is a
Constituency represented in the
House Of Commons of the
Parliament Of The United Kingdom .
The boundaries of this constituency mirror the boundaries of the
County of
Ceredigion (
Cardiganshire ) almost exactly.
Ceredigion , sometimes known by the anglicized version of its name as
Cardiganshire was first enfranchised in
1536 when
King Henry VIII incorporated
Wales within
England . The county was given one member, who was to be elected by each person who owned property of a sufficient value. In addition the inhabitants of
Cardigan ,
Aberystwyth ,
Adpar and
Lampeter were given the right to elect one MP between them, with the vote restricted to the
Freemen . The
1715 General Election saw the return of
Lewis Pryse , who sided with the
Jacobites and refused to attend the
House Of Commons to take an oath of loyalty to
King George I ; he was expelled from the House.
From
1832 the
Reform Act changed the electoral system so that householders of homes worth over £10 were enfranchised in the boroughs. The Borough was still dominated by the Pryse-Loveden family based in Gogerddan who were supporters of the
Liberals ; the county saw more influence of the Powell family of
Nanteos who were
Conservatives . By agreement between the two, neither challenged the others' domination and so elections were almost always unopposed.
In the
1841 Election there was a great deal of confusion in the borough constituency, which was being opposed. The poll books for Aberystwyth were either lost or stolen and never reached the returning officer, who decided that he should return both candidates due to the uncertainty (the Conservative was slightly ahead in the polls from the other three parts). Neither of the two candidates could actually speak in the House of Commons until a committee determined the election, and it accepted the evidence that the Liberal candidate had outpolled the Conservative by more than enough to make his election secure, so he was given the seat. Other than an
1855 byelection victory by 12 votes, the Conservatives never won the borough.
The county saw its first contest in the
1859 General Election when two Conservatives fought for the seat. In
1865 the sitting MP stood down and there was a contest between two Liberals, won by
Sir Thomas Lloyd, Bt. who defeated a
Gladstonian opponent. Lloyd transferred to the borough in the
1868 Election and there were close contests for the county thereafter, on a slightly widened franchise.
In a redistribution of seats for the
1885 General Election , the borough constituency was abolished and absorbed into the county, with a further widening of the franchise. This combined to make the county a reasonably safe bet for the Liberal Party and supporters of Gladstone were returned at every election. Initially this was
David Davies elected to represent the constituency with a majority of 2,323 (24.2%) on a turnout of 78%, but Davies broke with Gladstone over home rule for
Ireland in
1886 . He sought re-election as a
Liberal Unionist but lost by 9 votes to
William Bowen Rowlands , who was the Gladstonian candidate. Rowlands served until appointed (June
1893 ) as Recorder of Swansea, a part-time Judgeship which was incompatible with membership of the House of Commons.
Matthew Lewis Vaughan Davies , who had been the Conservative candidate in the seat in 1885 but then went over to Gladstone, was elected unopposed in the byelection on
July 4 ,
1893 . He went on to become the longest serving MP for the constituency, holding it until
1921 . His closest electoral call came in the
'Khaki Election' Of 1900 when he had a majority of 781 (9.4%). Like most Welsh Liberals, he supported
David Lloyd George in the split in the Liberal Party, and not
Herbert Asquith , and was therefore returned unopposed as a Coalition Liberal in
1918 .
With Vaughan Davies known to be a supporter of Lloyd George, it was natural that Lloyd George looked to him to boost his support in the
House Of Lords and awarded him a peerage in the New Years' Honours list in 1921. Although he would have preferred to be called 'Lord Ceredigion', the Garter King of Arms refused this as an inappropriate title for a Baron, and so Vaughan Davies took his title from the
River Ystwyth which runs through the county. The peerage created a vacancy in a historically Liberal seat and the Asquithites decided to take the Lloyd Georgeites on in their 'backyard'.
Ernest Evans , who asserted on his election posters that he was 'THE Liberal candidate', was a Barrister from Aberystwyth and had been Private Secretary to Lloyd George himself, and therefore had the blessing of the Coalition and official support from the Conservatives. Against him, W. Llewellyn Williams was sponsored by the Asquithite 'Welsh Liberal Federation'. No other candidate stood and in the straight fight, Evans won with a majority of 3,590 (14.6%). He held on as a 'National Liberal' (as Lloyd George's supporters called themselves) in the
1922 General Election but with a slim majority of 515 votes (2.0%) over
Rhys Hopkin Morris .
The sudden shotgun merger of the two factions in the Liberal Party led to Evans getting the official approval of the unified party for the
1923 Election . However, the Conservatives decided to fight and this deprived him of their votes. Hopkin Morris decided to fight again as an unofficial Liberal and won with a 5,078 vote majority. He was lucky to survive the
1924 Election , a disaster for the Liberals, by being returned unopposed. The first
Labour Party candidate stood against him at the
1931 General Election and polled 24% of the vote in a straight fight against Morris, who had a 13,752 (52.0%) majority.
In 1932, Morris left Parliament temporarily (he was later to return as MP for
Carmarthen ) when he was appointed as a Metropolitan Police magistrate. The byelection on
September 22 ,
1932 saw the first three-way fight between the parties, but was won by
Owen Evans for the Liberals. Like many of the Liberal MPs he had been a Barrister. Evans died shortly before the
1945 General Election , but the seat was easily held by his successor
Roderic Bowen ; unusually the Labour vote actually fell in percentage terms compared with the previous election despite the Labour landslide in the country at large.
