Richmond (Yorks) is a constituency in North Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since May 2015 by Rishi Sunak, the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Conservative Party. Constituency profile The constituency presents itself as a safe seat for the Conservative Party, which held it continuously since 1910 (if including the 11 years by the allied Unionist Party from 1918), and in the 2010 general election, Richmond produced the largest numerical and percentage majority for a Conservative, 62.8% of the vote. The Conservative MP and one-time Party leader William Hague held the seat from a by-election in 1989 until he retired from the Commons in 2015. He had held the posts of Leader of the Opposition (1997–2001), Foreign Secretary (2010–2014) and Leader of the House of Commons (2014–2015). His successor Rishi Sunak served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from February 2020 to July 2022 and as Prime Minister from October 2022, while Hague's predecessor Leon Brittan served as Home Secretary. The constituency has thus produced three consecutive MPs who served in the Great Offices of State and two who served as Leader of the Conservative Party. The constituency consists of in the west the entire Richmondshire district and in the east the northern part of Hambleton District. It is a mostly rural seat with an affluent population. History Richmond was one of the parliamentary boroughs in the Unreformed House of Commons that dates to the middle of its long existence, first being represented in 1585. In modern times it has been an ultra-safe seat for the Conservative Party. From 1983, the seat was represented by the cabinet minister Leon Brittan, after boundary changes saw his Cleveland and Whitby seat abolished; however, he resigned from the Commons in December 1988 in order to take up the position of vice-president of the European Commission. 1989 by-election The ensuing by-election, held in February 1989, was won by William Hague: this was the last by-election won by a Conservative candidate during the Conservative Government of 1979–1997. Hague's win has been attributed in part to the decision by the remnants of the Social Democratic Party (those members that objected to the merger with the Liberal Party the previous year) to contest the election as well as the newly merged Social and Liberal Democrats (who subsequently renamed themselves the Liberal Democrats). The SDP candidate, local farmer