Shropshire

Shropshire (abbreviated Salop or Shrops) is a traditional, ceremonial and administrative county in the West Midlands region of England. The ceremonial county borders Cheshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and the Welsh ceremonial counties of Powys and Clwyd.

Politics

Shropshire has five constituencies, four of which returned Conservative MPs at the 2005 general election and one, Telford, returned a Labour MP. This is a marked change from the 2001 general election result, where the county returned only one Conservative, three Labour and a Liberal Democrat MP (see maps below).

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• David Wright, Labour, Telford
• Owen Paterson, Conservative, North Shropshire (covering the North Shropshire district and Oswestry borough)
• Philip Dunne, Conservative, Ludlow (covering the South Shropshire and Bridgnorth districts)
• Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative, Shrewsbury and Atcham
• Mark Pritchard, Conservative, The Wrekin (covering Telford and Wrekin borough, minus Telford and including a small area of Bridgnorth district)

In 2005 there was also a County Council election and the Conservatives gained overall control of the administrative county. Telford and Wrekin Unitary Authority remains under Labour control. Being a rural county, there are a number of independent councillors on the various councils in the county.

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