Kettering (UK Parliament constituency)

Kettering is a constituency in Northamptonshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Rosie Wrighting of the Labour Party.

Historic
1918–1950: The Urban Districts of Desborough, Kettering, and Rothwell, the Rural Districts of Brixworth, Kettering, and Oxendon, and in the Rural District of Northampton the parishes of Great Billing, Little Billing, and Weston Favell.

1950–1974: The Municipal Borough of Kettering, the Urban Districts of Burton Latimer, Desborough, Corby and Rothwell, and the Rural Districts of Brixworth and Kettering.

1974–1983: The Municipal Borough of Kettering, the Urban Districts of Burton Latimer, Corby, Desborough, and Rothwell, and the Rural District of Kettering.

1983–1997: The Borough of Kettering, and the District of Daventry wards of Boughton and Pitsford, Brixworth, Clipston, Moulton, and Overstone and Walgrave.

The constituency created in 1950 included the generally (in the late 20th century) Labour-majority industrial town of Corby until the 1983 general election, when Corby gained its own constituency.

1997–2010: The Borough of Kettering, and the District of Daventry wards of Boughton and Pitsford, Brixworth, Clipston, Guilsborough, Moulton, Overstone and Walgrave, Spratton, and Welford.

2010–2021: The Borough of Kettering.

The Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies proposed an additional seat due to population growth in the county. Parliament approved its recommendations for 2010 which made way for the new constituency of South Northamptonshire. The resulting boundary changes resulted in the loss of the District of Daventry wards.

2021–2024: With effect from 1 April 2021, the Borough of Kettering was absorbed into the new unitary authority of North Northamptonshire. From that date, the constituency comprised the North Northamptonshire Council wards of Burton and Broughton, Clover Hill, Desborough, Ise, Northall, Rothwell and Mawsley, Wicksteed and Windmill.

Current
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, Kettering will be unchanged, except for the addition of polling districts CRWB, CRWC, CRWD, CRWE, CSCB and CSCC in the Corby Rural ward, transferred from the Corby constituency.

The constituency covers the major town of Kettering, the smaller towns of Desborough, Rothwell and Burton Latimer together with a number of villages. A semi-rural seat, the preponderance of constituents live in the towns and a minority of the wards form a wide array of rural communities that have civil parish or hamlet status.

Constituency profile
Economically, it is predominantly middle-class, well within managerial/directorial commuter zones for London and the West Midlands. Industry continues in some sectors ranging from, for example, lingerie, food production, rigid containers, abattoirs, to the Weetabix factory in Burton Latimer, but the industrial activity of the area, as with the rest of the county, is reduced whereas the wider area's headline gross value added for the area per head has been mostly consistently higher, from £11,667 in 1997 in North Northamptonshire to £17,835.

In 2005 The Guardian described it as: "'[A] mixed industrial town in Northamptonshire with good links to London.'"

Prior to 1983, the constituency had been dominated not by the eponymous town, but by the nearby industrial town of Corby. The town's general support for Labour made Kettering a reliable Labour seat, as the party won it at every election from 1945 to when Corby was split off to form its own constituency in 1983. In its current configuration Kettering is much more inclined towards the Conservatives, though Labour won it in their landslide victories in 1997, 2001 and 2024.

Members of Parliament
The current Member of Parliament is Rosie Wrighting of the Labour Party. She was elected in 2024 when she defeated the sitting Conservative MP, Philip Hollobone, in an election which nationally saw a landslide win for the Labour Party. Prior to Wrighting's victory, Kettering had been a predominantly safe Conservative seat, as Labour had only won it in their two landslides in 1997 and 2001, by tight margins of just 189 and 665 votes (0.3 and 1.2 percent of the vote) respectively. Her majority was by far the largest for Labour since before Corby was removed from the seat.

Mid Northamptonshire Constituency (1885–1918)
Prior to boundary changes in 1918, at least the majority of modern-day Kettering Constituency laid within the Mid Northamptonshire constituency.

North Northamptonshire Constituency (1832–1885)
Prior to boundary changes in 1885, at least the majority of modern-day Kettering Constituency laid within the North Northamptonshire constituency, which elected two members to Parliament.

Elections in the 1980s
Note: The boundary changes to the seat for the 1983 election meant that this seat would have been won by the Conservatives in 1979, as parts of the seat were moved into the newly created seat of Corby which was notionally Labour on the new boundaries and thus saw William Homewood attempt (unsuccessfully albeit) to seek re-election there.

Elections in the 1940s
The British Council commissioned a short film on the 1945 General Election which portrays the contest in the Kettering constituency.