List of Parliamentary constituencies in County Durham


The unitary authorities of Durham and Borough of Darlington are combined for the purpose of parliamentary constituency boundaries, being divided into 7 Parliamentary constituencies– 1 borough constituency and 6 county constituencies. Since the 2019 general election, 4 parliamentary seats are controlled by the Conservative Party and 3 by the Labour Party. Between 1992 and 2019, all 7 seats were held by the Labour Party. With the exception of Darlington, all seats or their predecessors had returned Labour MPs since 1935, Sedgefield having been Conservative from 1931 to 1935.

Constituencies

Boundary changes

The Boundary Commission for England decided to retain these 7 constituencies for the 2010 election, with minor changes to realign constituency boundaries with the boundaries of current local government wards, and to reduce electoral disparity.

Proposed boundary changes

The Boundary Commission for England submitted their final proposals in respect of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies in September 2018. Although the proposals were immediately laid before Parliament they were not brought forward by the Government for approval. Accordingly, they did not come into effect for the 2019 election which took place on 12 December 2019, and which was contested using the constituency boundaries in place since 2010.
Under the terms of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, the Sixth Review was based on reducing the total number of MPs from 650 to 600 and a strict electoral parity requirement that the electorate of all constituencies should be within a range of 5% either side of the electoral quota.
On 24 March 2020, the Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, Chloe Smith, issued a written statement to Parliament setting out the Government's thinking with regard to parliamentary boundaries. They propose to bring forward primary legislation to remove the statutory obligation to implement the 2018 Boundary Review recommendations, as well as set the framework for future boundary reviews in time for the next review which is due to begin in early 2021 and report no later than October 2023. It is proposed that the number of constituencies now remains at the current level of 650, rather than being reduced to 600, while retaining the requirement that the electorate should be no more than +/- 5% from the electoral quota.

Results history

Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019

2019

The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Durham in the 2019 general election were as follows:
PartyVotes%Change from 2017SeatsChange from 2017
Conservative123,11240.6%5.3%44
Labour122,54740.4%14.2%34
Brexit25,4448.4%new00
Liberal Democrats21,3567.0%2.5%00
Greens5,9852.0%1.0%00
Others4,7251.6%3.0%00
Total303,169100.07

Percentage votes

11983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance
* Included in Other

Seats

Maps

Historical results by party

A cell marked → indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.

1885 to 1918

1victor in January 1910, Christopher Furness, declared void. Fresh by-election held June 1910, won by Stephen Furness.

1918 to 1950

1950 to 1983

1983 to present