Hertford and Stortford is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Josh Dean of the Labour Party since 2024.

Constituency profile

The constituency is semi-rural and includes picturesque villages and farmland. The rivers Rib, Beane, Mimram, and Lea all meet in the county town of Hertford (2011 population 25,000), which is protected from over-development by a Green Belt encircling the town and separating it from Ware (18,000) in the western part of the constituency. Farms continue between Ware and the market town of Bishop's Stortford (40,000), in the northeast corner of the seat. Hertford and Stortford constituency is generally regarded as an affluent seat, and includes a significant proportion of professional and managerial workers. Central London is within commuting distance by train of all the towns in the constituency. The pharmaceutical industry is a major employer in the seat and surrounding areas: both Ware and Harlow are the sites of GlaxoSmithKline facilities (while Gilston hosted Merck & Co. between 1982 and 2006). Since the early 1990s, Stansted, just beyond the eastern perimeter of the constituency, has also been responsible for bringing jobs and an improved train service to it. Many commuters live in Bishop's Stortford, which has rail links to London's Liverpool Street station and is also close to Stansted Airport. Since the 1980s, the population of Thorley—now a southern suburb of Stortford—has become increasingly composed of owner-occupied houses in dormitory estates. The seat was previously held by the Conservative Party with comfortable majorities from its creation in 1983 until the 2024 general election, when the Labour Party won it on a very large swing of 20.4%.

Boundaries and boundary changes

1983–1997

The new constituency combined Hertford and Ware, from the abolished constituency of Hertford and Stevenage, with Bishop's Stortford, Sawbridgeworth and rural areas to the west, from the abolished constituency of East Hertfordshire.

1997–2010

''The villages of Stanstead Abbotts and Great Amwell transferred from Broxbourne. Northern, rural areas transferred to the new constituency of North East Hertfordshire.''

2010–2024

Marginal changes due to revision of local authority wards.

Current

Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the composition of the constituency was reduced to meet the electorate size requirements, with the transfer of the three small wards of Great Amwell, Hertford Heath and Stanstead Abbots (as they existed on 1 December 2020) to Broxbourne. Following a local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023, the constituency now comprises the following wards of the District of East Hertfordshire from the 2024 general election:

Members of Parliament

Hertfordshire East and Hertford and Stevenage prior to 1983

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s