The ceremonial county of Leicestershire (which includes the unitary authority of Leicester), is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies - 3 borough constituencies and 7 county constituencies. One of these also includes the small historic county of Rutland, which was administratively a district of Leicestershire from 1974 to 1997. Since 1997, Rutland has been a separate unitary authority.
See also: 2024 United Kingdom general election.
| Name[1] | Electorate[2] | Majority[3] [4] | Member of Parliament | Nearest opposition | Map | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harborough, Oadby and Wigston CC | 74,810 | 2,378 | Neil O'Brien | Hajira Piranie | ||||
| Hinckley and Bosworth CC | 75,683 | 5,408 | Luke Evans | Rebecca Pawle | ||||
| Leicester East BC | 76,465 | 4,426 | Shivani Raja | Rajesh Agrawal | ||||
| Leicester South BC | 71,007 | 979 | Shockat Adam | Jon Ashworth | ||||
| Leicester West BC | 72,848 | 8,777 | Liz Kendall | Max Chauhan | ||||
| Loughborough CC | 73,902 | 3,960 | Jeevun Sandher | Jane Hunt | ||||
| Melton and Syston CC | 71,615 | 5,396 | Edward Argar | Zafran Khan | ||||
| Mid Leicestershire CC | 76,173 | 2,201 | Peter Bedford | Robert Martin | ||||
| North West Leicestershire CC | 75,373 | 1,012 | Amanda Hack | Craig Smith | ||||
| Rutland and Stamford CC | 70,864 | 10,394 | Alicia Kearns | Joe Wood | ||||
| South Leicestershire CC | 75,634 | 5,508 | Alberto Costa | Robert Parkinson |
In the unreformed House of Commons, Leicestershire and Rutland were represented by two Knights of the Shire each, and the only parliamentary borough was Leicester, which sent two burgesses.
Under the Reform Act 1832, Leicestershire was split into two divisions, North and South, which each elected two members. The Reform Act 1885 redistributed these seats into four single-member divisions: Melton, or Eastern, Loughborough, or Mid, Harborough, or Southern, and Bosworth, or Western.
At the 1918 general election, the four divisions of the county were retained, and the borough of Leicester was split into three single-member constituencies, Leicester East, Leicester South, and Leicester West. From 1950 to 1974 Leicester had four constituencies, these being Leicester North East, Leicester North West, Leicester South East and Leicester South West: the three seat arrangement of South, East and West was reverted to thereafter.
Rutland constituted a constituency on its own until 1918, when it became part of the Rutland and Stamford constituency, with nearby Stamford in Lincolnshire.
In 1983, seats in Leicestershire were redrawn. Rutland was merged with Melton to form Rutland and Melton, with Loughborough, Bosworth, and Harborough remaining as seat names. The new North West Leicestershire constituency was created. A further constituency, Charnwood was created in the north for the 1997 election.
In the Fifth Review the Boundary Commission for England recommended that Leicestershire retained its current constituencies, with minor changes only to reflect revisions to local authority ward boundaries. Although virtually unchanged, Blaby was renamed South Leicestershire on the grounds that it does not match the borders of Blaby district, and the village of Blaby itself is not one of the major population centres.
| Name | Boundaries 1997-2010 | Boundaries 2010–2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bosworth CC | ||
| 2 | Charnwood CC | ||
| 3 | Harborough CC | ||
| 4 | Leicester East BC | ||
| 5 | Leicester South BC | ||
| 6 | Leicester West BC | ||
| 7 | Loughborough CC | ||
| 8 | North West Leicestershire CC | ||
| 9 | Rutland and Melton CC | ||
| 10 | South Leicestershire CC(previously Blaby CC) |
See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.
Following the abandonment of the Sixth Periodic Review (the 2018 review), the Boundary Commission for England formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021.[5] Initial proposals were published on 8 June 2021 and, following two periods of public consultation, revised proposals were published on 8 November 2022. The final recommendations were published on 28 June 2023 and in place for the 2024 General Election.
