Westmorland and Lonsdale (UK Parliament constituency)


Westmorland and Lonsdale is a constituency in the south of Cumbria, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Tim Farron, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Boundaries

The constituency is similar in extent to the South Lakeland district of Cumbria. Important towns by size in the constituency include Kendal, Windermere and Kirkby Lonsdale. It is named for the historic county of Westmorland and the Lancashire Hundred of Lonsdale, both of which extend beyond the bounds of the constituency.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Cumbria, the Boundary Commission for England created a modified Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency, to deal with population changes.
The electoral wards used to create the modified seat, contested for the first time at the 2010 general election, are entirely within the South Lakeland district.
This removed Broughton-in-Furness from the constituency.

History

Having been a Conservative-dominated seat since its creation in 1983, the 1997 general election saw the Conservatives' majority cut to fewer than 5,000 votes. This was further reduced at the 2001 general election. In 2005, the constituency featured among a list of seats held by high-profile Conservatives targeted by the Liberal Democrats by deploying supporters from across each region in what was referred in the media as a "decapitation strategy". Westmorland and Lonsdale was the single shadow ministerial loss at the following election — Tim Farron gained the seat by a marginal majority of 267 votes.
At the 2010 general election, the local electorate caused the largest swing nationally, of 11.1% — equally the lowest share of the vote for Labour, nationally. With 96.2% of votes cast for either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat candidates, Westmorland and Lonsdale had the highest combined share of the vote cast for the Coalition parties.
Contrasting with its long-term Conservative support, the combined Conservative/UKIP vote narrowly failed to reach 40% in 2015. Equally, Farron, who would become Leader of the Liberal Democrats two months later; was the only member of his party to secure an absolute majority of votes cast, after what was a poor result for the party nationwide with their seat count reduced from 57 seats to 8.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

In 2019, Westmorland & Lonsdale was one of five English constituencies, the others being Esher and Walton, East Devon, Cheltenham and Winchester, where Labour failed to obtain over 5% of the vote and lost their deposit.

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Note: The Robert Gibson who stood in this election and the similarly named candidate in 2001 and 2005 are not the same person.