1885–1918: The existing parliamentary borough of Warwick, the municipal borough of Royal Leamington Spa, and the local government districts of Milverton and Lillington.[5]
1918–1950: The Boroughs of Warwick, Royal Leamington Spa, and Stratford-on-Avon, the Urban District of Kenilworth, the Rural Districts of Warwick and Alcester, and parts of the Rural Districts of Stratford-on-Avon and Brailes.
1950–1974: The Boroughs of Warwick and Royal Leamington Spa, the Urban District of Kenilworth, and the Rural District of Warwick.
1974–1983: As 1950 but with redrawn boundaries.
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.
2010–2024: 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.
2024–present: The District of Warwick wards of: Bishop’s Tachbrook; Leamington Brunswick; Leamington Clarendon; Leamington Lillington; Leamington Milverton; Leamington Willes; Radford Semele; Warwick All Saints and Woodloes; Warwick Aylesford; Warwick Myton & Heathcote; Warwick Saltisford; Whitnash.[6]
The seat comprises the two eponymous towns, with modest hills surrounding them, in the upper valley of the River Avon.
The towns of Warwick and Royal Leamington Spa are still distinct, however, and form, in the modern seat, a contiguous urban area. Both towns are relatively affluent, although there are pockets of deprivation in Leamington. Warwick, with its historic castle, is an internationally advertised tourist destination, while Leamington's economy is more dependent on storage, distribution, manufacturing, processing, engineering and industry. Leamington is also more ethnically diverse (e.g. five per cent of the constituency's population is of Asian ethnicity)[clarification needed] and is home to some students of the University of Warwick that lies close to Coventry.
Unemployment claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.2% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.[7]
Represented solely by Members of Parliament from the Conservative Party for 87 years from 1910-97, the seat was for much of this time a safe seat; seeing frequent majorities of more than 10,000 votes, and the seat was uncontested at both the 1918 and 1922 general elections. The seat had not been expected to change hands at 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 at the 2001 general election, but on a lower turnout. At the 2005 general 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 retained the seat with a majority slashed from nearly 6,000 votes to a mere 266.
However, minor boundary changes in Labour's favour took effect at the 2010 general election and the winner was variously predicted.[citation needed] In 2010, the seat was gained by a Conservative, Chris White, with a majority of 7% of the vote. On this occasion, the Conservative Party was the main beneficiary from swings away from the Labour Party and the Green Party. White held the seat in 2015 with an increased majority of 6,606 votes. The Labour candidate, Matt Western gained the seat from the Conservatives on a swing of 7.6% at the 2017 snap general election, overturning a majority of 6,606 votes.[9] (this was the fourth-largest lead overturned by Labour at the 2017 general election). This made Matt Western the second MP for Warwick and Leamington from the Labour Party in the history of the constituency. At the 2019 general election, Western held the seat with a slightly reduced majority, and in 2024 Western was re-elected with an increased majority of 12,412 votes, the largest majority for a Labour candidate in the seat's history.
General Election 1939–40:
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;
^"Chap. 23. Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885". The Public General Acts of the United Kingdom passed in the forty-eighth and forty-ninth years of the reign of Queen Victoria. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1885. pp. 111–198.
