Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland is a constituency created in 1997 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Luke Myer of the Labour Party.

Boundaries

1997–2010

2010–2024

Current

Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the composition of the constituency is as follows (as they existed on 1 December 2020): The boundaries within the Borough of Middlesbrough were aligned to new ward boundaries; in Redcar and Cleveland, the town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea was transferred to the Redcar constituency. The constituency was created in 1997, mostly replacing the former seat of Langbaurgh and consists of the southern outskirts of Middlesbrough (such as Hemlington, Nunthorpe, Coulby Newham, Marton, Easterside and Park End) and those parts of the Redcar and Cleveland district not in the Redcar constituency. These include Guisborough, Loftus, Skelton and Brotton.

History

This seat was created in 1997 and was held until 2017 by a representative of the Labour Party. Election results have to date been considerably more close than in the overwhelmingly urban, city seat of Middlesbrough, this instead being a marginal seat, particularly the 2010, 2015 and 2017 results which saw no absolute majority unlike the previous three absolute majorities won by Ashok Kumar of the Labour Party. In the five elections from 1997 to 2015, the second-positioned candidate was a Conservative. The 2015 result gave the seat the 20th-smallest majority of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority. At the 2017 general election, the seat was gained by Simon Clarke of the Conservative Party on a 3.6% swing, one of the six seats in England gained by the Conservatives at that election. In each election to date the fourth-placed and lower candidates have failed to reach 5% of the vote, therefore forfeiting their deposits. In 2015 the third-placed party in line with national trends changed from the Liberal Democrats to UKIP on large swings; candidates from the third-placed parties in this area have always kept their deposit except in the 2017 and 2019 elections. Turnout has varied from 76% in 1997 to just over 60% in 2005.

Constituency profile

Whereas 13.8% of people in Middlesbrough are retired, 0.3 lower than in 2001, 19.4% of people are retired in the eastern Cleveland authority, Redcar and Cleveland, 3% higher than in 2001 (2011 figures). The constituency is at the forefront of Britain's return to growth in output, however the western authority still in 2011 had the highest unemployment claimant count in the North East, having witnessed a decline in the major local industry of production of industrial and heavy duty steel.

Members of Parliament

Langbaurgh prior to 1997

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s