Labour established itself as the main challenger to the Liberals at the
1950 General Election in a three-way contest, and the Conservatives opted out of the contest thereafter until
1964 . This was partly a move to keep the seat from going Labour.
Plaid Cymru first fought the seat in
1959 and kept their deposit (just, with 12.8% of the vote).
With a four-way contest involving the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru at the 1964 general election, and a national swing to Labour, Roderic Bowen suffered a precpitate decline in his share of the vote to only 38.4%; he was re-elected with a majority of 2,219 (7.4%) over Labour. After the death of the
Speaker in
1965 , Bowen accepted the offer of becoming a Deputy Speaker, which prevented him from speaking on behalf of his constituency. For the
1966 Election , Labour selected
Elystan Morgan who had been a member of Plaid Cymru until
1964 ; with a further national swing and Morgan making a credible bid for the Welsh-speaking vote, Labour won the seat by 523 votes.
Morgan managed to hold on to the seat with an increased majority in the
1970 Election . The Liberal vote had collapsed nationwide, with Plaid Cymru taking third place. However, the Liberal resurgence in the early 1970s led to the party regaining the seat in the
February 1974 General Election with
Geraint Howells ; the
October 1974 General Election saw almost the same result. In
1979 , Howells increased his majority with Labour falling to third place and the Conservatives increasing their vote by more than 20%; this was one of the highest
Swings in the whole country.
In boundary changes in
1983 , the constituency gained a small part of
Pembrokeshire and also took a Welsh version of its name, becoming known as Ceredigion and Pembroke North. Geraint Howells was re-elected with the Conservatives second, Labour third and Plaid Cymru fourth in both the
1983 and
1987 general elections.
The result of the
1992 General Election in Ceredigion and Pembroke North was one of the least expected in the country.
Cynog Dafis , a teacher at
Aberaeron High School, standing as a Plaid Cymru candidate with support from the local branch of the
Green Party , gained the seat with a majority of 3,193. Dafis more than doubled his majority in
1997 with Labour coming in second and the Liberal Democrat vote dropping by 10% to 16.5%. The constituency reverted to the name of Ceredigion at this election, having lost the part of North Pembrokeshire in boundary changes.
Cynog Dafis was unexpectedly elected to the
National Assembly For Wales in
1999 and unlike the other 'dual mandate' MPs chose to resign his seat at Westminster, causing a
Byelection which saw
Simon Thomas retain the seat for Plaid Cymru. The by-election saw Labour fall from second to fourth place and the Liberal Democrats vote rise. At the
2001 General Election , Thomas retained the seat, although the Liberal Democrat vote again rose to 26.9%.
At the
2005 General Election , the Liberal Democrats regained the seat.
Mark Williams , who had fought the seat in the 2000 by-election and in 2001, had a majority of 219 (0.6%) following a swing of 6% over Simon Thomas.
:,
Liberal
:,
Liberal
:,
Liberal
:,
Liberal (pro
Lloyd George )
:, Independent
Liberal 1923-1924, "official" Liberal 1924-1932
:,
Liberal
:,
Liberal
:,
Labour
:,
Liberal 1974 - 88,
Liberal Democrat 1988 - 92
:,
Plaid Cymru
:,
Plaid Cymru
:,
Liberal Democrat
| |
Conservative Party (UK)
|
| |
John Harrison
|
| |
4,455
|
| |
1239
|
| |
-705
|
|
| |
Labour Party (UK)
|
| |
Alun Davies
|
| |
4,337
|
| |
1206
|
| |
-336
|
|
| |
Green Party of England and Wales
|
| |
Dave Bradney
|
| |
846
|
| |
235
|
| |
+235
|
|
| |
Veritas (political party)
|
| |
Iain Sheldon
|
| |
268
|
| |
075
|
| |
+075
|
|
| |
Liberal Democrats (UK)
|
| |
Plaid Cymru
|
| |
+60
|
|
| |
Conservative Party (UK)
|
| |
Paul Davies
|
| |
6,730
|
| |
194
|
| |
+46
|
|
| |
Labour Party (UK)
|
| |
David Grace
|
| |
5,338
|
| |
154
|
| |
-89
|
|
| |
Conservative Party (UK)
|
| |
Paul Davies
|
| |
4,138
|
| |
165
|
| |
+16
|
|
| |
Labour Party (UK)
|
| |
Maria Battle
|
| |
3,612
|
| |
144
|
| |
-99
|
|
| |
United Kingdom Independence Party
|
| |
John Bufton
|
| |
487
|
| |
19
|
| |
''N/A''
|
|
| |
Independent Green
|
| |
John Davies
|
| |
289
|
| |
12
|
| |
''N/A''
|
|
| |
Independent (politician)
|
| |
Martin Shipton
|
| |
55
|
| |
02
|
| |
''N/A''
|
|
| |
Labour Party (UK)
|
| |
Robert (Hag) Harris
|
| |
9,767
|
| |
2430
|
| |
+573
|
|
| |
Liberal Democrats (UK)
|
| |
Dai Davies
|
| |
6,616
|
| |
1646
|
| |
-1003
|
|
| |
Conservative Party (UK)
|
| |
Dr Felix Aubel
|
| |
5,983
|
| |
1488
|
| |
-908
|
|
| |
Referendum Party
|
| |
John Leaney
|
| |
1,092
|
| |
271
|
| |
+271
|
|
