Editing Clitheroe (section)

== Governance and representation ==
[[File:James Thomson.jpg|thumb|left|Mayor James Thomson (from [[Clitheroe Castle Museum]])]]
The town elected two members to the [[Unreformed House of Commons]]. The [[Reform Act 1832|Great Reform Act]] reduced this to one. The [[parliamentary borough]] was abolished under the [[Redistribution of Seats Act 1885]].

It was one of the boroughs reformed by the [[Municipal Corporations Act 1835]], and remained a [[municipal borough]], based at [[Old Town Hall, Clitheroe|Clitheroe Town Hall]], until the [[Local Government Act 1972]] came into force in 1974, when it became a [[successor parish]] within the [[Ribble Valley]] district.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.clitheroetowncouncil.gov.uk/index.php/town-council-history  |title=Town Council History|publisher=Clitheroe Town Council| access-date=4 August 2021}}</ref>

Since 1991, the town of Clitheroe has elected at least 8 out of the 10 Liberal Democrat borough councillors on [[Ribble Valley Borough Council]], while Clitheroe Town Council has been Liberal Democrat-controlled for that period too. Likewise, since 1993, the town has elected a Liberal Democrat County Councillor to [[Lancashire]] County Council.

[[Clitheroe (UK Parliament constituency)|Clitheroe]] was one of earliest seats to elect a Labour MP, when [[David Shackleton]] won the [[1902 Clitheroe by-election]] for the [[Labour Representation Committee (1900)|Labour Representation Committee]]. He was the first Labour MP to win a by-election, and the third ever elected. He was returned unopposed, but easily won the subsequent [[1906 United Kingdom general election|1906 general election]], at which he was challenged by an [[Independent Conservative]]. Shackleton was General Secretary of the Textile Factory Workers Association, and at the time, there were a large number of [[Millworker|mill workers]] living locally. Labour lost the seat at the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922 election]], and did not regain it until their [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 landslide victory]]. The Conservatives won the seat back at the next general election, in [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]], and held it from then until [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983]], when the constituency was abolished due to boundary changes. From 1885 to 1983, when the seat existed, the boundaries covered areas outside Clitheroe itself, including parts of [[Burnley, Lancashire|Burnley]] and [[Colne, Lancashire|Colne]].

As part of the [[Ribble Valley (UK Parliament constituency)|Ribble Valley]] constituency, Clitheroe has been represented by a [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] Member of Parliament for many years, with the exception of [[Michael Carr (Liberal Democrat politician)|Michael Carr]], who won a [[1991 Ribble Valley by-election|by-election in 1991]] for the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]], but who lost the seat at the [[1992 United Kingdom general election|general election]] a year later.

The incumbent MP is [[Jonathan Hinder]], a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] MP first elected in 2024. Hinder is the first Labour candidate to have won in the Clitheroe area since the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]].
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