Great Grimsby (UK Parliament constituency)

Great Grimsby
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Great Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire.
Location of North East Lincolnshire within England.
County	Lincolnshire
Electorate	61,929 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created	1295
Member of parliament	Melanie Onn (Labour)
Number of members	One (Two until 1832)
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Yorkshire and the Humber

Great Grimsby is a constituency^{[n 1]} in North East Lincolnshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since May 2015 by Melanie Onn of the Labour Party.^{[n 2][n 3]}

Current boundaries

The present constituency follows the boundaries of the old Borough of Great Grimsby, which was abolished when the former county of Humberside was divided into four unitary authorities in 1996. From the 2010 general election new boundaries took effect, but the Boundary Commission's review led only to minimal changes, aligning the constituency boundaries with present ward boundaries so the seat still has electoral wards:

• East Marsh, Freshney, Heneage, Park, Scartho, South, West Marsh and Yarborough.

History

The constituency has been represented since the first House of Commons was assembled in the Model Parliament of 1295, and it elected two MPs until 1832. Great Grimsby was established as a parliamentary borough in 1295, sending two burgesses, and has been continuously represented ever since. The town of Grimsby in Lincolnshire, a market town, fishing port and seaport.

Freemen of the town had the right to vote, provided they were resident and paying scot and lot; in 1831 this amounted to just under 400 voters. The town corporation bestowed this status, as today, rarely on those bringing acclaim to the place, but it was routinely acquired through apprenticeship in the guilds and by inheritance; in Great Grimsby, unusually, the husband of a freeman's daughter or widow acquired the freedom.^{[n 4]}

In 1831, when the Reform Bill was being discussed in Parliament, the wives and daughters of the Great Grimsby freemen petitioned the House of Lords to retain their rights to pass on the vote to their future husbands and children. However, their concern to retain these rights may not have been rooted in any their family desiring to help choose the borough's MPs as a vote in Great Grimsby was a valuable commodity in a more mercenary sense, and the contemporary polemicist Oldfield considered that "This borough stands second to none in the history of corruption." At the start of the 18th century it was noted that Grimsby's "freemen did enter into treaties with several gentlemen in London, for sale of the choice of burgess to such as would give the most money". In 1701, the House of Commons overturned the election of one of Great Grimsby's MPs, William Cotesworth, for bribery and sent him to the Tower of London and temporarily suspended the borough's right to representation. Almost every election in Great Grimsby at this period was followed by a petition from defeated candidates alleging bribery, although that of 1701 seems to have been the only one which was acted upon.

Great Grimsby, like most boroughs except for the very largest, recognised a "patron" who could generally exercise influence over the choice of its MPs; at the time of the Great Reform Act of 1832, this was Lord Yarborough. However, the extent of the patron's power was limited in Great Grimsby, and the voters were quite prepared (at a price) to defy his advice. The patron could strengthen his position by providing employment to the freemen, as could his rivals. Jupp quotes two letters, one of 1818 and one of 1819, in which local agents advise the Tennyson family how best to do this in Grimsby so as to encroach on Lord Yarborough's influence:

"Build upon every spot of vacant ground you are possessed of... Thus you would give employment to a great number of freemen... Let Mr Heneage's estates^{[n 5]} be divided into fields of four or six acres; and let these, together with your own estates be placed in the hands of freemen to whom they would be an object of importance. Provide, if possible, small farms for the sons of Lord Yarbro's tenants".^[2]

On a less extravagant level, it is recorded that after Charles Tennyson was first elected in 1818 he presented a bottle of wine to each of the fathers of 92 local children about to be christened.

The General Election of 1831 in Grimsby was as notorious as in some of the rotten boroughs, the local Tories being accused of using a revenue cutter lying in the Humber to ply the Whig voters with drink and prevent them getting to the polls; the fact of the outcome standing led to a nationally well-known action by John Shelley for libel.

In 1831, the population of the borough was 4,008, and contained 784 houses. The Boundary Act in concert with the Reform Act enlarged the borough to include eight neighbouring parishes^{[n 6]}, brought the population up to 6,413 with 1,365 houses but the landed property aspect to the franchise was not reformed so this increased the electorate only to 656 so Great Grimsby lost one of its two seats. However, Grimsby's population and housing continued to grow and, unlike most of the boroughs that lost one seat in 1832 it has retained its existence, without taking up large swathes of the county.

