Haltemprice and Howden (UK Parliament constituency)

Haltemprice and Howden was a constituency in the East Riding of Yorkshire from 1997 to 2024.

The seat was abolished for the 2024 general election.

Constituency profile
The Electoral Reform Society considers it to be historically the safest seat in the country, after North Shropshire was lost to the Liberal Democrats in 2021. Taking into account the previous seats roughly covering its boundaries, the Society considers that the seat has been held continuously by the Conservative Party since the 1837 general election.

Boundaries
The constituency was named after the region of Haltemprice and covered a large, wide area stretching from the border of Hull in the east to Howden in the west and northwards to Holme-on-Spalding-Moor towards York in the Yorkshire Wolds. The bulk of the population is centred in the urban villages of Willerby, Kirk Ella, Anlaby and Cottingham, which were part of the former district of Haltemprice, which was abolished in 1974. Rural Howdenshire formed the bulk of the geographical area of the constituency but provides only a small part of the total electorate.

The constituency included many towns and villages along the A63 corridor including, Brough, Elloughton, South Cave, North Ferriby, Swanland, Gilberdyke, Newport, Welton and Melton.

1997–2010: The Borough of Boothferry wards of East Derwent, East Howdenshire, Gilberdyke, Holme upon Spalding Moor, Howden, Mid Howdenshire, and North Cave, and the East Yorkshire Borough of Beverley wards of Anlaby, Brough, Castle, Kirk Ella, Mill Beck and Croxby, Priory, Skidby and Rowley, South Cave, Springfield, Swanland, and Willerby.

2010–2024: The District of East Riding of Yorkshire wards of Cottingham North, Cottingham South, Dale, Howden, Howdenshire, South Hunsley, Tranby, and Willerby and Kirk Ella.

History
The constituency was created for the 1997 general election, covering an area previously part of the Beverley and Boothferry constituencies. In 1997, it returned the Conservative David Davis, who had previously been the member for Boothferry; he was re-elected in the 2001, 2005 and 2010 general elections.

The area was placed as 10th most affluent in the country in the 2003 Barclays Private Clients survey. Election results but one to date suggest a Safe seat, with the 2001 result being an exception when the Conservative majority was cut to less than 2,000 votes. However, no party has come as near since then.

2008 by-election
On 12 June 2008, a day after a vote on the extension of detention of terror suspects without charge, in an unexpected move, Davis took the Chiltern Hundreds, effectively resigning his seat as the constituency's MP. He stated this was to force a by-election, in which he intended to provoke a wider public debate on the single issue of the perceived erosion of civil liberties. Over the course of the following week, the campaign was launched on the theme of David Davis for Freedom.

Davis formally resigned as an MP on 18 June 2008, and the by-election took place on 10 July 2008, which Davis won.

Abolition in 2024
Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat contents proposed to be distributed three ways:


 * Howden and North Ferriby, with rural areas in between, to the successor constituency of Goole and Pocklington
 * Cottingham to Kingston upon Hull North (to be renamed Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
 * Anlaby, Willerby and Kirk Ella to Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (to be renamed Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)

The constituency was abolished for the 2024 general election.