Warwick and Leamington (UK Parliament constituency)

Warwick and Leamington
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Warwick and Leamington in Warwickshire.
Location of Warwickshire within England.
County	Warwickshire
Electorate	66,278 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Warwick and Leamington
Current constituency
Created	1885
Member of parliament	Chris White (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Warwick
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	West Midlands

Warwick and Leamington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Chris White, a Conservative.

1918-1950: The Municipal Boroughs of Royal Leamington Spa, Stratford-on-Avon, and Warwick, the Urban District of Kenilworth, the Rural Districts of Alcester and Warwick, and parts of the Rural Districts of Brailes and Stratford-on-Avon.

1950-1983: The Municipal Boroughs of Leamington Spa and Warwick, the Urban District of Kenilworth, and the Rural District of Warwick.

1983-1997: The District of Warwick wards of Bishop's Tachbrook, Brunswick, Budbrooke, Clarendon, Crown, Cubbington, Lapworth, Leek Wootton, Manor, Milverton, Radford Semele, Warwick North, Warwick South, Warwick West, Whitnash, and Willes.

1997-2010: The District of Warwick wards of Bishop's Tachbrook, Brunswick, Budbrooke, Clarendon, Crown, Cubbington, Lapworth, Leek Wootton, Manor, Milverton, Radford Semele, Warwick North, Warwick South, Warwick West, Whitnash, and Willes, and the District of Stratford-on-Avon wards of Henley, Tanworth, and Tanworth Earlswood.

2010-present: The District of Warwick wards of Bishop’s Tachbrook, Brunswick, Budbrooke, Clarendon, Crown, Manor, Milverton, Warwick North, Warwick South, Warwick West, Whitnash, and Willes.

The 2010 boundary changes reduced the constituency's area by removing outlying villages, reflecting population and housing growth.

The constituency was created under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, partially replacing the earlier and ancient Warwick constituency which until that year had sent two MPs to Westminster.

Represented by Conservatives from 1910–1997, the seat was for much of this time a safe seat, seeing frequent majorities of more than 10,000 votes. The seat had not been expected to change hands in the 1997 general election: as such James Plaskitt's defeat of Dudley Smith was a Portillo moment, without the decapitation of a government frontbencher. Plaskitt increased his majority in the 2001 election, but on a lower turnout. In the 2005 election, Warwick and Leamington was 85th on the Conservative list of target seats, meaning that to gain it they would have required a somewhat greater swing than was seen nationally. With a greater swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats, Plaskitt narrowly held the seat with a majority slashed from nearly 6,000 votes to only 266.