The seat was created in 1868. From World War II until 2010 it was won by Labour candidates, generally on safe, large majorities; even Ann Widdecombe could not snatch the seat from the former leading cotton town's close affinity with Labour Party values as they stood in 1979. The closest second place was to a Conservative Party candidate, Ian Bruce, who came 787 votes short of taking the seat in 1983. Burnley saw strong opposition support for the Liberal Democrats in 2005 who moved into second place, meanwhile a local independent pushed Yousuf Miah, a Conservative into fourth position. Following controversy regarding outgoing Labour MP Kitty Ussher's personal expenses, Gordon Birtwistle, who first contended the seat in 1992, gained the seat in 2010 with a heavy swing of 9.6%. However, Birtwistle was one of the many casualties faced by the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 election, losing the seat to Julie Cooper, who had also stood as Labour's candidate in 2010, although the 6.2% swing away from Birtwistle was less than half the 15.2% national swing against his party. As in 2005, the Conservatives came fourth, behind UKIP as well as Labour and the Lib Dems this time. In the 2017 election Labour held the seat with an increased majority. Birtwistle stood again but saw his share of the vote halved, this was widely seen to be due to his party's stance on Brexit. This was one of the biggest increases in the share of the vote for the Conservatives in the whole country, more than doubling their share of the vote. UKIP lost two-thirds of their vote from 2015 but did retain their deposit. This meant Burnley was one of the few constituencies in England where four parties retained their deposits. At the 2019 election, Antony Higginbotham won the seat for the Conservatives, thus becoming the first Conservative to represent Burnley in parliament for over 100 years. The Conservative vote share increased by over 9% compared with the previous election, while the Labour vote share declined by about 10%. The review of parliamentary representation in Lancashire by the Boundary Commission for England in the 2000s proposed no change to the boundaries of the Burnley seat. The seat remains coterminous with the boundaries of the borough of Burnley.
A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the summer of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place.
