Reading West (constituency)

Reading West
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Reading West in Berkshire.
Location of Berkshire within England.
County	Berkshire
Electorate	73,216 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Reading, Theale and Tilehurst
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of parliament	Alok Sharma (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Reading North, Newbury and Reading South
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South East England

Reading West is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Alok Sharma, a Conservative.

1983-1997: The Borough of Reading wards of Battle, Katesgrove, Kentwood, Minster, Norcot, Southcote, and Tilehurst, and the District of Newbury wards of Calcot, Pangbourne, Purley, Theale, and Tilehurst.

1997-2010: The Borough of Reading wards of Battle, Kentwood, Minster, Norcot, Southcote, Tilehurst, and Whitley, and the District of Newbury wards of Calcot, Pangbourne, Purley, Theale, and Tilehurst.

2010-present: The Borough of Reading wards of Battle, Kentwood, Minster, Norcot, Southcote, Tilehurst, and Whitley, and the District of West Berkshire wards of Birch Copse, Calcot, Pangbourne, Purley on Thames, Theale, and Westwood.

The constituency is bordered by Newbury, Henley, Reading East and Wokingham.

The Reading West parliamentary constituency was first contested in 1983, when it was won a member of the Conservative, Tony Durant, the sitting MP for the abolished Reading North constituency. He held the seat through two subsequent general elections until he retired at the 1997 election.

The constituency was then won by Martin Salter for Labour, as part of the landslide that brought Labour back to power under Tony Blair. Salter held the seat through the Blair-Brown Ministry until Parliament was dissolved in April 2010, but did not stand in the 2010 general election, when Alok Sharma won the seat for the Conservatives.