{"history":[],"article":{"id":"789a7b47-23c9-4b3b-925c-bac2432d6c07","title":"Maidenhead (UK Parliament constituency)","slug":"maidenhead-uk-parliament-constituency","content":":::summary\n**Name:** Maidenhead \n**Parliament:** uk \n**Image 2:** South East England - Maidenhead constituency.svg \n**Caption 2:** Boundary of Maidenhead in South East England \n**Year:** 1997 \n**Type:** County \n**Previous:** Windsor & Maidenhead · Wokingham \n**Electorate:** 73,463 (2023) \n**Mp:** [Joshua Reynolds](https://bliptext.com/articles/joshua-reynolds-politician) \n**Party:** [Liberal Democrats](https://bliptext.com/articles/liberal-democrats-uk) \n**Region:** England \n**County:** [Berkshire](https://bliptext.com/articles/berkshire) \n**Towns:** Maidenhead · Bray · Wargrave · Sonning · Twyford · Binfield \n**Elects Howmany:** One \n:::\n\n# \n**Maidenhead** is a [constituency](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-united-kingdom-parliament-constituencies) in [Berkshire](https://bliptext.com/articles/berkshire) represented in the [House of Commons](https://bliptext.com/articles/house-of-commons-of-the-united-kingdom) of the [Parliament of the United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/parliament-of-the-united-kingdom) by [Joshua Reynolds](https://bliptext.com/articles/joshua-reynolds-politician), a [Liberal Democrat](https://bliptext.com/articles/liberal-democrats-uk), since [2024.](https://bliptext.com/articles/2024-united-kingdom-general-election) Following its creation at the [1997 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/1997-united-kingdom-general-election), the seat was held for twenty-seven years by Conservative Member of Parliament [Theresa May](https://bliptext.com/articles/theresa-may), who served as [Home Secretary](https://bliptext.com/articles/home-secretary) from 2010 to 2016 and as [Prime Minister](https://bliptext.com/articles/prime-minister-of-the-united-kingdom) from 2016 to 2019.\nPrior to the [2024 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/2024-united-kingdom-general-election), it was considered a [safe seat](https://bliptext.com/articles/safe-seat) for the [Conservative Party](https://bliptext.com/articles/conservative-party-uk).\n\n# Constituency profile\nHousing is, in the Wokingham district part, at the northern end of a belt where more than 40% of dwellings are detached houses, and less than 10.8% are purpose-built flats or tenements (maisonettes) (2011 figures, by district) Reflecting a national trend in this period, the latter band was in 2001 a band of fewer than 8% of housing stock as flats.\nThe other borough, namely [Windsor and Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-and-maidenhead), is the district with the most expensive house prices in the country outside of [Greater London](https://bliptext.com/articles/greater-london).\nThe seat is located in the technology-rich [M4 corridor](https://bliptext.com/articles/m4-corridor), which includes the largest company headquarters estate in Europe at [Slough](https://bliptext.com/articles/slough-trading-estate); and though most of the communities have slower links to London than [Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/maidenhead) town centre, they instead have close links to [Reading](https://bliptext.com/articles/reading-berkshire) and [Bracknell](https://bliptext.com/articles/bracknell).\nA minority commute to the [City of London](https://bliptext.com/articles/city-of-london), which is just under one hour's commute from the two [mainline](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-western-main-line) stations.\nCommunities in the area will also benefit from the eventual opening of [Crossrail](https://bliptext.com/articles/crossrail), with trains running direct from Maidenhead and Twyford to the City of London and Stratford.\nThe seat includes the renowned restaurants, the [Fat Duck](https://bliptext.com/articles/fat-duck) at Bray and [The Waterside Inn](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-waterside-inn).\nThere are low hills in the north of the seat and the [Chiltern Hills](https://bliptext.com/articles/chiltern-hills) further to the north.\nTaking the constituent [electoral ward](https://bliptext.com/articles/electoral-ward) results since the decline of the [Liberal Party](https://bliptext.com/articles/liberal-party-uk) in the 1910s, the area has always been a [safe seat](https://bliptext.com/articles/safe-seat) for [Conservative](https://bliptext.com/articles/conservative-party-uk) candidates.