Riding profile

Rochdale

UK constituency — England · Mixed · north west

The question

Rochdale: will Labour lose this seat to Reform UK?

Editorial read

Rochdale, a mixed constituency in England, elected a member with Labour in the previous cycle, with a 4-point margin. The Vote-Scope model projects Reform UK ahead at 30% vote share, against 22% for another party, and the probability of a close race is negligible.

Sitting member

Paul Waugh

Sits with Labour

Since
2024-07-04
Parliament
59th

Current forecast

Reform UK

Safe

Probability
100%
Mean margin (pts)
8.1
P(close race)
0%

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Reform UK 29.8%
  • Other 21.5%
  • Labour 21.4%
  • Green 9.6%
  • Conservative 9.2%
  • Lib Dems 8.3%

In context

How this riding stacks up

Reform UK Other Labour Green
HereRochdale 29.8%21.5%21.4%9.6%
National averageUnited Kingdom 25.3% +4.4 4.8% +16.8 21.7% −0.3 11.8% −2.3

Nationwide averages computed across the 650 riding-level projections (unweighted mean).

Previous election · UK 2024

Won by
Labour
Margin
3.6 pts
Margin shift vs current projection
+4.5 pts

Detailed result · UK 2024

Candidates and votes

Candidate Party Votes % Occupation
Paul Waugh Elected Labour 13,027 32.8
George Galloway Other 11,587 29.2
Michael Howard Reform UK 6,773 17.1
Paul Ellison Conservative 4,273 10.8
Andy Kelly Lib Dems 2,816 7.1
Martyn Savin Green 1,212 3.0

Demographics

Who lives here

Population
104,444
Median age
36
Employment rate
65.7%

Data source : ONS mid-2022 population + Jan 2026 labour market

Last model run
Cycle
uk_2029