gain from Liberal Swing
General Election 1923: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Sir Clifford Cory 9,922 46.5 0.0
Conservative John Anthony Hawke 8,652 40.6 -12.9
Labour A E Dunn 2,749 12.9
Majority 1,270 5.9
Turnout 21,323 71.4 +5.8
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing
General Election 1922: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative John Anthony Hawke 10,388 53.5
National Liberal Sir Clifford Cory 9,016 46.5
Majority 1,372 7.0
Turnout 19,404 65.6 +13.9
Conservative gain from National Liberal Swing

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Coalition Liberal Sir Clifford Cory 8,659 58.6
Labour A E Dunn 5,659 38.4
Independent Conservative T F T Michell 436 3.0
Majority 3000 20.2
Turnout 14,754 51.7
Coalition Liberal hold Swing
General Election December 1910: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Sir Clifford Cory 4,253 56.0 +0.6
Liberal Unionist R E L V Williams 3,338 44.0 -0.6
Majority 915 12.0 +1.2
Turnout 7,591 80.7 -4.8
Liberal hold Swing
General Election January 1910: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Sir Clifford Cory 4,458 55.4 -2.8
Liberal Unionist C B Levita 3,586 44.6 +2.8
Majority 872 10.8 -5.6
Turnout 8,044 85.5 +4.3
Liberal hold Swing

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1906: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Clifford John Cory 4,244 58.2
Liberal Unionist P E Pilditch 3,052 41.8
Majority 1,192 16.4
Turnout 7,296 81.2
Liberal gain from Liberal Unionist Swing
General election of 1900

In the 1900 UK general election, Edward Hain, Liberal Unionist was elected unopposed.

Elections in the 1890s

General election of 1895

In the 1895 UK general election, Thomas Bedford Bolitho, Liberal Unionist was elected unopposed.

General election of 1892

In the 1892 UK general election, Thomas Bedford Bolitho, Liberal Unionist was elected unopposed.

Elections in the 1880s

St Ives By-Election 9 July 1887

In the 1887 St Ives by-election, Thomas Bedford Bolitho, Liberal Unionist was elected unopposed.

General Election 1886: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Unionist Sir John St Aubyn 3,395 79.3
Liberal S Barrow 888 20.7
Majority 2,507 58.6
Turnout 4,283 56.3 -21.1
Liberal Unionist gain from Liberal Swing
General Election 1885: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Sir John St Aubyn 3,313 56.3
Conservative Charles Campbell Ross 2,576 43.7
Majority 737 12.6
Turnout 5,889 77.4
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing

Elections in the 1830s

By-election 1838: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Tory William Tyringham Praed 256
Tory F H Stephens 248
Majority 8
Turnout 504
Registered Electors 566
Tory hold Swing
General Election 1837: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Tory James Halse 272
Tory William Tyringham Praed 223
Majority 49
Turnout 495
Registered Electors 579
Tory hold Swing
General Election 1835: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Tory James Halse
Registered Electors 599
Tory hold Swing
General Election 1832: St Ives
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Tory James Halse 302
Tory W M Praed 168
Tory H L Stephens 39
Majority 134
Turnout 509
Registered Electors 584

See also

References

  1. ^ United Kingdom Election Results - Order of Declaration in the 2001 Election
  2. ^ Lisle was also elected for Yarmouth (Isle of Wight), which he chose to represent, and did not sit for St Ives
  3. ^ In April 1660, St Ives made a double return; on 5 May 1660, the Commons resolved "That John St Aubyn and James Praed, esqrs, being duly returned by the proper officers, they ought to sit".
  4. ^ Hobart was also elected for Norwich, which he chose to represent, and never sat for St Ives
  5. ^ On petition, Praed was declared not to have been duly elected, and a by-election was held
  6. ^ Created The Lord Newborough (in the Peerage of Ireland) in 1776
  7. ^ St Ives UKPolling
  • F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832 - 1885
  • F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1885 - 1918
  • Election results, 1950 - 2005
  • Historical list of MPs
  • Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
  • D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
  • Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [2]
  • Michael Kinnear, The British Voter (London: BH Batsford, Ltd, 1968)
  • Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
  • J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
  • T H B Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816)
  • Henry Pelling, Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910 (London: Macmillan, 1967)
  • J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
  • Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
  • Frederic A Youngs, jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol I (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979)

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