Reading West and Mid Berkshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Reading West and Mid Berkshire, originally known as simply Mid Berkshire, is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It was formed as a result of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies and subsumes parts of the Newbury, Wokingham, and the former Reading West constituencies. It was first contested at the 2024 general election. The current MP is Olivia Bailey.

Some 30% of the constituency's voters live in the Borough of Reading, with the remainder living in the West Berkshire local government area.

History
At the time of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, there were eight constituencies in the county of Berkshire. Of these constituencies, only three (Reading East, Reading West, and Windsor) were within the permitted electorate range of no fewer than 69,724 electors and no more than 77,062. All of the remaining constituencies were above the upper limit. The Boundary Commission for England therefore proposed the addition of a ninth constituency within the county.

Whilst both Reading constituencies could have remained unchanged, the boundary commission instead proposed a reconfiguration to account for the increased electorates of the surrounding constituencies, and to better reflect local ties in the surrounding communities. This involved the creation of two new constituencies (Earley and Woodley and Mid Berkshire), both with the bulk of their electorate outside the Borough of Reading but including outer wards of the borough, together with a new Reading Central constituency entirely within the borough.

During the process of acceptance of these proposals, the name was changed from Mid Berkshire to West Reading and Mid Berkshire, despite the relative small proportion of the constituency that is within Reading. The new constituency includes three borough wards and twelve wards from West Berkshire, as opposed to seven and six respectively for the old Reading West constituency.

In mid-October 2023, the Liberal Democrats selected Helen Belcher OBE as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the seat in the 2024 general election. At the beginning of January 2024, two West Berkshire councillors joined the candidate list, with Carolyne Culver announced as the Green Party candidate and Adrian Abbs announcing his intention to run as an independent candidate. In February 2024, Olivia Bailey was announced as the Labour Party candidate and in April Ross Mackinnon was announced as the Conservative Party candidate.

In December 2023, the national Labour party included the constituency in its list of 211 non-battleground seats, suggesting they did not see it as winnable. In 23 March 2024, when announcing Bailey's candidature, the local party did describe the constituency as a 'battleground' seat.

Constituency profile
The constituency has a mixed nature, including parts of the continuously built-up urban area of Reading (both within and without the boundaries of the borough) and an extensive rural area, which includes villages such as Aldermaston, Aldworth, Bradfield, Basildon, Bucklebury, Burghfield, Compton, East Ilsley, Hampstead Norreys, Mortimer, Pangbourne, Streatley, Theale, West Ilsley, Woolhampton and Yattendon. Some 30% of the constituency's voters live in the Borough of Reading, with the remainder living in the West Berkshire local government area.

The wards that make up the constituency are represented by 26 councillors. As of November 2023, these comprise 11 Liberal Democrats, 8 Conservatives, 6 Labour and 1 Green.

Boundaries
The constituency composed of the following wards (as they existed on 1 December 2020): The Reading wards. together with Pangbourne, Theale and the three Tilehurst wards in West Berkshire, comprising 67% of the electorate, are currently in the Reading West seat, with the remaining areas coming from Newbury and Wokingham in equal parts.
 * The Borough of Reading wards of: Kentwood, Norcot, and Tilehurst; and
 * The District of West Berkshire wards of: Aldermaston, Basildon, Bradfield, Bucklebury, Burghfield & Mortimer, Downlands (polling district BC), Pangbourne, Ridgeway, Theale, Tilehurst & Purley, Tilehurst Birch Copse, and Tilehurst South & Holybrook.

The seat bordered by the seats of Newbury, Didcot and Wantage, Henley and Thame, Reading Central, Earley and Woodley, Wokingham, North East Hampshire, and North West Hampshire.

Members of Parliament
Reading West prior to 2024