Barrow and Furness

Barrow and Furness, formerly known as Barrow-in-Furness, is a constituency in Cumbria which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Simon Fell of the Conservative Party since 2019.
The seat of was established by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 and covers the southwest part of Cumbria. The largest town in the constituency, Barrow-in-Furness, grew on the back of the shipbuilding industry and is now the site of the BAE Systems nuclear submarine and shipbuilding operation. This reliance on the industry aligns many of its columnists and in its community with strong nuclear deterrents, from which Labour has recoiled since its involvement in the Iraq War that removed dictator Saddam Hussain. Labour Cabinet member Albert Booth represented Barrow from 1966 for many years but was defeated in 1983, in the aftermath of the Falklands War, by a Manchester lawyer, Cecil Franks of the Conservative Party, who retained the seat until 1992. Local media attributed this to widespread fears of job losses because the Labour Party was then signed up to doing away with all its nuclear capabilities including the submarines.

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