Belper is a former constituency in the UK Parliament. It was created at the 1918 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1918

The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...

 as a county division of Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

, comprising the area in the centre of the county and surrounding Derby

Derby

Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

, and named after the market town of Belper

Belper

Belper is a town and civil parish in the local government district of Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England.-Geography:Belper is situated eight miles north of Derby and is centred in the valley of the River Derwent...

 although this was in the north of the constituency. In 1950 it was expanded to include the far south of the county. It was a marginal constituency for most of its existence.

The area had an ever-expanding population after 1945 as prosperous suburbs of Derby were built outside the city boundaries. Lord George-Brown

George Brown, Baron George-Brown

George Alfred Brown, Baron George-Brown, PC was a British Labour politician, who served as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970, and served in a number of positions in the Cabinet, most notably as Foreign Secretary, in the Labour Government of the 1960s...

, who represented the seat at the time, wrote in 1971 after his defeat in the 1970 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1970

The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...

 that "The electorate had increased by over 10,000 since 1966, mainly from the growth of middle-class housing estates, so that most of the new electors could be expected to vote Tory. Since my majority in 1966 was 4,274, an influx of 10,000 new voters, mainly Tory, obviously imperilled the seat."

In fact, a Boundary Commission report issued in 1969 had recommended changes which would have removed the extra voters, but the Labour government of the time had delayed implementation of the report.

Boundaries

When created in 1918, the constituency included the Urban District

Urban district

In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....

s of Alfreton

Alfreton

Alfreton is a town and civil parish in Amber Valley, Derbyshire, England, adjoining the Bolsover and North East Derbyshire districts. It was formerly a Norman Manor and later an Urban District. The population of the Alfreton Ward was 7,928 at the 2001 Census...

, Belper and Heage

Heage

The village of Heage in Derbyshire is situated midway between Belper and Ripley and is today famous for its recently-restored six-sailed windmill. Work on building the mill started in 1791 and it was first recorded as working in 1797...

, together with the Rural District

Rural district

Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the administrative counties.-England and Wales:In England...

 of Belper and part of the Rural District of Repton

Repton Rural District

Repton was a rural district in Derbyshire, England from 1894 to 1974.It was created under the Local Government Act 1894 from the part of the Burton upon Trent rural sanitary district which was in Derbyshire .In 1934, under a County Review Order, it was expanded somewhat by taking in the disbanded...

 (the civil parishes of Ash

Ash, Derbyshire

Ash is a small civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, with a population of 98 . The parish includes scattered hamlets and Ashe Hall. Today Ashe hall is the Tara Buddhist Centre.-History:...

, Bearwardcote

Bearwardcote

Bearwardcote is a hamlet and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 26. The hamlet is located 3 miles from Mickleover, 3 miles from Willington and four miles south west of Derby....

, Bretby

Bretby

Bretby is a village in the south of Derbyshire, England, north of Swadlincote and east of Burton upon Trent, on the border between Derbyshire and Staffordshire. The name means "dwelling place of Britons"...

, Burnaston, Dalbury Lees

Dalbury Lees

Dalbury Lees is a parish in south Derbyshire. It is about six miles from both Burton-on-Trent and Derby and just under four miles from Egginton. The parish contains the villages of Dalbury and Lees which are just under apart from one another...

, Egginton

Egginton

Egginton is a village in the local government district of South Derbyshire, England. It is located just off Ryknild Street, otherwise known as the A38, between Derby and Stretton, Burton upon Trent. It is historically a farming community...

, Etwall, Findern

Findern

Findern is a village in south Derbyshire. Although a railway runs through it, there is no station, the nearest stations are Willington, Pear Tree and Derby...

, Foremark, Ingleby, Mickleover

Mickleover

Mickleover is a suburb located two miles west of the city centre and is the most westerly suburb of the City of Derby in the United Kingdom.-History:...

