Over the intervening years the constituency has periodically grown in size, and as of the 2024 general election it incorporates the entirety of the peninsula, the Eskdale and Duddon Valleys, and all of coastal West Cumbria as far north as Ravenglass.

This reliance on the industry aligns many of its journalists 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 for many years from 1966, 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.

The 2023 periodic review of Westminster constituencies was carried out using the local authority structure as it existed in Cumbria on 1 December 2020 and is officially defined as: With effect from 1 April 2023, the second tier councils in Cumbria were abolished and replaced by the new unitary authorities of Cumberland, and Westmorland and Furness.