\nOne broadsheet political column encapsulated the constituency as a \"seat of [Thamesside](https://bliptext.com/articles/river-thames) towns\", these house a majority of its residents other than [Twyford](https://bliptext.com/articles/twyford-berkshire) which spans the multi-stream [river in the town](https://bliptext.com/articles/river-loddon).\nThe agriculture in the area consists of some pasture, fields of wheat and fruit.\n\n# History\nThe constituency was first drawn shortly after the [1992 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/1992-united-kingdom-general-election).\nThe electorate of [Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/maidenhead) and Windsor was becoming too large, so the [Boundary Commission for England](https://bliptext.com/articles/boundary-commission-for-england) separated the seats for the next election, due in 1996 or 1997.\nIt was formed from parts of the abolished safe seat of [Windsor and Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-and-maidenhead-uk-parliament-constituency) and the constituency of [Wokingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/wokingham-uk-parliament-constituency).\nIt was first used in the [1997 election](https://bliptext.com/articles/1997-united-kingdom-general-election).\n[Theresa May](https://bliptext.com/articles/theresa-may), [Prime Minister](https://bliptext.com/articles/prime-minister-of-the-united-kingdom) from 2016 to 2019, has held the seat since its creation.\nIn 1995, May, a former London councillor at the time working at the [Association for Payment Clearing Services](https://bliptext.com/articles/association-for-payment-clearing-services) and as a Foreign affairs advisor, was selected to contest the new seat, defeating her future [Chancellor of the Exchequer](https://bliptext.com/articles/chancellor-of-the-exchequer), [Philip Hammond](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-hammond), in the selection process.\n(Hammond was later selected for the nearby seat of [Runnymede and Weybridge](https://bliptext.com/articles/runnymede-and-weybridge)).\nMay won the seat in the 1997 election, in which over 100 Conservatives lost their seats, and the party obtained its lowest share of seats in 91 years.\nAt the [2010 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/2010-united-kingdom-general-election) May achieved the 9th highest share of the vote of the 307 seats held by a [Conservative](https://bliptext.com/articles/conservative-party-uk).\nBefore 2024, the closest election in the seat was in [2001](https://bliptext.com/articles/2001-united-kingdom-general-election), in which May's majority was cut from almost 12,000 votes in 1997 to just 3,284 votes ahead of the [Liberal Democrat](https://bliptext.com/articles/liberal-democrats-uk) candidate.\nThe [Labour](https://bliptext.com/articles/labour-party-uk) candidate in that election was activist and comedy writer [John O'Farrell](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-o-farrell-author), whose campaign was the subject of a BBC documentary entitled Losing My Maidenhead.\nDue to their strong performance in 2001, the seat was one of several targeted by the Liberal Democrats in 2005 as part of a 'decapitation strategy' to deprive senior Conservatives of their seats; as with similar efforts in [Haltemprice and Howden](https://bliptext.com/articles/haltemprice-and-howden) and [West Dorset](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-dorset-uk-parliament-constituency), however, this strategy was unsuccessful: May retained her seat with almost double her 2001 majority.\nFrom that point, she held it with majorities of at least 30%, until she stood down prior to the [2024 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/2024-united-kingdom-general-election).\nThe Liberal Democrats would finally gain the seat during the election, with [Joshua Reynolds](https://bliptext.com/articles/joshua-reynolds-politician) being elected as the new MP for the constituency.\n\n# Boundaries and boundary changes\n\n## 1997–2010\n''The Windsor and Maidenhead wards were previously part of the abolished constituency of that name.\nThe Wokingham wards were transferred from the reconfigured constituency thereof.''\n\n## 2010–2024\n[Bray](https://bliptext.com/articles/bray-berkshire) was transferred from [Windsor](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-uk-parliament-constituency).