Rochdale (UK Parliament constituency)

Rochdale
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Rochdale in Greater Manchester.
Location of Greater Manchester within England.
County	Greater Manchester
Electorate	77,699 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1950
Member of parliament	Simon Danczuk (Independent Labour )
Number of members	One
1832–1950
Number of members	One
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Created from	Lancashire
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	North West England

Rochdale is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The current MP is Simon Danczuk, who was first elected as a Labour MP in 2010. He currently sits as an independent, following his suspension by the party in December 2015.

1918-1983: The County Borough of Rochdale.

1983-1997: The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone, Brimrod and Deeplish, Castleton, Central and Falinge, Healey, Newbold, Norden and Bamford, Smallbridge and Wardleworth, and Spotland.

1997-2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone, Brimrod and Deeplish, Central and Falinge, Healey, Littleborough, Newbold, Smallbridge and Wardleworth, Spotland, and Wardle.

2010–present: The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale wards of Balderstone and Kirkholt, Central Rochdale, Healey, Kingsway, Littleborough Lakeside, Milkstone and Deeplish, Milnrow and Newhey, Smallbridge and Firgrove, Spotland and Falinge, and Wardle and West Littleborough.

The constituency is one of two covering the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. It contains most of the town of Rochdale itself as well as Littleborough, Wardle and some of the surrounding rural area.

For the 2010 general election, the seat gained the villages of Milnrow and Newhey from Oldham East and Saddleworth and lost the areas of Sudden, Marland, and part of Norden to Heywood and Middleton, a 19.16% boundary change. Those changes made the seat a notional Labour victory in the Rallings and Thrasher figures which were used by the Press Association for determining gains, losses and swings. However, other predictions by political commentator Martin Baxter showed the seat maintaining a narrow Lib Dem majority.