Hartlepool is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Jill Mortimer of the Conservative Party from 2021. The constituency covers the town of Hartlepool plus nearby settlements. Labour won every contest for the seat since the first at the February 1974 election (and mostly won the predecessor constituency of The Hartlepools from the 1945 election onward) until Mortimer won the 2021 by-election, becoming the first Conservative MP to represent Hartlepool since 1959. Boundaries 1974–1983 The County Borough of Hartlepool. Before 1974 the seat was known as The Hartlepools (reflecting the representation of both old Hartlepool and West Hartlepool). The name was changed following the merger in 1967 of the County Borough of West Hartlepool and the Municipal Borough of Hartlepool to form the County Borough of Hartlepool. 1983–present The Borough of Hartlepool. As a result of major local government boundary changes in 1974 arising from the Local Government Act 1972, the Borough of Hartlepool was incorporated into the new county of Cleveland. As a consequence, a small part of the pre-1983 Easington constituency was added to the seat. The seat is currently coterminous with the borough of Hartlepool, which has close to the average population for a UK parliamentary constituency. The seat includes the town of Hartlepool itself and the nearby villages of Hart, Elwick, Greatham, Newton Bewley and Dalton Piercy. History The constituency had previously substantially been in the constituency of The Hartlepools. It became the constituency of Hartlepool in 1974. Hartlepool was a Labour constituency from its creation until 2021, although its predecessor did have Conservative MPs both in the early 1960s and during the Second World War. At the 1992 general election, Edward Leadbitter stood down and was succeeded by the former Labour Director of Communications Peter Mandelson. Mandelson's pivotal role in the reshaping of the Labour Party into New Labour attracted much attention, and he became a prominent target. During the first term of the Labour government led by Tony Blair, Mandelson was twice appointed to the Cabinet and twice forced to resign amid minor but controversial scandals. At the 2001 general election there was a notable contest when Arthur Scargill, former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers and the leader of the Socialist Labour Party, stood for election in the hope of exploiting uneasiness about New Labour in "traditional" Labour heartlands. In the event, Mandelson retained his