A traditional Liberal Democrat stronghold at Westminster, the seat has been held by the party or its predecessors for almost a century, only once passing out of their control - in 1979 when the Tories took it for a single parliament. Lembit Opik held it for the Liberal Democrats at the 1997 general election, with a majority of 19.8% over the Tories.
The constituency is part of the Powys local authority, whose electors voted No in the 1997 devolution referendum by a majority of 7,928. In the 1999 National Assembly elections, the Liberal Democrats' Mick Bates won the seat with a majority of 25.7%. The Conservatives were in second place, with 23% of the vote.
This mid Wales border seat is almost entirely rural, containing the towns of Welshpool and Newtown. Newtown was formerly the headquarters of the Development Board for Rural Wales (DBRW), the functions of which have now been absorbed into the Welsh Development Agency (WDA). As a result, the area, and Newtown in particular, has seen a range of industrial developments. The electorate is largely English-speaking, although Welsh is the main language of many communities in the western portion of the constituency.
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