1997–2010: The Borough of Maidstone wards of Allington, Barming, Boughton Monchelsea, Bridge, Coxheath, East, Farleigh, Heath, High Street, Loose, Marden, North, South, Staplehurst, and Yalding, and the Borough of Tunbridge Wells wards of Benenden, Cranbrook, Frittenden & Sissinghurst, Hawkhurst, and Sandhurst. 2010–present: The Borough of Maidstone wards of Allington, Barming, Bridge, Coxheath & Hunton, East, Fant, Heath, High Street, Loose, Marden & Yalding, North, South, and Staplehurst, and the Borough of Tunbridge Wells wards of Benenden & Cranbrook and Frittenden & Sissinghurst. The largest settlement is the central county town of Maidstone in Kent in south-east England with smaller settlements spread throughout agriculture-rich Maidstone borough and partly wooded Tunbridge Wells borough.
History
The constituency was created for the 1997 general election, after the previous Maidstone constituency was split in two: its southeast wards of Shepway and Park Wood of the town itself and the rural wards east of the town joined Faversham in the new Faversham and Mid Kent constituency. The remaining two-thirds of the electorate in west/central Maidstone were reunited with the town wards that had been lost in 1983 to Mid Kent, and joined by a rural part of the Weald to the south of the town, previously in the Tunbridge Wells constituency. ;History of members The MP for the seat from its creation in 1997 was Ann Widdecombe of the Conservative Party. Widdecombe was MP for the former seat of Maidstone 1987–97, and served as a Home Office Minister in the government of John Major from 1995 to 1997, and as Shadow Home Secretary from 1999 to 2001. She stood down at the 2010 general election, to be succeeded by its winner, who was Helen Grant, also a Conservative.
Constituency profile
Most of the electorate live in urban Maidstone, which has some light industry but whose economy is increasingly dominated by the service sector. The south of the constituency is rural with significant orchards and market gardens. Many residents commute daily to London. To summarise this is an urban-rural seat in a prosperous part of Kent.
