[note 2][2] Further to the completion of the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, the seat had minor boundary changes and was renamed to Richmond and Northallerton, first contested at the 2024 general election.

The Conservative MP and one-time Party leader William Hague held the seat from a by-election in 1989 until he retired from the Commons in 2015.

[note 3] Richmond was one of the parliamentary boroughs in the Unreformed House of Commons that dates to the middle of its long existence, first being represented in 1585.

Medieval royal charters had specifically exempted the town from sending members to Parliament;[4] at the time this was often seen as an expensive burden.

In 1992 the Labour candidate until a few weeks before the election, David Abrahams, was deselected following a series of rows within the local party over his personal life and business interests.

It emerged in 2007 that he used the name "David Martin" when dealing with tenants in his various rental properties in the Newcastle area,[6] and that he had claimed that he lived with his wife and son, though he had never been married.

1983–1997: The District of Richmondshire, and the District of Hambleton wards of Appleton Wiske, Bedale, Brompton, Broughton and Greenhow, Carlton Miniott, Crakehall, Great Ayton, Hillside, Leeming, Leeming Bar, Morton-on-Swale, Northallerton North East, Northallerton South East, Northallerton West, Osmotherley, Romanby, Romanby Broomfield, Rudby, Sowerby, Stokesley, Swainby, Tanfield, The Cowtons, The Thorntons, Thirsk, Topcliffe, and Whitestonecliffe.

It is a mostly affluent rural area with a significant commuter population, covering parts of the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales National Parks, including Wensleydale and Swaledale.

It contained the market towns of Northallerton, Richmond, Leyburn, Bedale, Hawes and Stokesley, along with Great Ayton and other villages.

The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected; Dundas succeeded to the peerage, becoming 2nd Earl of Zetland and causing a by-election.