Manchester Rusholme (UK Parliament constituency)

Manchester Rusholme
Manchester Rusholme
Former borough constituency; for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Seats	one
Created from	Manchester South and Stretford
Replaced by	Manchester Ardwick, Manchester Gorton and Manchester Withington

Manchester Rusholme was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Rusholme district of Manchester. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be re-established for the next general election.^[1]

Contents of re-established seat

The re-established seat will comprise the City of Manchester wards of Ardwick, Fallowfield, Hulme, Moss Side, Rusholme and Whalley Range,^[2] transferred in approximately equal parts from Manchester Central and Manchester Gorton (to be abolished, with remaining parts included in the new constituency of Gorton and Denton).

History

The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election.

Boundaries

Map of boundaries from 2024

The constituency was created as Manchester, Rusholme Division by the Representation of the People Act 1918, and was defined as consisting of three wards of the county borough of Manchester, namely Levenshulme, Longsight and Rusholme.^[3]

The division consisted of areas that had been included with Manchester's municipal boundaries in 1890 and 1909.^[4] Since the previous redistribution of seats in 1885, they had formed part of the Stretford Division of Lancashire.

The seat was abolished by the Representation of the People Act 1948, with its area being redistributed between Manchester Ardwick (Longsight), Manchester Gorton (Levenshulme) and Manchester Withington (Rusholme) borough constituencies.^[5]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Robert Burdon Stoker	Coalition Conservative
	1919	John Henry Thorpe	Coalition Conservative
	1923	Charles Masterman	Liberal
	1924	Sir Boyd Merriman	Conservative
	1933	Edmund Ashworth Radford	Conservative
	1944	Frederick Cundiff	Conservative
	1945	Lester Hutchinson	Labour
	1949	Lester Hutchinson	Labour Independent Group
1950		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 2020s

General election 2024: Manchester Rusholme
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Seb Bate^[6]
	Labour	Afzal Khan^[7]

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Manchester Rusholme
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lester Hutchinson	15,408	43.4	+14.0
	Conservative	Frederick Cundiff	15,398	43.4	−19.2
	Liberal	Charles Gordon Chappell	4,673	13.2	New
Majority			10	0.0	N/A
Turnout			47,486	74.7	+4.9
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

1944 Manchester Rusholme by-election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Frederick Cundiff	8,430	53.3	−9.3
	Common Wealth	Harold William Blomerley	6,670	42.1	New
	Independent Labour	C.J. Taylor	734	4.6	New
Majority			1,760	11.2	−22.0
Turnout			15,834	34.7	−35.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1940: Another election was due to take place by 1940 but did not take place due to the outbreak of war. The following candidates had already been selected to fight this election:

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1935: Manchester Rusholme
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Edmund Ashworth Radford	19,678	62.6	−6.7
	Labour	Albert Knight	9,258	29.4	+11.8
	Independent Liberal	Percy McDougall	2,525	8.0	N/A
Majority			10,420	33.2	−18.5
Turnout			31,461	69.8	−10.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

1933 Manchester Rusholme by-election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Edmund Ashworth Radford	13,904	50.8	−18.5
	Labour	George Woods	11,005	40.1	+22.5
	Independent Liberal	Percy McDougall	2,503	9.1	−3.9
Majority			2,899	10.7	−41.0
Turnout			27,412	60.8	−19.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1931: Manchester Rusholme
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Boyd Merriman	24,817	69.3	+26.5
	Labour	Jerrold Adshead	6,319	17.6	−6.7
	Liberal	Frank Thornborough	4,658	13.0	−19.9
Majority			18,498	51.7	+41.8
Turnout			35,794	80.0	+1.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1929: Manchester Rusholme ^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Boyd Merriman	14,230	42.8	−7.6
	Liberal	Philip Guedalla	10,958	32.9	+3.5
	Labour	Jerrold Adshead	8,080	24.3	New
Majority			3,272	9.9	−11.1
Turnout			33,268	78.7	−1.1
Registered electors			42,289
	Unionist hold		Swing	−5.6

General election 1924: Manchester Rusholme
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Boyd Merriman	13,341	50.4	+15.1
	Liberal	Charles Masterman	7,772	29.4	−14.0
	Communist	William Paul	5,328	20.2	New
Majority			5,569	21.0	N/A
Turnout			26,441	79.8	+1.8
Registered electors			33,147
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+14.6

