North Somerset (UK Parliament constituency)

North Somerset is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Sadik Al-Hassan of the Labour Party.

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was subject to moderate boundary changes which involved the loss of the Yatton area which moved into the new constituency of Wells and Mendip Hills, first contested at the 2024 general election.

History
Earlier versions of the seat existed in 1885–1918 and 1950–1983.

Parliament passed the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 creating the larger constituency of North Somerset from the 1885 general election, which was later abolished for the 1918 general election.
 * First creation

North Somerset was re-established for the 1950 general election, and abolished again for the 1983 general election.
 * Second creation

Following the review of parliamentary representation in the North Somerset district by the Boundary Commission for England, the former Woodspring constituency was renamed as North Somerset without substantial boundary changes.
 * Third creation

Boundaries
1885–1918: The Sessional Divisions of Keynsham, Long Ashton, and Temple Cloud, and the civil parishes of Binegar, Chilcompton, and Midsomer Norton.

1950–1983: The Urban Districts of Keynsham, Norton Radstock, and Portishead, the Rural Districts of Bathavon and Clutton, and part of the Rural District of Long Ashton.

2010–2024: The District of North Somerset wards of Backwell, Clevedon Central, Clevedon East, Clevedon North, Clevedon South, Clevedon Walton, Clevedon West, Clevedon Yeo, Easton-in-Gordano, Gordano, Nailsea East, Nailsea North and West, Pill, Portishead Central, Portishead Coast, Portishead East, Portishead Redcliffe Bay, Portishead South and North Weston, Portishead West, Winford, Wraxall and Long Ashton, Wrington, and Yatton.

2024-present: The composition of the constituency from the 2024 United Kingdom general election is reduced in order to bring the electorate within the permitted range by transferring the Yatton ward to the new constituency of Wells and Mendip Hills.

Constituency profile
This is essentially the former Woodspring seat with a new name. A coastal strip between the Severn Estuary and the M5 motorway includes the towns of Clevedon and Portishead, while inland from the motorway is the town of Nailsea and a predominantly rural area dotted with villages. This is a fairly affluent constituency with average incomes and low proportion of unemployment claimants – about a third of the population commute to work, mostly in Bristol and Bath.

The Woodspring seat returned Conservative MPs, and was held by Fox from 1992 until 2024. Fox won the new constituency by nearly 14 percentage points over the Liberal Democrats in 2010, while Labour took second place in 2015 and 2017. In 2024, Sadik Al-Hassan was elected as MP - the first to have been returned to Parliament for the Labour Party (UK).

Elections in the 1910s


General Election 1914–15:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
 * Liberal: Joseph King
 * Unionist: J Windsor Levis