List of Parliamentary constituencies in Dorset

The ceremonial county of Dorset (which comprises the unitary authorities of Dorset, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) is divided into 8 Parliamentary constituencies - 3 Borough constituencies and 5 County constituencies.

Constituencies

† Conservative ‡ Labour ¤ Liberal Democrat

Constituency^{[nb 1]}	Electorate^[1]	Majority^[2]^{[nb 2]}
Bournemouth East BC	74,125	8,806	Tobias Ellwood†	Corrie Drew‡
Bournemouth West BC	74,205	10,150	Conor Burns†	David Stokes‡
Christchurch CC	71,520	24,617	Christopher Chope†	Mike Cox¤
Mid Dorset and North Poole CC	65,427	14,898	Michael Tomlinson†	Vikki Slade¤
North Dorset CC	76,765	24,301	Simon Hoare†	David Chadwick¤
Poole BC	73,989	19,116	Robert Syms†	Sue Aitkenhead‡
South Dorset CC	73,809	17,153	Richard Drax†	Carralyn Parkes‡
West Dorset CC	81,897	14,106	Chris Loder†	Edward Morello¤

Boundary changes

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

Name	Current boundaries	Proposed revision
Bournemouth East BC Bournemouth West BC Christchurch CC Mid Dorset and North Poole CC North Dorset CC Poole BC South Dorset CC West Dorset CC

Proposed boundary changes

The Boundary Commission for England submitted their final proposals in respect of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies (the 2018 review) 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.^[3] Subsequently, the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020^[4] was passed into law on 14 December 2020. This formally removed the duty to implement the 2018 review and set out the framework for future boundary reviews. The Act provided that the number of constituencies should remain 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.

The Act specified that the next review should be completed no later than 1 July 2023 and the Boundary Commission formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021.^[5] See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.

Results history

Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019^[6]

2019

The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Dorset in the 2019 general election were as follows:

Party	Votes	%	Change from 2017	Seats	Change from 2017
Conservative	241,835	58.3%	0.4%	8	0
Liberal Democrats	78,414	18.9%	6.1%	0	0
Labour	76,310	18.4%	6.8%	0	0
Greens	16,020	3.9%	1.3%	0	0
Others	2,094	0.5%	0.2%	0	0
Total	414,673	100.0		8

Percentage votes

Note that before 1983 Dorset did not include the Bournemouth and Christchurch areas (see below).

Election year	1922	1923	1924	1929	1931	1935	1945	1950	1951	1955	1959	1964	1966	1970	1974(F)	1974(O)	1979	1983	1987	1992	1997	2001	2005	2010	2015	2017	2019
Conservative	39.1	51.7	60.1	46.2	56.8	54.0	45.2	47.6	52.2	53.9	52.4	46.6	47.3	54.2	48.1	48.0	58.4	58.6	57.8	54.5	41.8	45.3	44.1	48.3	51.7	58.7	58.3
Labour	21.4	19.4	18.0	17.0	12.3	16.0	30.8	37.9	32.0	32.6	28.7	29.8	32.5	28.8	21.0	23.6	20.4	10.2	11.3	13.4	18.8	21.1	18.3	12.2	13.0	25.2	18.4
Liberal Democrat¹	18.0	28.9	21.9	36.8	16.3	28.7	24.0	14.5	15.8	13.6	18.9	23.6	20.2	17.0	30.9	28.4	20.9	29.7	30.8	31.2	34.1	31.5	32.8	32.8	12.9	12.8	18.9
Green Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	*	*	*	0.5	5.3	2.6	3.9
UKIP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	*	*	5.6	16.2	0.3	*
Other	21.5	-	-	-	14.6	1.4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.3	1.4	0.1	0.9	5.3	2.1	4.7	0.6	0.9	0.4	0.5

¹1950-1979: Liberal Party; 1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance

* Included in Other

Accurate vote percentages are not applicable for the 1918 election because one candidate stood unopposed.

Seats

Election year	1950-1979	1983-1992	1997	2001-2005	2010	2015-2019
Conservative	4	7	8	6	7	8
Labour	0	0	0	1	0	0
Liberal Democrat¹	0	0	0	1	1	0
Total	4	7	8	8	8	8

¹1950-1979: Liberal Party; 1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance

Maps

1997
2001
2005
2010
2015
2017
2019

Historical representation by party

A cell marked → (with a different colour background to the preceding cell) indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.

1885 to 1950

Coalition Liberal (1918-22) / National Liberal (1922-23) Conservative Independent Conservative Liberal

Constituency	1885	1886	91	1892	95	04	05	1906	Jan 10	Dec 10	1918	1922	23	1924	1929	1931	37	41	1945
Dorset East	Glyn	Bond	Napier Sturt			Lyell			H. Guest¹	F. Guest	→	Caine	→		Glassey	Caine			Wheatley
Dorset North	Portman			Wingfield-Digby			Wills		Baker		Colfox	Emlyn-Jones		Hanbury			A. Hambro		Byers
Dorset South	Sturgis	C. Hambro	Brymer					Scarisbrick	A. Hambro			Yerburgh			Gascoyne-Cecil			Montagu
Dorset West	Farquharson				Williams							Colfox						Digby

¹original candidate, F. Guest (Lib), disqualified; fresh by-election held June 1910

1950 to 1983

Conservative Labour

Constituency	1950	1951	57	62	1964	1970	Feb 1974	1979
Dorset North	Crouch		Glyn			James		Baker
Dorset South	Montagu			Barnett	King			Gascoyne-Cecil
Dorset West	Digby						Spicer
Poole	Wheatley	Pilkington			Murton			Ward

1983 to present (7, then 8 MPs)

Conservative Independent Labour Liberal Democrats

Constituency	1983	1987	93	1997	2001	2005	2010	2015	19	2019
Bournemouth East	Atkinson					Ellwood
Bournemouth West	Butterfill						Burns
Christchurch	Adley		Maddock	Chope
Mid Dorset and North Poole				Fraser	Brooke			Tomlinson
North Dorset	Baker			Walter				Hoare
Poole	Ward			Syms
South Dorset	Gascoyne-Cecil	Bruce			Knight		Drax
West Dorset	Spicer			Letwin					→	Loder

Notes

^ BC denotes borough constituency, CC denotes county constituency.
^ The majority is the number of votes the winning candidate receives more than their nearest rival.

References

^ Baker, Carl; Uberoi, Elise; Cracknell, Richard (2020-01-28). "General Election 2019: full results and analysis".
^ ^a ^b ^c "Constituencies A-Z - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
^ "Update: Strengthening Democracy:Written statement - HCWS183". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
^ "Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020".
^ "2023 Review launched | Boundary Commission for England". Retrieved 2021-01-08.
^ Watson, Christopher; Uberoi, Elise; Loft, Philip (2020-04-17). "General election results from 1918 to 2019".

Template:Dorset constituencies

[1] BC denotes borough constituency, CC denotes county constituency.

[4] The majority is the number of votes the winning candidate receives more than their nearest rival.

[2] Baker, Carl; Uberoi, Elise; Cracknell, Richard (2020-01-28). "General Election 2019: full results and analysis".

[:0-3] "Constituencies A-Z - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-04-25.

[5] "Update: Strengthening Democracy:Written statement - HCWS183". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2020-04-20.

[6] "Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020".

[7] "2023 Review launched | Boundary Commission for England". Retrieved 2021-01-08.

[8] Watson, Christopher; Uberoi, Elise; Loft, Philip (2020-04-17). "General election results from 1918 to 2019".

[nb 1]

[1]

[2]

[nb 2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]