Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 3.1% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
Boundaries
Telford is made up of several old industrial towns to the north of the River Severn and on the eastern flanks of the Wrekin and numerous New Town developments including Woodside. However, not all of the Telford New Town developments are in the constituency; the northern parts and some western areas which pre-dates Telford, are in The Wrekin constituency. All of the constituency is covered by Telford and Wrekin Borough Council. 2010–present: The Borough of Telford and Wrekin wards of Brookside, Cuckoo Oak, Dawley Magna, Horsehay and Lightmoor, Ironbridge Gorge, Ketley and Oakengates, Lawley and Overdale, Madeley, Malinslee, Priorslee, St George's, The Nedge, Woodside, Wrockwardine Wood, and Trench. 1997–2010: The District of The Wrekin wards of Brookside, Cuckoo Oak, Dawley Magna, Hollinswood/Randlay, Ironbridge, Ketley Bank, Langley, Lawley, Madeley, Malinslee, Priorslee, Stirchley, Wombridge, Woodside, and Wrockwardine Wood. Boundary changes to realign the constituency boundaries to fit with the borough's most recent ward revisions resulted in the addition of Ketley for the 2010 general election. Future proposals: Under constituency boundary changes announced in September 2016, ahead of the next general election, it is proposed to extend the constituency to include the wards of Donnington and Hadley and Leegomery, to be taken from The Wrekin constituency.
History
Created from the more rural Wrekin constituency for the 1997 general election, Telford was continuously held by the Labour Party, with a change in candidate in 2001, until the 2015 general election when the Conservatives took the seat from David Wright. Bruce Grocott was its first-ever MP, serving for the first four years. In 2010 Wright's majority fell to a marginal figure of 981 votes, and he lost in 2015 by 730 votes - one of the small number of Conservative gains from Labour in that election, which in turn helped to give the Conservatives an overall parliamentary majority. The seat was retained by Lucy Allan in 2017 with an almost identical majority of 720, and again by Ms Allan in December 2019 with a majority of 10,941, one of the most significant Conservative marginal seat holds in that election.
