[4] A statistical compilation by The Guardian showed unemployment benefits claimants in the constituency for April 2013 were 3.3% of the population, lower than the regional average of 3.6%.

[6] This rose at the time of the 2017 general election to 55,635, or 69.8% of those eligible to vote, which was a percentage point higher than the national turnout of 68.8%.

It was represented by Sir David Madel, a Conservative, from its creation until his retirement in 2001; he almost suffered one of the biggest upsets of the 1997 general election, when the Labour candidate spectacularly slashed his majority from 21,273 in 1992 to just 132.

The 2010 election also saw the second-placed candidate's party change, to the Liberal Democrats, similar to the results of 1983 and 1987, when this was the joint platform for R. Byfield and J.R. Burrow respectively, the (SDP-Liberal Alliance).

The constituency was formed largely from the bulk of the abolished seat of South Bedfordshire, including Dunstable, Houghton Regis, Leighton Buzzard and Linslade.