1918–1950: The County Borough of Newcastle wards of Dene, Heaton, Jesmond, St Andrew's, and St Thomas. 1950–1983: The County Borough of Newcastle wards of Arthur's Hill, Elswick, Jesmond, Sandyford, and Westgate. 1983–2010: The City of Newcastle wards of Castle, Denton, Fawdon, Grange, Lemington, Newburn, Westerhope, and Woolsington. 2010–present: The City of Newcastle wards of Castle, Denton, East Gosforth, Fawdon, Lemington, Newburn, Parklands, Westerhope, and Woolsington. The constituency included Newcastle city centre from 1950 to 1983 - this despite the fact that the Newcastle Central constituency was retained, albeit with redrawn boundaries.
History
From its creation out of the old Newcastle-upon-Tyne constituency in 1918, the seat was a safe Conservative Party seat— including six years of representation by Gwilym Lloyd George, who was aligned to the National Liberal Party but served as Home Secretary for almost three years until 1957 in a Conservative government. This continued until the 1983 general election, when major boundary changes resulted in a constituency composed entirely of wards that did not form part of the pre-1983 Newcastle North. The majority of the old Newcastle North wards moved to Newcastle Central, which the Conservatives won in 1983, while the new Newcastle North became a safe Labour seat, although in 1983 Labour's majority was just over 2,500 votes in a relatively close three way race. Labour won the seat in the first election under the new boundaries despite a landslide defeat on the national scale, and have held the seat ever since, with the Liberal Democrats being the greatest challengers in 2005 and 2010, and the Conservatives finishing in second place in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
The 1983 result is classed as a hold for Labour, rather than a gain from the Conservatives, because the pre-1983 Newcastle-upon-Tyne North constituency, which was a Conservative-held seat, covered a substantially different area, so, aside from the name, the two seats are essentially entirely different. The constituency which replaced the pre-1983 Newcastle-upon-Tyne North constituency, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central, was won by the Conservatives and is classed as a hold for the Conservatives, as they were incumbent party in the pre-1983 Newcastle-upon-Tyne North seat.
