Bishop Auckland: An Electoral History
The Bishop Auckland constituency has, in various geographic incarnations, been contested since 1885, when the seat was won by the Liberal candidate, James Mellor Paulton.
In 1918, Methodist preacher Ben Spoor became the first Labour MP for Bishop Auckland and – with the exception of the 1931-1935 National Government – the electors of Bishop Auckland have returned a Labour candidate ever since.
Bishop Auckland’s most famous MP is perhaps Hugh Dalton (left), who held the seat from 1929-1931 and 1935-1959.
Dr Dalton, a former lecturer at LSE and a survivor of the Somme, was a pivotal figure in the development of the Labour Party and the economic growth of the constituency.
He was central to Labour’s recovery from the crisis of 1931, and was one of the chief architects of the electoral landslide of 1945. Dalton’s sharp mind and economic expertise afforded him a key role in the practical and intellectual revival of the Labour Party in the interwar years and, as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945-47, he did much to lay the fiscal basis for the welfare state.
Another celebrated local MP is Arthur Henderson, (right) who was the Member of Parliament for Barnard Castle (which now lies within the Bishop Auckland constituency boundary) from 1903-1918.
As Party Secretary, Party Chairman and (on no fewer than three occasions) Party Leader, Henderson helped shape the nascent Labour Party into a national movement, and went on to become Labour’s first Cabinet Minister, their first Home Secretary, and perhaps their most revered Foreign Secretary. Henderson also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934 for his attempts to efforts to bring about ‘universal and enduring peace’ on the backdrop of growing German and Japanese militarism.
You can read more about Arthur Henderson here.
Since Hugh Dalton’s election in 1935 only four different people have been MP for Bishop Auckland: Dalton, James Boyden (1959 – 1979), Derek Foster (1979 – 2005) and Helen Goodman (2005 – present).
Derek Foster (now Baron Foster of Bishop Auckland, pictured right) is Bishop Auckland’s longest serving MP, having held the seat for 26 years until Helen Goodman was elected in 2005.
Helen is not, however, the first woman to represent Bishop Auckland. Indeed, Bishop Auckland has the dubious honour of having had the shortest-serving female Member of Parliament in Ruth Dalton, who was MP for just 92 days from 7 February 1929 to 10 May.
Ruth Dalton won the seat in a by-election prompted by the sudden death of Ben Spoor in December 1928, and was MP until her husband, Hugh, was able to contest the seat in the 1929 General Election.
In the 2005 election, Helen Goodman was elected with a majority of 10,047, having won 50.0% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats improved on their third place in 2001 to come second with 23.7% of the vote, the Conservatives were third (22.9%) and UKIP came fourth (3.4%)
Helen’s majority makes Bishop Auckland the 167th safest seat in the UK.
To read more about recent election results for the Bishop please click here
