Tudhoe. 2010–present The Borough of Sedgefield wards of Bishop Middleham and Cornforth, Broom, Chilton, Ferryhill, Fishburn and Old Trimdon, Greenfield Middridge, Neville and Simpasture, New Trimdon and Trimdon Grange, Sedgefield, Shafto St Mary's, West, and Woodham; the District of Easington wards of Thornley and Wheatley Hill, and Wingate; and the Borough of Darlington wards of Heighington and Coniscliffe, Hurworth, Middleton St George, Sadberge, and Whessoe. Minor changes only to reflect redrawing of local authority ward boundaries. In the 2009 structural changes to local government in England, the local authority districts in Durham were abolished and replaced with a single unitary authority; however, this has not affected the boundaries of the constituency. Proposed constituency changes The 2023 Boundary Review Initial Proposals have recommended that all the wards in the borough of Darlington should be removed from the seat, with Shildon moving in from Bishop Auckland and Coxhoe from City of Durham. The reconfigured seat would be renamed ‘Newton Aycliffe and Sedgefield’. Political history From its recreation in 1983 until 27 June 2007, the Member of Parliament was Tony Blair, who led a successful campaign for his party to win the 1997 general election in a landslide and thereafter served for ten years as the Prime Minister, leading the campaigns at two subsequent general elections. Blair was the first Prime Minister to lead the Labour Party to three consecutive victories. He resigned as the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield on the same day as he resigned as Prime Minister, which triggered a by-election. At the by-election on 19 July 2007, the official Labour Party candidate Phil Wilson was elected on a reduced majority which in national terms is safe instead of marginal. While Wilson had never came close to the enormous majorities held by Blair during his tenure as MP and only secured an absolute majority of the vote for the first time at the 2017 general election, he had consistently held majorities of over 6,000 votes at every election he had stood at. At the 2019 election, the Conservatives' candidate Paul Howell defeated Wilson with a majority of 4,513 and a swing of 12.8%. Sedgefield was one of the 48 seats net won in England by the Conservatives as well as being considered part of the so-called red wall. Constituency profile Sedgefield has a long mining history (extracting coal, fluorspar and iron ore) and very strong affiliation to the Labour Party,