The Cotswolds is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. It elects one Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

The constituency was created in 1997 as Cotswold, mostly from the former seat of Cirencester and Tewkesbury

Cirencester and Tewkesbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Cirencester and Tewkesbury was a parliamentary constituency in Gloucestershire which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, the Boundary Commission for England have confirmed only minor alterations to the boundaries of this seat. It will gain Minchinhampton

Minchinhampton

Minchinhampton is an ancient market town, located on a hilltop south-south-east of Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, in the Cotswolds. The town is twinned with Nkokoto, in Tanzania....

 and part of Wotton-under-Edge. The name of the seat changed to The Cotswolds at the 2010 election to reflect the local district name, which is more commonly used. Before that, The Wrekin

The Wrekin (UK Parliament constituency)

The Wrekin is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 1918. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

 was the only constituency in the United Kingdom beginning with the word The.

Constituency Profile

The Cotswolds is a safe Conservative seat in an area of natural beauty and heritage, with its market towns constructed of beautiful Cotswold stone. The area is so popular with tourists that tourism has overtaken agriculture as the largest single employer in the area.

The largest town in the constituency is Cirencester

Cirencester

Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...

 which is not a big place by any means. Other settlements include Andoversford

Andoversford

Andoversford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about six miles east of Cheltenham. The parish had a population of 668 according to the 2001 census....

, Bourton-on-the-Water

Bourton-on-the-Water

Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England that lies on a wide flat vale within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...

, Chipping Campden

Chipping Campden

Chipping Campden is a small market town within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It is notable for its elegant terraced High Street, dating from the 14th century to the 17th century...

, Fairford

Fairford

Fairford is a small town in Gloucestershire, England. The town lies in the Cotswolds on the River Coln, about east of Cirencester, west of Lechlade and north of Swindon. Nearby are RAF Fairford and the Cotswold Water Park.-Schools:...

, Lechlade

Lechlade

Lechlade, or Lechlade-on-Thames, is a town at the southern edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. It is the highest point at which the River Thames is navigable. The town is named after the River Leach that joins the Thames near here....

, Moreton-in-Marsh

Moreton-in-Marsh

Moreton-in-Marsh is a town and civil parish in northeastern Gloucestershire, England. The town is at the crossroads of the Fosse Way Roman road and the A44. The parish and environs are relatively flat and low-lying compared with the surrounding Cotswold Hills...

, Northleach

Northleach

Northleach is a small Cotswold market town in Gloucestershire, England. It constitutes the major part of the civil parish of Northleach with Eastington.The nearest railway stations are Moreton-in-Marsh, Kingham and Shipton on the Cotswold Line....

, Stow-on-the-Wold

Stow-on-the-Wold

Stow-on-the-Wold is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is situated on top of an 800 ft hill, at the convergence of a number of major roads through the Cotswolds, including the Fosse Way . The town was founded as a planned market place by Norman lords to take...

, Tetbury

Tetbury

Tetbury is a town and civil parish within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in the 2001 census.In the Middle Ages,...

 (and the neighbouring village of Doughton, location of Highgrove, the Prince of Wales's estate), and Wotton-under-Edge

Wotton-under-Edge

Wotton-under-Edge is a market town within the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England. Located near the southern end of the Cotswolds, the Cotswold Way long-distance footpath passes through the town. Standing on the B4058 Wotton is about from the M5 motorway. The nearest railway station is...

.

The seat has the highest number of listed buildings of any constituency in the UK. It also contains eight of the 20 most popular attractions in Gloucestershire, including Westonbirt Arboretum

Westonbirt Arboretum

Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is managed by the Forestry Commission. Westonbirt Arboretum is located near the historic market town of Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England, and is perhaps the most important and widely known arboretum in the United Kingdom.Planted in the heyday of Victorian plant...

, Hidcote Manor, and Chedworth Roman Villa

Chedworth Roman Villa

Chedworth Roman Villa is a Roman villa located at Chedworth, Gloucestershire, England. It is one of the largest Roman villas in Britain.-Siting:...

.

Members of Parliament

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown of the Conservative Party has represented the constituency since its creation; from 1992 he had represented Cirencester and Tewkesbury.

Election		Member	Party
	1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...	Geoffrey Clifton-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...

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s