, Newton Solney, Radbourne, Repton, Trusley, Twyford and Stenson, and Willington

Willington, Derbyshire

Willington is a village and civil parish in South Derbyshire, England. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 2,604.-Geography:Willington is on the River Trent about southwest of Derby...

).

In 1950, boundary changes removed the Urban Districts of Alfreton and Heage to the Ilkeston

Ilkeston (UK Parliament constituency)

Ilkeston is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was represented by one Member of Parliament...

 constituency, together with the civil parish of Shipley from out of Belper Rural District. To compensate for this loss of electors, the changes transferred in the rest of the Repton Rural District from the West Derbyshire

West Derbyshire (UK Parliament constituency)

West Derbyshire was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From 1885 until it was replaced by the Derbyshire Dales constituency in the 2010 General Election, it elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post voting system.It...

 and South East Derbyshire

South East Derbyshire (UK Parliament constituency)

South East Derbyshire was a parliamentary constituency in Derbyshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system....

 constituencies. In addition from South East Derbyshire came the Urban District of Swadlincote

Swadlincote

Swadlincote is a town and unparished area in South Derbyshire, about southeast of Burton-upon-Trent and about south of Derby. It is the main town of South Derbyshire and the seat of South Derbyshire District Council....

.

In 1974 the boundaries were realigned with those for local government which had changed to transfer some electors to Derby. In 1983 the constituency was broken up, although the largest part (40,000 voters around Swadlincote) formed the basis of South Derbyshire

South Derbyshire (UK Parliament constituency)

-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:"-Elections in the 1980s:-Elections in the 1940s:-References:...

. 22,000 voters around Belper itself went to West Derbyshire, and 10,000 voters to Amber Valley

Amber Valley (UK Parliament constituency)

Amber Valley is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post voting system. It is a marginal constituency between the Conservative and Labour parties...

.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918 United Kingdom general election, 1918 The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...	John Hancock John Hancock (UK politician) John George Hancock was a British Liberal Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 1909 to 1923....	Liberal Liberal Party (UK) The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
	1923 United Kingdom general election, 1923 -Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...	Herbert Wragg Herbert Wragg Sir Herbert Wragg was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Belper in Derbyshire from 1923 to 1929 and from 1931 to 1945....	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
	1929 United Kingdom general election, 1929 -Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...	Jack Lees Jack Lees Jack Lees was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Belper in Derbyshire from 1929 to 1931....	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
	1931 United Kingdom general election, 1931 The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...	Sir Herbert Wragg Herbert Wragg Sir Herbert Wragg was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Belper in Derbyshire from 1923 to 1929 and from 1931 to 1945....	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
	1945 United Kingdom general election, 1945 The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...	George Brown George Brown, Baron George-Brown George Alfred Brown, Baron George-Brown, PC was a British Labour politician, who served as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970, and served in a number of positions in the Cabinet, most notably as Foreign Secretary, in the Labour Government of the 1960s...	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
	1970 United Kingdom general election, 1970 The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...	Geoffrey Stewart-Smith Geoffrey Stewart-Smith Geoffrey Stewart-Smith was a British politician. He served one term as Conservative Member of Parliament for Belper in Derbyshire after he defeated the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party George Brown...	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
	Feb 1974 United Kingdom general election, February 1974 The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...	Roderick MacFarquhar Roderick MacFarquhar Roderick Lemonde MacFarquhar is a Harvard University professor and China specialist, British politician, newspaper and television journalist and academic orientalist...	Labour Labour Party (UK) The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
	1979 United Kingdom general election, 1979 The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...	Sheila Faith Sheila Faith Sheila Faith is a British politician and dental surgeon. She served one term each in the House of Commons and European Parliament as a Conservative...	Conservative Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
1983 United Kingdom general election, 1983 The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...		constituency abolished

Elections in the 1910s

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1950s

Boundary changes occurred at this point.

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1970s

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Boundary changes occurred at this point.