\nThe constituency borders the constituencies of [Reading East](https://bliptext.com/articles/reading-east), [Henley](https://bliptext.com/articles/henley-uk-parliament-constituency), [Wycombe](https://bliptext.com/articles/wycombe-uk-parliament-constituency), [Beaconsfield](https://bliptext.com/articles/beaconsfield-uk-parliament-constituency), [Windsor](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-uk-parliament-constituency), [Bracknell](https://bliptext.com/articles/bracknell-uk-parliament-constituency) and [Wokingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/wokingham-uk-parliament-constituency).\nThe seat's largest settlement is the town of [Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/maidenhead) in the Royal Borough of Windsor and [Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/maidenhead), Berkshire.\n\n## 2024–present\nFurther to the [2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies](https://bliptext.com/articles/2023-periodic-review-of-westminster-constituencies) which came into effect for the [2024 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/2024-united-kingdom-general-election), the constituency was defined as comprising the following (as they existed on 1 December 2020):\nThe District of [Wokingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/wokingham-uk-parliament-constituency) wards were transferred out, mostly to [Wokingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/wokingham-uk-parliament-constituency) (including [Twyford](https://bliptext.com/articles/twyford-berkshire)) and partly to the new constituency of [Earley and Woodley](https://bliptext.com/articles/earley-and-woodley) (including [Sonning](https://bliptext.com/articles/sonning)); offset by the addition of the Bracknell Forest wards, including [Binfield](https://bliptext.com/articles/binfield), from [Windsor](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-uk-parliament-constituency).\n1Following a local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023, the constituency now includes the following wards of the Borough of Bracknell Forest from the 2024 general election:\n\n# Members of Parliament\n\n# Elections\n\n## Elections in the 2020s\n\n## Elections in the 2010s\n

\n\n## Elections in the 2000s\n

\n\n## Elections in the 1990s\n

","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T21:39:10.075Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T21:39:10.075Z","search_vector":"'constitu':4 'maidenhead':1 'parliament':3 'uk':2","search_content":" \n**Name:** Maidenhead \n**Parliament:** uk \n**Image 2:** South East England - Maidenhead constituency.svg \n**Caption 2:** Boundary of Maidenhead in South East England \n**Year:** 1997 \n**Type:** County \n**Previous:** Windsor & Maidenhead · Wokingham \n**Electorate:** 73,463 (2023) \n**Mp:** [Joshua Reynolds](https://bliptext.com/articles/joshua-reynolds-politician) \n**Party:** [Liberal Democrats](https://bliptext.com/articles/liberal-democrats-uk) \n**Region:** England \n**County:** [Berkshire](https://bliptext.com/articles/berkshire) \n**Towns:** Maidenhead · Bray · Wargrave · Sonning · Twyford · Binfield \n**Elects Howmany:** One \n \n\n# \n**Maidenhead** is a [constituency](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-united-kingdom-parliament-constituencies) in [Berkshire](https://bliptext.com/articles/berkshire) represented in the [House of Commons](https://bliptext.com/articles/house-of-commons-of-the-united-kingdom) of the [Parliament of the United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/parliament-of-the-united-kingdom) by [Joshua Reynolds](https://bliptext.com/articles/joshua-reynolds-politician), a [Liberal Democrat](https://bliptext.com/articles/liberal-democrats-uk), since [2024.](https://bliptext.com/articles/2024-united-kingdom-general-election) Following its creation at the [1997 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/1997-united-kingdom-general-election), the seat was held for twenty-seven years by Conservative Member of Parliament [Theresa May](https://bliptext.com/articles/theresa-may), who served as [Home Secretary](https://bliptext.com/articles/home-secretary) from 2010 to 2016 and as [Prime Minister](https://bliptext.com/articles/prime-minister-of-the-united-kingdom) from 2016 to 2019.\nPrior to the [2024 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/2024-united-kingdom-general-election), it was considered a [safe seat](https://bliptext.com/articles/safe-seat) for the [Conservative Party](https://bliptext.com/articles/conservative-party-uk).