The constituency underwent further significant boundary change in 1918 and 1950. In 1918, parishes that had joined, (Bradley, Great Coates, Little Coates, Laceby, Waltham, Weelsby and the adjoining neighbourhood/parish of Scartho) were detached to join Louth county constituency, and the seat ^{[n 7]} consisted of the county borough of Grimsby and the urban district (later borough) of Cleethorpes. In 1950, Cleethorpes was moved into the Louth county division, leaving the borough once more Grimsby alone. More recent boundary changes have only been adjustments to conform to changes at local government level.

Labour's Austin Mitchell retained the seat in a 1977 by only 520 votes in a by-election following the death of the Foreign Secretary Tony Crosland. He held the seat until retiring in 2015. At the 2010 election Mitchell's majority was again reduced to three figures after a swing of over 10% to the Conservatives.

At the 2015 election, Great Grimsby was considered a target for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).^[3] UKIP had selected as their candidate the 2010 Conservative candidate, Victoria Ayling, who had switched parties since the previous election. Labour's candidate was Melanie Onn, while the Conservatives stood Marc Jones. In the event however, Onn was successful, increasing Mitchell's majority of 714 more than sixfold and enjoying a swing of 5.6% from the Conservatives, with UKIP finishing third.^[4]

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 14 December 1918: Grimsby^[37]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
C	Unionist	Thomas Tickler	13,688	51.2	−1.1
	Labour	Charles Edwin Franklin	9,015	33.7	N/A
	Independent Unionist	James William Eason	2,791	10.4	N/A
	NFDDSS	Harry James Frederick Crosby	1,260	4.7	N/A
Majority			4,673	18.3	+13.7
Turnout			25,494	54.0	−29.8
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

General Election 1915: Grimsby (cancelled)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Thomas Tickler
	Liberal	James Whitely Wilkin
Due to the outbreak of the First World War, this election did not take place. These candidates were chosen by Autumn 1914.

Great Grimsby by-election, 1914^[38]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Thomas Tickler	8,471	50.8	-1.5
	Liberal	Alfred Bannister	8,193	49.2	+1.5
Majority			278	1.6	-3.0
Turnout			16,664	80.5	-3.3
	Unionist hold		Swing	-1.5

General Election December 1910: Grimsby^[38]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Unionist	George Doughty	7,903	52.3	+3.4
	Liberal	Thomas Wing	7,205	47.7	−3.4
Majority			698	4.6	N/A
Turnout			15,108	83.8	−0.6
Registered electors			18,029
	Liberal Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+3.4

Tom Wing

General Election January 1910 Grimsby^[39]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Thomas Wing	7,772	51.1	+19.1
	Liberal Unionist	George Doughty	7,450	48.9	-1.3
Majority			322	2.2	N/A
Turnout			15,222	84.4	+5.7
Registered electors			18,029
	Liberal gain from Liberal Unionist		Swing	+10.2

Elections in the 1890s

Thomas Wintringham

Great Grimsby by-election, 1898^[39]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Unionist	George Doughty	4,940	59.3	+10.4
	Liberal	Thomas Wintringham	3,189	38.3	−12.8
	Ind. Conservative	Robert D. Melhuish	204	2.4	N/A
Majority			1,751	21.0	N/A
Turnout			8,333	67.7	−6.0
Registered electors			12,317
	Liberal Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+11.6

• Doughty resigned to seek re-election as a candidate for the Liberal Unionist Party.

George Doughty

General Election 1895: Grimsby ^[39]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	George Doughty	4,347	51.1	−3.0
	Liberal Unionist	Edward Heneage	4,166	48.9	+3.0
Majority			181	2.2	−6.0
Turnout			8,513	73.7	−1.6
Registered electors			11,558
	Liberal hold		Swing	−3.0

Henry Broadhurst

Great Grimsby by-election, 1893^[39]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Unionist	Edward Heneage	4,427	56.1	+10.2
	Lib-Lab	Henry Broadhurst	3,463	43.9	−10.2
Majority			964	12.2	N/A
Turnout			7,890	74.0	−1.3
Registered electors			10,662
	Liberal Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+10.2

• Caused by Josse's resignation.

General Election 1892: Grimsby ^[39]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Henri Josse	4,202	54.1	+7.1
	Liberal Unionist	Edward Heneage	3,566	45.9	-7.1
Majority			636	8.2	N/A
Turnout			7,768	75.3	+10.3
Registered electors			10,315
	Liberal gain from Liberal Unionist		Swing	+7.1

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Humberside

Notes and references

Notes

References

Sources

• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Peter Jupp, British and Irish Elections 1784-1831 (Newton Abbott: David & Charles, 1973)
• T. H. B. Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816)
• Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
• J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Robert Walcott, English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)

Coordinates: 53°34′N 0°05′W / 53.56°N 0.08°W / 53.56; -0.08