Dover was considered a Cinque Ports constituency from 1386 to 1832.
Constituency profile
The seat includes most of Dover District. It comprises the towns of Deal, Dover, Walmer and surrounding villages in a productive chalkland, long-cultivated area adjoining the Strait of Dover. Since 1983 it has excluded the northern part of the District in and around the historically important Cinque Port of Sandwich with its golf links and accessible shore, which was then transferred to the South Thanet seat.
Since 1945 Dover has been a Labour/Conservative swing seat. In local elections, most of its rural villages and the two small towns favour the Conservative Party, whereas Dover favours the Labour Party, as well as the former mixed mining and agricultural villages in the local coal belt (East Kent coalfield), such as Aylesham. Labour's vote held on very solidly here in 2005, but the seat went Conservative in the 2010 election on a swing of 10.4% compared with a 4.9% swing nationally.
Boundaries
1918–1950: The Boroughs of Dover and Deal, the Urban District of Walmer, and the Rural Districts of Dover and Eastry.
1950–1983: The Boroughs of Dover, Deal, and Sandwich, the Rural District of Dover, and the Rural District of Eastry except the parishes included in the Isle of Thanet constituency.
1983–2010: The District of Dover wards of Aylesham, Barton, Buckland, Capel-le-Ferne, Castle, Cornilo, Eastry, Eythorne, Lower Walmer, Lydden and Temple Ewell, Maxton and Elms Vale, Middle Deal, Mill Hill, Mongeham, Noninstone, North Deal, Pineham, Priory, Ringwould, River, St Margaret's-at-Cliffe, St Radigund's, Shepherdswell with Coldred, Tower Hamlets, Town and Pier, and Upper Walmer.
2010–present: The District of Dover wards of Aylesham, Buckland, Capel-le-Ferne, Castle, Eastry, Eythorne and Shepherdswell, Lydden and Temple Ewell, Maxton, Elms Vale and Priory, Middle Deal and Sholden, Mill Hill, North Deal, Ringwould, River, St Margaret's-at-Cliffe, St Radigund's, Tower Hamlets, Town and Pier, Walmer, and Whitfield.
Charlie Elphicke Scandal
From 2010, the MP was Charlie Elphicke, elected as a member of the Conservative Party. On 3 November 2017, Elphicke was suspended by the Conservative Party after "serious allegations" were made against him, and then sat as an Independent until 12 December 2018 when he had the Conservative Whip restored ahead of a party vote on a no-confidence motion against Theresa May.[2][3] In July 2019, the whip was withdrawn again after he was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service with three counts of sexual assault against two women.[4][5][6] Charlie Elphicke stood down as an MP shortly before the 2019 UK General Election, with his wife, Natalie Elphicke standing as the Conservative Party candidate in his place. Natalie Elphicke was elected as the MP for the Dover District during the 2019 UK General Election, increasing on her husband's majority.
^"General Election". Naval & Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the United Service. 29 July 1837. p. 12. Retrieved 7 May 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"Dover Election". Canterbury Journal, Kentish Times and Farmers' Gazette. 29 July 1837. p. 2. Retrieved 7 May 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"Elections in Kent". Kentish Gazette. 1 August 1837. p. 2. Retrieved 7 May 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"Ralph Bernal". Legacies of British Slave-ownership. University College London. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
^Rubinstein, William D.; Jolles, Michael A.; Rubinstein, Hilary L., eds. (2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-4039-3910-4. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
^"The Home Rule Question". Bristol Mercury. 1 January 1886. p. 8. Retrieved 25 November 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ abcdefghijklmnoCraig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
^"The Town Clerk's Office". Wellington Journal. 14 February 1880. p. 7. Retrieved 25 November 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"This Evening's News". The Pall Mall Gazette. 31 March 1880. pp. 6–7. Retrieved 25 November 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"Dover". London Evening Standard. 27 January 1874. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 29 December 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"Representation of Dover". Kentish Gazette. 13 October 1868. p. 6. Retrieved 8 February 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^"Dover". South Eastern Gazette. 24 March 1857. p. 5. Retrieved 7 May 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ abcFisher, David R. "Dover". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
Sources
Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
The Constitutional Year Book for 1913 (London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1913)
F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949 (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
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