The old seat was dominated by the town of Telford, which now has its own constituency, and was a marginal Labour seat even in some years when the Tories were in government. The new one is pretty rural and was something of an unexpected Labour gain in the Tory massacre of 1997.

The main communities in this seat which were in the old Wrekin constituency are Wellington, Donnington and Hadley. There are not the major housing estates which are now in the Telford constituency (although a relatively high proportion of the population live in council houses) but there are more affluent and rural parts of east Shropshire. The seat also includes Newport, Albrighton, Shifnal and Wellington.