Colne Valley is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Jason McCartney of the Conservative Party. Since the 1964 general election, the only occasion when the winning candidate's majority exceeded 10% of the votes cast was in 1992, and three different parties have held the seat during this period. Since 1987 it has been won by either Conservative or Labour candidates. Colne Valley was one of 17 seats won by a Labour candidate in 2017 from a total of 22 covering its county, with Thelma Walker's 2017 win being one of 30 net gains of the Labour Party. However, former MP Jason McCartney took the seat back for the Conservatives in 2019.
Constituency profile
The seat is named after the Colne; one of three rivers so-named in the UK and one of three main rivers in the seat; its three main towns sit on hillsides and the local dwellings are mainly stone-built. A sizeable proportion of retirees live in the area, celebrated in the decades-long television comedy Last of the Summer Wine, centred on Holmfirth in the seat.
1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Huddersfield, and parts of the Sessional Divisions of Saddleworth and Upper Aggbrigg. 1918–1950: The Urban Districts of Farnley Tyas, Golcar, Holme, Holmfirth, Honley, Linthwaite, Marsden, Meltham, New Mill, Saddleworth, Scammonden, Slaithwaite, South Crosland, Springhead, and Thurstonland. 1950–1983: The Urban Districts of Colne Valley, Holmfirth, Kirkburton, Meltham, and Saddleworth. 1983–2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees wards of Colne Valley West, Crosland Moor, Golcar, Holme Valley North, Holme Valley South, and Lindley. 2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees wards of Colne Valley, Crosland Moor and Netherton, Golcar, Holme Valley North, Holme Valley South, and Lindley. This semi-rural constituency covers the Colne Valley, Holme Valley, Meltham and the outskirts of the large town of Huddersfield in the district of Kirklees, West Yorkshire. The constituency comprises rural countryside broken up by the towns of Holmfirth and Meltham and the villages of Marsden, Slaithwaite, Honley, Brockholes, Linthwaite, New Mill and Golcar. The seat was once held by the Independent Labour MP Victor Grayson, who later disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 1920. The area of Saddleworth, which actually lies on the Western side of the Pennines compared to the rest of the constituency and is separate from the main Colne Valley itself, became part of the new metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in 1974, and from 1983 became part of a new constituency along with Littleborough. In 1981, the Boundary Commission's proposals combined much of the seat with a large portion of the Huddersfield West seat. Originally it was proposed to use the Huddersfield West name, but this was opposed at the public inquiry which argued that the Colne Valley name be preserved.
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 the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
