Newbury is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 2019 by Laura Farris, a Conservative. It was created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 and has been in continual existence since then. Constituency profile The constituency consists of most of West Berkshire and includes Newbury, Thatcham and Hungerford. To the east, the rest of West Berkshire is incorporated into the Wokingham and Reading West constituencies. Since its creation it has been a Conservative or Liberal/Liberal Democrat seat, sometimes seemingly marginal and sometimes seen as a safe seat, with a tendency towards being Conservative. West Berkshire which is similar to its neighbours has a rather thriving economy with the headquarters of the communications company Vodafone that has created a cluster of around 80 mobile phone related businesses in Newbury, while the Lambourn area is the second most important centre for the racehorse industry in Great Britain, employing over 800 people directly, and producing an annual income of £20 million. West Berkshire is also home to Atomic Weapons Establishment, near Aldermaston, Wolseley plc, Bayer and PepsiCo. There are high proportions of detached and semi-detached housing, and lower than average dependency on social housing. The seat includes the former family home of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge in Bucklebury. Neighbouring constituencies The constituencies bordering Newbury (clockwise from north) are: Wantage, Henley, Reading West, Wokingham, Basingstoke, North West Hampshire and Devizes. History Originally, Newbury was part of a larger constituency of Berkshire, which returned two Members of Parliament (MPs), increased to three in the Reform Act of 1832. In the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 Berkshire was divided into three county constituencies, Northern (Abingdon), Southern (Newbury), and Eastern (Wokingham), and two borough constituencies, Reading and New Windsor, each returning one member. The Conservatives have held the constituency for all but seventeen years since the creation of the seat – only three spells of Liberal Party, or Liberal Democrat, majorities have intersected their control. In 2015, the party held the largest majority in the seat since 1935 at 46%, before being reduced to 40.1% in 2017. Since the February 1974 election, the Liberal Democrats have been one of the two largest parties in the constituency. They most recently gained the seat at the 1993 by-election, holding it until 2005 where it was regained by the Conservatives. The constituency in 2010 produced