The historic town of Stafford, remains the heart of the constituency, and is usually fairly evenly split between Labour and the Conservatives, but the shape of the constituency changed with a number of smaller rural communities such as Eccleshall and Gnosall being lost to the new seat of Stone.

This removed swathes of Tory-leaning voters and the constituency’s profile became more urban. It undoubtedly helped David Kidney become the constituency's first Labour MP since 1945.

Stafford as currently constituted is a mix of the historical, with a Gothic castle standing on a Norman site, and the modern: a major technology park has recently been completed just outside the town.