Saffron Walden was a constituency[n 1] in Essex, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 1922 to 2024 by members of the Conservative Party.

[2] The constituency was by far the largest and most rural in Essex and covered the entire north-west corner of the county, an area of almost 400 square miles (1,000 km2).

The largest single source of employment in the constituency is Stansted Airport, while there are also a host of small businesses, many of them high-tech, along and at the ends of the London–Cambridge corridor.

The boundaries were redrawn under the Representation of the People Act 1918, then remained virtually unchanged until changes brought in for the 2010 general election by the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies.

The constituency mostly voted in Liberal Party MPs in its earlier history, but has been a Conservative safe seat based on election results since 1922, in which period the majorities have occasionally been marginal.

It was held for many years by former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler and by former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Alan Haselhurst.