Peterborough is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since July 2024 by Andrew Pakes of the Labour Party.

Its current form is the direct, unbroken successor of a smaller constituency that was created in the mid-16th century returning two Members of Parliament (MPs) using the bloc vote system of election and represented in the House of Commons of England until 1707, then in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and then in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885. From 1885 onwards, the seat has elected one MP using the first-past-the-post system.

Constituency profile

Peterborough is a constituency in Cambridgeshire in the East of England. It covers the northern half of the city of Peterborough, that being the area north of the River Nene, which includes the city centre and the suburbs of Eastgate, Bretton, Ravensthorpe, Longthorpe, Dogsthorpe, Gunthorpe, Paston, Parnwell and Werrington. The constituency also includes the rural villages of Newborough, Eye and Thorney to the east of the city.

Peterborough is a historic cathedral city that was an important national centre for the brickmaking industry during the 20th century. The city was designated a new town in 1967 leading to large-scale suburban development outside of the historic centre. The outer, more recently developed suburbs of Longthorpe and Werrington are mostly affluent, however the rest of the city is highly-deprived. The neighbourhoods immediately north of the city centre feature dense terraced housing and some suburbs like Eastgate, Ravensthorpe and Paston contain a large quantity of low-income council housing. House prices across the constituency are considerably lower than the regional and UK averages.

This constituency has an above-average population of middle-aged adults and a low proportion of retirees. Residents have low levels of income and homeownership and the child poverty rate is high. They have low levels of education and a high proportion work in the health, retail and business administration sectors. The percentage of residents claiming unemployment benefits is high. White people made up 70% of the population at the 2021 census, around a quarter of whom were of non-British origin, including large Polish and Lithuanian communities. Asians, mostly of Pakistani origin, made up 20% of residents.

At the local council level, the centre and east of the city are represented by Labour Party councillors whilst the western and northern suburbs elected mostly Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Voters in Peterborough strongly supported leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum; an estimated 62% voted in favour of Brexit compared to the UK-wide figure of 52%.

Boundaries and boundary changes

Historic

Prior to 1918 The earliest known members representing Peterborough were in 1547, shortly after it had gained city status, when Peterborough Cathedral became the seat of the new diocese of Peterborough in 1541. The cathedral had been Peterborough Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries abolished it in 1539. The new city was not an ancient borough, nor a municipal borough until 1876; no charter survives granting the status of city or the right to Parliamentary representation or delimiting its boundary for electoral purposes.

The centre of the city was an extra-parochial area called the "Minster Precincts" comprising the cathedral close. The commissioners appointed prior to the parallel Great Reform Act 1832 and reported that Peterborough's parliamentary boundary, as far as was then known, comprised the Minster Precincts and the south-eastern part of the surrounding parish of Saint John the Baptist, excluding the parish's northern and western townships of Longthorpe, Dogsthorpe (or Dodsthorpe) and Newark-with-Eastfield. The borough franchise was scot and lot in the parish and householder in the Minster Precincts. For parliamentary purposes, the rest of the Soke of Peterborough, north and west of the city, was in the county constituency of Northamptonshire; the area south of the River Nene was in Huntingdonshire; to the east, Thorney was in Cambridgeshire.

The 1832 acts extended the parliamentary borough of Peterborough to the entire parish of Saint John the Baptist (adding 48 qualifying properties) and retained its two members. (The rural portion of the Soke was included in the Northern division of Northamptonshire.) Under the Boundary Act 1868, the area of New Fletton and Woodstone (south of the River Nene) was transferred from Huntingdonshire. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the borough's representation was reduced from two MPs to one.

1918–1950 The administrative county of the Soke of Peterborough (the Municipal Borough of Peterborough and the Rural Districts of Barnack and Peterborough); The Urban District of Oundle; The Rural Districts of Easton-on-the-Hill and Gretton; and Parts of the Rural Districts of Oundle and Thrapston

In 1918 the parliamentary borough was abolished and replaced with a new division of the parliamentary county of Northampton with the Soke of Peterborough, including the whole of the Soke (which had been created as a separate administrative county by the Local Government Act 1888) and neighbouring parts of the administrative county of Northamptonshire, absorbing the bulk of the abolished Northern division, incorporating Oundle and extending down to and beyond Thrapston and Corby.

1950–1974 The Municipal Borough of Peterborough; The Urban District of Oundle; The Rural Districts of Barnack and Peterborough; and Part of the Rural District of Oundle and Thrapston

Designated as a county constituency under the revisions brought in for the 1950 general election by the Representation of the People Act 1948, with only minor changes to the boundaries of the constituency to reflect a rationalisation of the rural districts of Northamptonshire.

