Although this seat is not new, its geographical composition is very different to the original Mid Bedfordshire seat owing to the creation of the new seat of North East Bedfordshire which took the towns of Biggleswade, Sandy, Arlesey and Kempston in return for Flitwick and Toddington.
The constituency is predominantly rural and has no large urban centre. Flitwick and Ampthill are the only towns with populations of about 15,000 although the former is rapidly expanding with new shopping centres opening.
Within the seat, jobs are found in agriculture, education and tourism. Cranfield University is located in Bedfordshire Mid and its tourist attractions include Woburn Abbey and Woburn Safari Park.
The current MP is Jonathon Sayeed, was formerly the MP for Bristol East, who he lost that seat to Labour’s Jean Corston in 1992. He was selected for the redrawn Mid Beds seat in 1996 forcing the sitting MP, Attorney General Sir Nicholas Lyell, to decamp to the new North East Bedfordshire.
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