Geography

Fylde is a Parliamentary constituency located in the south of the Fylde coastal plain of western Lancashire.

The geographical area known as the Fylde coast is roughly a 13-mile square-shaped peninsula in the North West of England and includes the towns of Blackpool, Lytham, St Annes, Kirkham, Fleetwood, Cleveleys and Poulton-le-Fylde.

A number of MPs represent the different parts of the peninsula; at the last election they were Mark Menzies (Fylde), Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys), Ben Wallace (Wyre and Preston North), Catherine Smith (Fleetwood and Lancaster) and Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South).

Fylde accounts for a large area of the Fylde coast. The constituency’s most populous towns and villages include Lytham, St Annes, Kirkham, Wesham, Freckleton and Warton, as well as several other rural villages including Singleton, Wrea Green, Elswick, Newton, Treales, Staining, Greenhalgh, Weeton, Westby-with-Plumptons and Little Eccleston.

History

The Fylde constituency, in its current guise, was created in 1983.

The constituency had previously existed in the early part of the twentieth century but was split and became two separate constituencies, Fylde North and Fylde South, in 1950.

Sir Edward Garner, who had previously been MP for Fylde South since 1970, became the first Member of Parliament for the reborn Fylde constituency in 1983.

Following Sir Edward’s retirement four years later, Fylde elected Michael Jack to the seat, a position which he went on to hold for the next 23 years.

Mark Menzies was elected MP for Fylde in May 2010 and returned, with a further increased majority, in May 2015.

He won a 58.6 per cent share of the vote in the June 2017 election to win his third term as the area’s MP.