Parliamentary constituencies in Leicestershire and Rutland

The ceremonial county of Leicestershire (which includes the unitary authority of Leicester), is divided into 11 parliamentary constituencies - 3 borough constituencies and 8 county constituencies. One of these is a cross-county boundary constituency with Lincolnshire also including 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.

The county of Leicestershire in relation to England

Constituencies

Further information: 2024 United Kingdom general election

  Conservative   Labour   Liberal Democrat   Independent

Name[nb 1]	Electorate[1]	Majority[2][nb 2]	Member of Parliament[2]		Nearest opposition[2]		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		Michael Mullaney
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

Historic constituencies

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.

Boundary Changes

2024

See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.

For the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which redrew the constituency map ahead of the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the Boundary Commission for England opted to include 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.^[3][4]

	Former name	Boundaries 2010–2024		Current name	Boundaries 2024–Present
1	Bosworth CC		1	Harborough, Oadby and Wigston CC
2	Charnwood CC		2	Hinckley and Bosworth CC
3	Harborough CC		3	Leicester East BC
4	Leicester East BC		4	Leicester South BC
5	Leicester South BC		5	Leicester West BC
6	Leicester West BC		6	Loughborough CC
7	Loughborough CC		7	Melton and Syston CC
8	North West Leicestershire CC		8	Mid Leicestershire CC
9	Rutland and Melton CC		9	North West Leicestershire CC
10	South Leicestershire CC		10	Rutland and Stamford CC
			11	South Leicestershire CC

2010

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)

Results history

Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019^[5]

2024

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

Percentage votes

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

¹1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance

² 2019- Brexit Party

* Included in Other

Seats

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

¹1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance

Maps

1885-1910

• 
  1885
• 
  1886
• 
  1892
• 
  1895
• 
  1900
• 
  1906
• 
  Jan 1910
• 
  Dec 1910

1918-1945

• 
  1918
• 
  1922
• 
  1923
• 
  1924
• 
  1929
• 
  1931
• 
  1935
• 
  1945

1950-1979

• 
  1950
• 
  1951
• 
  1955
• 
  1959
• 
  1964
• 
  1966
• 
  1970
• 
  Feb 1974
• 
  Oct 1974
• 
  1979

1983-present

• 
  1983
• 
  1987
• 
  1992
• 
  1997
• 
  2001
• 
  2005
• 
  2010
• 
  2015
• 
  2017
• 
  2019
• 
  2024

Historical representation by party

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.

1885 to 1918

  Conservative   Labour   Liberal   Liberal-Labour

Constituency	1885	1886	88	91	1892	94	1895	1900	04	1906	06	07	Jan 1910	Dec 1910	13	16
Bosworth	Ellis				C. McLaren									H. McLaren
Harborough	Paget	Tapling		Logan					Stanhope	Lehmann				Logan		Harris
Leicester	McArthur				Whitehead	Broadhurst					Thomasson		Crawshay-Williams		Hewart
	Picton					Hazell		Rolleston		MacDonald
Loughborough	Johnson-Ferguson	de Lisle			Johnson-Ferguson			Levy
Melton	J. Manners		H. Manners				E. Manners	C. Manners		Walker				Yate
Rutland	Finch											Gretton

1918 to 1950

From 1918 to 1983 Rutland was categorised with Lincolnshire.

  Coalition Liberal (1918-22) / National Liberal (1922-23)   Coalition National Democratic & Labour   Conservative   Labour   Liberal   National Labour   National Liberal (1931-68)

Constituency	1918	22	1922	1923	1924	27	1929	31	1931	33	1935	1945
Bosworth	McLaren		Paget	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	Allen	Waterhouse							Bowden
Leicester West	Green		Hill	Pethick-Lawrence					Pickering		Nicolson	B. Janner
Loughborough	Guest		Spears		Rye		Winterton		Kimball			Follick
Melton	Yate				Everard							Nutting

1950 to 1983

From 1918 to 1983 Rutland was categorised with Lincolnshire.

  Conservative   Labour   Social Democratic

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

1983 to present

  Conservative   Independent   Labour   Liberal Democrats   Reclaim

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

¹includes parts of Lincolnshire

See also

• List of parliamentary constituencies in the East Midlands (region)
• East Midlands (European Parliament constituency)
• Leicestershire County Council
• Rutland County Council

Footnotes

1. BC denotes borough constituency, CC denotes county constituency.
2. The majority is the number of votes the winning candidate receives more than their nearest rival.