Newark (constituency)

Newark is a constituency in Nottinghamshire. Its largest town is Newark-on-Trent, which, when taken together with the connected villages of Balderton and Farndon, has a population of around 49,000.^[2] Other settlements in the constituency include the towns of Bingham, Southwell and Tuxford and the village of Collingham.

Newark is a large, rural constituency between the cities of Nottingham and Lincoln with many small villages. Newark-on-Trent is a market town with many historic buildings, including a 12th-century castle, and was traditionally an important inland port on the River Trent. The town has average levels of wealth, with some deprived suburban neighbourhoods. Southwell is a highly-affluent town with an Anglican cathedral. The rural parts of the constituency are generally wealthy and contain a number of former and current Royal Air Force bases.^[3] The average house price is lower than the national average but higher than the rest of the East Midlands.^[4]

In general, residents of the constituency are older, more religious and have average levels of education compared to the rest of the country.^[5][4] The homeownership rate is high, and rates of household income and child poverty are in line with national averages.^[4][6] A high proportion of residents work in the agriculture, manufacturing and transport sectors,^[7] and a low percentage claim unemployment benefits.^[6] White people made up 96% of the population at the 2021 census.^[8]

At the local council level, most of the constituency is represented by Conservatives with some independents elected in Newark-on-Trent and Bingham and Liberal Democrats in Southwell. Whilst most of Nottinghamshire is represented by Reform UK at the county council, which held elections in 2025, this constituency continues to be represented mostly by Conservatives. An estimated 58% of voters in the Newark constituency supported leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, higher than the nationwide figure of 52%.^[4]

Newark was the last borough to be added to the Unreformed House of Commons which took place in 1673, prior to the Reform Act 1832. It returned two representatives to Parliament from 1673 until 1885.

Newark petitioned for enfranchisement as a parliamentary borough in the 1660s, in recognition of the town's royalist sympathies during the English Civil War. It was eventually enfranchised by a royal charter in early 1673, which gave the rights of election to the mayor and aldermen. However, the freemen of the town contested this, and held a separate election in which they selected a different member to the aldermen. The dispute in Parliament lasted until 1677, when the charter was withdrawn and a new one issued, causing a fresh election in which all inhabitants paying scot and lot could vote. In 1685, a third charter was issued, giving the right of election to all forty-shilling freeholders.^[15] The borough constituency existed until 1885, when it was replaced by a county division of the same name under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.

The future Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, began his political career as Member of Parliament for Newark from 1832 to 1845. More recently, the Labour Party held Newark (on substantially different boundaries to the present ones) from 1950 until 1979, when it was taken by the Conservatives' Richard Alexander. Alexander lost his seat during Labour's landslide victory at the 1997 general election. The victorious Labour candidate, Fiona Jones, was convicted of electoral fraud and expelled from the House of Commons in 1999 over misrepresented election expenses. The conviction was later overturned upon appeal and she returned to Parliament. However, Jones lost her seat at the 2001 general election to Patrick Mercer of the Conservatives, who held it until 2014.

Mercer held the position of Shadow Minister for Homeland Security from June 2003 until March 2007, when he was forced to resign following racially contentious comments made to The Times.^[16]

The Newark constituency in 2010 lost the town of Retford to the Bassetlaw constituency (although Newark still has a smaller part of the Bassetlaw district), but gained land in and around Bingham from the Rushcliffe constituency, thus making it much safer Conservative territory.

Following an investigation by Commons authorities finding that Mr Mercer had engaged in paid lobbying, not properly reported the income or declared his interest, and repeatedly seriously denigrated other members, Patrick Mercer stepped down as MP for Newark on 30 April 2014.^[17]

Robert Jenrick was elected in the subsequent by-election, in the Conservative Party's largest by-election majority for four decades. He was appointed on 24 July 2019 as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government under Prime Minister Boris Johnson. On 15 January 2026, Jenrick became one in a series of high-profile Conservatives to defect to Reform UK.^[18]

• List of parliamentary constituencies in Nottinghamshire