1974–1983 The Municipal Borough of Peterborough; and The Rural Districts of Barnack, Peterborough and Thorney

In 1965 the administrative counties of the Soke of Peterborough and Huntingdonshire were combined to form Huntingdon and Peterborough. At the next redistribution, which came into effect for the February 1974 general election, the constituency was redesignated as a Borough Constituency, composing the local authorities which had comprised the Soke, together with the sparsely populated Rural District of Thorney, which was transferred from the administrative county/constituency of Isle of Ely. The parts in Northamptonshire were transferred to Wellingborough.

1983–1997 The City of Peterborough wards of Bretton, Central, Dogsthorpe, East, Fletton, North, Orton Longueville, Orton Waterville, Park, Paston, Ravensthorpe, Stanground, Walton and West

As a result of the Local Government Act 1972, the two counties of Huntingdon and Peterborough and Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely were merged to form the non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire, with effect from 1 April 1974. However, the next redistribution did not come into effect until the 1983 general election, when areas to the south of the River Nene, including Fletton and the Ortons, which were now part of the expanded City of Peterborough, were transferred from the abolished constituency of Huntingdonshire. Mainly rural areas to the east (Thorney and Eye) and west (Barnack and Werrington) were transferred to the new constituencies of North East Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon respectively.

1997–2010 The City of Peterborough wards of Bretton, Central, Dogsthorpe, East, North, Park, Paston, Ravensthorpe, Walton, Werrington and West

The next redistribution, which came into effect for the 1997 general election, saw the creation of North West Cambridgeshire, which took the areas to the south of the River Nene (City of Peterborough wards of Fletton, Orton Longueville, Orton Waterville and Stanground). Werrington was transferred back from Huntingdon.

2010–2024

The City of Peterborough wards of Bretton North, Bretton South, Central, Dogsthorpe, East, Eye and Thorney, Newborough, North, Park, Paston, Ravensthorpe, Walton, Werrington North, Werrington South and West

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Cambridgeshire which came into effect for the 2010 general election, the Boundary Commission for England made minor alterations to the existing constituencies to deal with population changes, primarily the transfer back of Thorney and Eye from North East Cambridgeshire. There were also marginal changes to take account of the redistribution of City of Peterborough wards. These changes increased the electorate from 64,893 to 70,640. On the enumeration date of 17 February 2000, the electoral quota for England was 69,934 voters per constituency.

Current Further to the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the composition of the constituency is as follows (as they existed on 1 December 2020):

The City of Peterborough wards of: Bretton; Central; Dogsthorpe; East; Eye, Thorney & Newborough; Gunthorpe; North; Park; Paston & Walton; Ravensthorpe; Werrington; West.

Marginal loss due to further ward boundary changes.

The current constituency is composed of built-up areas of Peterborough to the north of the River Nene, as well as rural areas to the east and north and comprises approximately 60% of the electorate of the local authority of the City of Peterborough. Remaining parts of the city, composed of residential areas to the south of the River Nene and rural areas to the west of Peterborough form part of the North West Cambridgeshire constituency.

Franchise

In the unreformed House of Commons the franchise for borough seats varied enormously. Originally the Dean of Peterborough and Cathedral Chapter had claimed the franchise and held that only residents of Minster Precincts were burgesses and so entitled to vote. By the interregnum, the city was one of 37 boroughs in which suffrage was restricted to those paying scot and lot, a form of municipal taxation. In 1800 there were 2,000 registered voters in Northamptonshire and 400 in Peterborough. By 1835 this was 576, or about one per cent of the population.Knight, Charles Peterborough in 1840 Old Towns of England Originally published in The Penny Magazine by The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge Bribery was general until the introduction of the secret ballot under the Ballot Act 1872. Votes were cast by spoken declaration, in public, at the hustings, erected on the Market Place (now Cathedral Square).Forrester, E.G. Northamptonshire County Elections and Electioneering 1695–1832 Oxford University Press, 1941

The Great Reform Act 1832 enfranchised those who owned or leased land worth £10 or more and the Second Reform Act extended this to all householders paying £10 or more in rent per annum, effectively enfranchising the skilled working class, so by 1868 the percentage of voters in Peterborough had risen to about 20% of the population.Pelling, Henry Mathison A Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910 (pp.96–97 & 106–124) Macmillan, London, 1967 The Third Reform Act extended the provisions of the previous act to the counties and the Fourth Reform Act widened suffrage further by abolishing practically all property qualifications for men and by enfranchising women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications. This system, known as universal manhood suffrage, was first used in the 1918 general election. However, full electoral equality would not occur until the Fifth Reform Act ten years later.