\n\n# Constituency profile\nHousing is, in the Wokingham district part, at the northern end of a belt where more than 40% of dwellings are detached houses, and less than 10.8% are purpose-built flats or tenements (maisonettes) (2011 figures, by district) Reflecting a national trend in this period, the latter band was in 2001 a band of fewer than 8% of housing stock as flats.\nThe other borough, namely [Windsor and Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-and-maidenhead), is the district with the most expensive house prices in the country outside of [Greater London](https://bliptext.com/articles/greater-london).\nThe seat is located in the technology-rich [M4 corridor](https://bliptext.com/articles/m4-corridor), which includes the largest company headquarters estate in Europe at [Slough](https://bliptext.com/articles/slough-trading-estate); and though most of the communities have slower links to London than [Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/maidenhead) town centre, they instead have close links to [Reading](https://bliptext.com/articles/reading-berkshire) and [Bracknell](https://bliptext.com/articles/bracknell).\nA minority commute to the [City of London](https://bliptext.com/articles/city-of-london), which is just under one hour's commute from the two [mainline](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-western-main-line) stations.\nCommunities in the area will also benefit from the eventual opening of [Crossrail](https://bliptext.com/articles/crossrail), with trains running direct from Maidenhead and Twyford to the City of London and Stratford.\nThe seat includes the renowned restaurants, the [Fat Duck](https://bliptext.com/articles/fat-duck) at Bray and [The Waterside Inn](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-waterside-inn).\nThere are low hills in the north of the seat and the [Chiltern Hills](https://bliptext.com/articles/chiltern-hills) further to the north.\nTaking the constituent [electoral ward](https://bliptext.com/articles/electoral-ward) results since the decline of the [Liberal Party](https://bliptext.com/articles/liberal-party-uk) in the 1910s, the area has always been a [safe seat](https://bliptext.com/articles/safe-seat) for [Conservative](https://bliptext.com/articles/conservative-party-uk) candidates.\nOne broadsheet political column encapsulated the constituency as a \"seat of [Thamesside](https://bliptext.com/articles/river-thames) towns\", these house a majority of its residents other than [Twyford](https://bliptext.com/articles/twyford-berkshire) which spans the multi-stream [river in the town](https://bliptext.com/articles/river-loddon).\nThe agriculture in the area consists of some pasture, fields of wheat and fruit.\n\n# History\nThe constituency was first drawn shortly after the [1992 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/1992-united-kingdom-general-election).\nThe electorate of [Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/maidenhead) and Windsor was becoming too large, so the [Boundary Commission for England](https://bliptext.com/articles/boundary-commission-for-england) separated the seats for the next election, due in 1996 or 1997.\nIt was formed from parts of the abolished safe seat of [Windsor and Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-and-maidenhead-uk-parliament-constituency) and the constituency of [Wokingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/wokingham-uk-parliament-constituency).\nIt was first used in the [1997 election](https://bliptext.com/articles/1997-united-kingdom-general-election).\n[Theresa May](https://bliptext.com/articles/theresa-may), [Prime Minister](https://bliptext.com/articles/prime-minister-of-the-united-kingdom) from 2016 to 2019, has held the seat since its creation.\nIn 1995, May, a former London councillor at the time working at the [Association for Payment Clearing Services](https://bliptext.com/articles/association-for-payment-clearing-services) and as a Foreign affairs advisor, was selected to contest the new seat, defeating her future [Chancellor of the Exchequer](https://bliptext.com/articles/chancellor-of-the-exchequer), [Philip Hammond](https://bliptext.com/articles/philip-hammond), in the selection process.\n(Hammond was later selected for the nearby seat of [Runnymede and Weybridge](https://bliptext.com/articles/runnymede-and-weybridge)).\nMay won the seat in the 1997 election, in which over 100 Conservatives lost their seats, and the party obtained its lowest share of seats in 91 years.