Hexham is a constituency in Northumberland represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Guy Opperman, a Conservative. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years. The seat was created as one of four single member divisions of the county of Northumberland under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885. Constituency profile The second-largest constituency by land area in England (covering 250,992 hectares), Hexham reaches to the Pennines and is traversed by Hadrian's Wall, which runs almost due east–west through England. It includes substantial agricultural holdings, forestry, wood processing, food, minerals, and manufactured hardware industries. In the midst of the northwest of the constituency is Kielder Water; running between this area and the middle of the seat is the southern portion of Kielder Forest, and in the west, the attractions of the precipitous Haltwhistle Burn, Viaduct and Castle. SSE of Hexham is the Derwent Reservoir. As well as those rural areas, the constituency also includes part of Newcastle's middle-class suburbs. Hexham has been held by the Conservative Party, and generally with safe majorities, since 1924. It was the only Conservative seat in the North East between the New Labour years in government from 1997-2010, and the only one in Northumberland from 1973 until the Conservatives gained Berwick-upon-Tweed from the Liberal Democrats in 2015. It was also the northernmost seat won by the Conservatives in 1997, in what would be their worst landslide defeat at any general election of the twentieth century; with all Conservative MPs in Scotland and Wales unseated that year. Despite this middle-class segment of the population, there are also some more working-class areas: Prudhoe frequently elects Labour councillors and has demographics similar to neighbouring parts of Blaydon, a safe Labour seat. There is also some deprivation in rural areas, particularly around Haltwhistle. Based on the latest published old age dependency ratios, a slightly larger than average level of the population is retired. In 1997, the Labour Party was very close to winning the seat, but the Conservatives retained it with a significantly reduced narrow majority of 222 votes. Hexham is considered a safe seat for the Conservative Party, having been under their control for almost a century. Boundaries 1885-1918 The contents of the county division, as defined by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, were: