Cannock Chase (UK Parliament constituency)

Cannock Chase is a constituency in Staffordshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Josh Newbury of the Labour Party.

Constituency profile

The Cannock Chase constituency is located in Staffordshire and is coterminous with the Cannock Chase local government district. The constituency is based around the connected towns of Cannock and Hednesford, which together have a population of around 63,000. It also includes the market town of Rugeley and the village of Norton Canes. The constituency is named after Cannock Chase, a forested area lying between Hednesford and Rugeley that has been designated a National Landscape. Like the nearby Black Country, the Cannock area has a history of coal mining.
In Cannock Chase, house prices, income and levels of education and professional employment are all lower than national averages. Parts of Cannock have high levels of deprivation, whilst there are some affluent areas like Heath Hayes and Wimblebury. At the local district council, most of Cannock is represented by Labour Party councillors whilst the northern areas of the district elected Conservatives and Greens. At the county council, the entirety of Cannock Chase is represented by Reform UK councillors. Voters in the constituency overwhelmingly supported leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum; an estimated 69% voted in favour of Brexit, placing Cannock Chase in the top 30 most Brexit-supporting constituencies out of 650 nationwide.

Boundaries

1997–2010: The District of Cannock Chase, and the District of South Staffordshire ward of Huntington.
2010–present: The District of Cannock Chase.
The 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies left the boundaries unchanged.
The constituency contains three towns, Cannock, Rugeley, and Hednesford, with several pit villages, and the Chase itself situated between Hednesford and Rugeley. Since 2010 the seat has broadly the same boundaries as the 1974–1983 seat of Cannock.
Prior to 1997, Cannock and Hednesford were part of the Cannock and Burntwood constituency, while Rugeley was part of the Mid Staffordshire constituency. Between 1997 and 2010 the village of Huntington was part of the constituency though it was part of South Staffordshire local government district.

History

Created for the 1997 election, the seat has since become a bellwether, often with substantial swings. The Labour Party held the seat for 13 years until Aidan Burley of the Conservative Party was elected at the 2010 general election with a large 14% swing, which was the second largest Labour to Conservative swing at that election. Amanda Milling, who was elected in the next election, subsequently held the seat and increased the Conservative majority in both 2015 and 2017. In 2019, the Conservative majority increased to nearly 20,000 votes. However, the seat was regained by Labour in their landslide victory in the 2024 general election, taking the seat from the Conservatives after 14 years on a 25% swing; it became the largest majority in percentage terms to be overturned in that election.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

The vote share change in 2010 comes from the notional, not actual, 2005 results because of the boundary change.