The commission has included Leicestershire and Rutland with Lincolnshire in a sub-region of the East Midlands region, creating one additional seat by re-establishing the constituency of Rutland and Stamford, which spans all three counties. As a consequence, Rutland and Melton is now abolished, being replaced by Melton and Syston, while a reconfigured Charnwood has been renamed Mid Leicestershire. Bosworth is renamed Hinckley and Bosworth and Harborough renamed Harborough, Oadby and Wigston.[6] [7]
Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019[8]
The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Leicestershire and Rutland in the 2024 general election were as follows:
| Party | Votes | % | Change from 2019 | Seats | Change from 2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 173,711 | 34.2% | 19.1% | 7 | 0 | |
| Labour | 142,114 | 28.0% | 4.1% | 3 | 0 | |
| Reform UK | 77,889 | 15.3% | 14.5% | 0 | 0 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 49,343 | 9.7% | 0.1% | 0 | 0 | |
| Greens | 34,014 | 6.7% | 6.7% | 0 | 0 | |
| Others | 30,875 | 6.1% | 5.6% | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 507,946 | 100.0 | 11 |
| Election year | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 50.6 | 52.0 | 48.7 | 36.8 | 38.1 | 37.4 | 41.0 | 43.9 | 48.9 | 53.3 | 34.2 | |
| Labour | 25.3 | 27.3 | 33.0 | 43.8 | 41.5 | 36.1 | 27.6 | 30.6 | 40.1 | 32.1 | 28.0 | |
| Liberal Democrat1 | 22.7 | 20.2 | 17.1 | 15.1 | 17.0 | 20.8 | 23.3 | 8.0 | 6.6 | 9.8 | 9.7 | |
| Green Party | - | 0.4 | 2.7 | 2.1 | 3.5 | 6.7 | ||||||
| UKIP | - | - | - | 2.6 | 14.4 | 1.8 | - | |||||
| Reform UK2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0.8 | 15.3 | |
| Other | 1.4 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 4.3 | 3.4 | 5.8 | 5.1 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 6.1 |
2 2019- Brexit Party
* Included in Other
| Election year | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | |
| Labour | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| Independent | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Total | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 |
A cell marked → (with a different colour background to the preceding cell) indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.
From 1918 to 1983 Rutland was categorised with Lincolnshire.
| Constituency | 1918 | 22 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 27 | 1929 | 31 | 1931 | 33 | 1935 | 1945 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bosworth | McLaren | Paget | bgcolor= | Ward | Gee | Edge | → | Allen | |||||
| Harborough | Fraser | Black | Winby | Stuart | Tree | Attewell | |||||||
| Leicester East | Hewart | Banton | Evans | Banton | Loder | Wise | Lyons | Donovan | |||||
| Leicester South | Blane | Reynolds | bgcolor= | Allen | Waterhouse | Bowden | |||||||
| Leicester West | Green | Hill | Pethick-Lawrence | Pickering | Nicolson | B. Janner | |||||||
| Loughborough | Guest | Spears | Rye | Winterton | Kimball | Follick | |||||||
| Melton | Yate | Everard | Nutting | ||||||||||
From 1918 to 1983 Rutland was categorised with Lincolnshire.
| Constituency | 1950 | 50 | 1951 | 1955 | 56 | 57 | 1959 | 62 | 1964 | 1966 | 67 | 1970 | Feb 1974 | Oct 1974 | 1979 | 81 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bosworth | Allen | Wyatt | Butler | ||||||||||||||
| Harborough | Baldock | Farr | |||||||||||||||
| Leicester NE / Leicester E (1974) | Donovan | Ungoed-Thomas | Bradley | → | |||||||||||||
| Leicester SW / Leicester S (1974) | Bowden | Boardman | Marshall | ||||||||||||||
| Leicester NW / Leicester W (1974) | B. Janner | G. Janner | |||||||||||||||
| Leicester South East | Waterhouse | Peel | |||||||||||||||
| Loughborough | Follick | Cronin | Dorrell | ||||||||||||||
| Melton | Nutting | Pike | Latham | ||||||||||||||
| Blaby | Lawson | ||||||||||||||||
| Constituency | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 04 | 2005 | 2010 | 11 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 20 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaby / South Leics (2010) | Lawson | Robathan | Costa | |||||||||||||||
| Bosworth / Hinckley & Bosworth (2024) | Butler | Tredinnick | Evans | |||||||||||||||
| Harborough / H., Oadby & Wigston ('24) | Farr | Garnier | O'Brien | |||||||||||||||
| Leicester East | Bruinvels | Vaz | Webbe | → | Raja | |||||||||||||
| Leicester South | Spencer | Marshall | Gill | Soulsby | Ashworth | Adam | ||||||||||||
| Leicester West | G. Janner | Hewitt | Kendall | |||||||||||||||
| Loughborough | Dorrell | Reed | Morgan | Hunt | Sandher | |||||||||||||
| Rutland & Melton / R. & Stamford ('24)1 | Latham | Duncan | Kearns | |||||||||||||||
| North West Leicestershire | Ashby | Taylor | Bridgen | → | → | → | Hack | |||||||||||
| Charnwood / Mid Leicestershire (2024) | Dorrell | Argar | Bedford | |||||||||||||||
| Melton and Syston | Argar | |||||||||||||||||