General election 1923: Manchester Rusholme
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Charles Masterman	10,901	43.4	+17.3
	Unionist	John Henry Thorpe	8,876	35.3	−12.6
	Labour	William Paul	5,366	21.3	−4.7
Majority			2,025	8.1	N/A
Turnout			25,143	78.0	+0.2
Registered electors			32,253
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+15.0

General election 1922: Manchester Rusholme
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Henry Thorpe	11,765	47.9	−17.2
	Liberal	Ernest Frederick Martin Sutton	6,421	26.1	+6.8
	Labour	Albert E. Wood	6,397	26.0	+10.4
Majority			5,344	21.8	−24.0
Turnout			25,583	77.8	+14.9
Registered electors			31,582
	Unionist hold		Swing	−12.0

Elections in the 1910s

1919 Manchester Rusholme by-election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	John Henry Thorpe	9,394	45.7	−19.4
	Labour	Robert Dunstan	6,412	31.2	+15.6
	Liberal	William Pringle	3,923	19.1	−0.2
	National	Roger Bowan Crewdson	815	4.0	New
Majority			2,982	14.5	−31.3
Turnout			20,544	67.5	+4.6
Registered electors			30,421
	Unionist hold		Swing	+17.5

General election 1918: Manchester Rusholme
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
C	Unionist	Robert Burdon Stoker	12,447	65.1
	Liberal	Walter Butterworth	3,699	19.3
	Labour	Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence	2,985	15.6
Majority			8,748	45.8
Turnout			19,131	62.9
Registered electors			30,421
	Unionist win (new seat)

References

^ "The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report – North West | Boundary Commission for England". boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
^ "The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023". Schedule 1 Part 5 North West region.
^ Ninth Schedule, Part I: Parliamentary Boroughs, 1918 c.64 sch.9
^ F A Youngs Jr., Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.II: Northern England, London, 1991
^ First Schedule: Parliamentary Constituencies, 1948 c.65 sch.1
^ "Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates". Mark Pack. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
^ Afzal Khan [@Afzal4Gorton] (7 March 2022). "I'm delighted to have been unanimously re-selected by all eligible constituency branches, affiliated trade unions and affiliated organisations to stand as the Labour candidate for Manchester Gorton at the next General Election 🌹 Thank you!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
^ The Liberal Magazine 1939
^ British parliamentary election results, 1918-1949 by FWS Craig

Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "R" (part 2)

[1] "The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report – North West | Boundary Commission for England". boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2023.

[2] "The Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023". Schedule 1 Part 5 North West region.

[3] Ninth Schedule, Part I: Parliamentary Boroughs, 1918 c.64 sch.9

[4] F A Youngs Jr., Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.II: Northern England, London, 1991

[5] First Schedule: Parliamentary Constituencies, 1948 c.65 sch.1

[6] "Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates". Mark Pack. Retrieved 27 January 2024.

[7] Afzal Khan [@Afzal4Gorton] (7 March 2022). "I'm delighted to have been unanimously re-selected by all eligible constituency branches, affiliated trade unions and affiliated organisations to stand as the Labour candidate for Manchester Gorton at the next General Election 🌹 Thank you!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

[8] The Liberal Magazine 1939

[9] British parliamentary election results, 1918-1949 by FWS Craig

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v t e Manchester constituencies
Current	Blackley and Middleton South Gorton and Denton Manchester Central Manchester Rusholme Manchester Withington Wythenshawe and Sale East
Historic	Manchester (1832–1885) Manchester East (1885–1918) Manchester North (1885–1918) Manchester North East (1885–1918) Manchester North West (1885–1918) Manchester South (1885–1918) Manchester South West (1885–1918) Manchester Ardwick (1918–1983) Manchester Blackley (1918–2010) Manchester Clayton (1918–1955) Manchester Exchange (1918-February 1974) Manchester Gorton (1918-2024) Manchester Hulme (1918–1950) Manchester Moss Side (1918–1983) Manchester Platting (1918–1950) Manchester Cheetham (1950-February 1974) Manchester Wythenshawe (1950–1997) Manchester Openshaw (1955–1983) Stretford (1885–1918, 1983–1997) Blackley and Broughton (2010-2024)
See also	South Lancashire South East Lancashire