This article also describes the parliamentary borough (1554-1852) of the same name, consisting only of the city of St Albans, which elected two MPs by the bloc vote system.
Current Boundaries
The seat is in Hertfordshire, England. Specifically, it comprises the cathedralcity of St Albans and some of the surrounding countryside, mainly to the south of the city.
Constituencies were most recently redrawn in 2007, with the new boundaries taking effect at the 2010 general election. The Boundary Commission for England decided to retain the existing 11 seats in Hertfordshire, making relatively minor adjustments to bring the parliamentary boundaries in line with those of local government wards, which had changed since the 1995 review.[2]
The seat now comprises the following electoral wards:[3]
The constituency elected a borough representative for over 300 years, until it was disenfranchised as a result of electoral corruption in 1852.[4] The constituency was re-established in an enlarged form in 1885 with an alternative pseudonym, the Mid Division of Hertfordshire. Both names were used in the Redistribution of Seats Act, which dovetailed with the Third Reform Act.
1885 to date
Political history
The constituency was until 1997 held by a Conservative with the exception of five years of the Attlee ministry and early 20th century opposition of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and the first part of his premiership which was when he was in a minority.
Following boundary changes in 1997, and the founding of the New Labour movement which sought public sector reform and investment with expansion based on economic growth, the seat stood the possibility of, on the expected national swing led by Tony Blair, a win by a Labour politician, which took place when it was won for the party for the first time since the 1945 election.
Despite the former Labour MP for the seat, Kerry Pollard, standing there in 2015 and 2017, she has not come close to regaining it. This is in no small part due to the seat showing an unusually high level of support for the Liberal Democrats and their predecessor parties; they have only twice (in 2001 and 2015) failed to win at least 20% of the vote in St Albans since 1974, and in 2010 and 2017 came a strong second (4.4% and 10.7%) behind the Conservatives.
Workless claimants (registered jobseekers) were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.9% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.[5]
^ abcdefghijCraig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 297. ISBN0-900178-27-2.
^ abcdefghijkCraig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 375. ISBN0-900178-06-X.
^New M.P. For St. Albans, The Times, October 06, 1943
^Styled Lord Bingham from October 1795, when his father was raised to an Earldom
Sources
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]
F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
