Wells (UK Parliament constituency)

Wells
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Wells in Somerset.
Location of Somerset within England.
County	Somerset
Electorate	79,989 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	1885
Member of parliament	James Heappey (Conservative)
Number of members	One
1295–1868
Number of members	Two
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South West England

Wells is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by James Heappey, of the Conservative Party (UK).

The original two-member borough constituency was created in 1295, and abolished by the Reform Act 1867 with effect from the 1868 general election. Its revival saw a more comparable size of electorate across the country and across Somerset, with a large swathe of the county covered by this new seat, under the plans of the third Reform Act and the connected Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 which was enacted the following year.

The seat was largely Conservative-held during the 20th century and has not seen a Labour MP in its history. The only other party to have been represented is the Liberal Democrats or their predecessor, the Liberal Party, who achieved a marginal victory in 2010, see marginal seat.

Sir William Hayter was chief government whip of the Commons under three Liberal Prime Ministers governing from the Lords, (Lord John) Russell, Aberdeen and Palmerston.

So too in this role was Lord Hylton from 1916 until 1922 alongside the Lord Colebrooke in the Conservative-Liberal National coalition.