\nAt the [2010 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/2010-united-kingdom-general-election) May achieved the 9th highest share of the vote of the 307 seats held by a [Conservative](https://bliptext.com/articles/conservative-party-uk).\nBefore 2024, the closest election in the seat was in [2001](https://bliptext.com/articles/2001-united-kingdom-general-election), in which May's majority was cut from almost 12,000 votes in 1997 to just 3,284 votes ahead of the [Liberal Democrat](https://bliptext.com/articles/liberal-democrats-uk) candidate.\nThe [Labour](https://bliptext.com/articles/labour-party-uk) candidate in that election was activist and comedy writer [John O'Farrell](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-o-farrell-author), whose campaign was the subject of a BBC documentary entitled Losing My Maidenhead.\nDue to their strong performance in 2001, the seat was one of several targeted by the Liberal Democrats in 2005 as part of a 'decapitation strategy' to deprive senior Conservatives of their seats; as with similar efforts in [Haltemprice and Howden](https://bliptext.com/articles/haltemprice-and-howden) and [West Dorset](https://bliptext.com/articles/west-dorset-uk-parliament-constituency), however, this strategy was unsuccessful: May retained her seat with almost double her 2001 majority.\nFrom that point, she held it with majorities of at least 30%, until she stood down prior to the [2024 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/2024-united-kingdom-general-election).\nThe Liberal Democrats would finally gain the seat during the election, with [Joshua Reynolds](https://bliptext.com/articles/joshua-reynolds-politician) being elected as the new MP for the constituency.\n\n# Boundaries and boundary changes\n\n## 1997–2010\n''The Windsor and Maidenhead wards were previously part of the abolished constituency of that name.\nThe Wokingham wards were transferred from the reconfigured constituency thereof.''\n\n## 2010–2024\n[Bray](https://bliptext.com/articles/bray-berkshire) was transferred from [Windsor](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-uk-parliament-constituency).\nThe constituency borders the constituencies of [Reading East](https://bliptext.com/articles/reading-east), [Henley](https://bliptext.com/articles/henley-uk-parliament-constituency), [Wycombe](https://bliptext.com/articles/wycombe-uk-parliament-constituency), [Beaconsfield](https://bliptext.com/articles/beaconsfield-uk-parliament-constituency), [Windsor](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-uk-parliament-constituency), [Bracknell](https://bliptext.com/articles/bracknell-uk-parliament-constituency) and [Wokingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/wokingham-uk-parliament-constituency).\nThe seat's largest settlement is the town of [Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/maidenhead) in the Royal Borough of Windsor and [Maidenhead](https://bliptext.com/articles/maidenhead), Berkshire.\n\n## 2024–present\nFurther to the [2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies](https://bliptext.com/articles/2023-periodic-review-of-westminster-constituencies) which came into effect for the [2024 general election](https://bliptext.com/articles/2024-united-kingdom-general-election), the constituency was defined as comprising the following (as they existed on 1 December 2020):\nThe District of [Wokingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/wokingham-uk-parliament-constituency) wards were transferred out, mostly to [Wokingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/wokingham-uk-parliament-constituency) (including [Twyford](https://bliptext.com/articles/twyford-berkshire)) and partly to the new constituency of [Earley and Woodley](https://bliptext.com/articles/earley-and-woodley) (including [Sonning](https://bliptext.com/articles/sonning)); offset by the addition of the Bracknell Forest wards, including [Binfield](https://bliptext.com/articles/binfield), from [Windsor](https://bliptext.com/articles/windsor-uk-parliament-constituency).\n1Following a local government boundary review which came into effect in May 2023, the constituency now includes the following wards of the Borough of Bracknell Forest from the 2024 general election:\n\n# Members of Parliament\n\n# Elections\n\n## Elections in the 2020s\n\n## Elections in the 2010s\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n## Elections in the 2000s\n \n \n \n \n\n## Elections in the 1990s\n \n ","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}