The seat subsumes parts of the former Reading West and Reading East constituencies but, unlike them, the whole of the new constituency will be within the Borough of Reading.
Whilst both Reading constituencies could have remained unchanged, the boundary commission instead proposed a reconfiguration to account for the increased electorates of the surrounding constituencies, and to better reflect local ties in the surrounding communities. This involved the creation of two new constituencies, Earley and Woodley and Mid Berkshire (renamed Reading West and Mid Berkshire in the final proposals), both with the bulk of their electorate outside the Borough of Reading but including outer wards of the borough, together with a new Reading constituency entirely within the borough.[4]
During the process of acceptance of these proposals, the name was changed from Reading to Reading Central.[2][4]
On 5 February 2024, the Liberal Democrats selected Henry Wright, a local NHS worker, as their candidate. On 12 March, the Green Party selected Dave McElroy, a local councillor, as their candidate. On 31 May, after the General Election was called, the Conservative Party selected Raj Singh, a local councillor, as their candidate. Matt Rodda, the former MP for the Reading East constituency, was selected by the Labour Party to stand as their candidate in Late 2023.[6][7][8][9]
Boundaries
The constituency is defined as being composed of the following wards of the Borough of Reading as they existed on 1 December 2020:
The Battle, Minster and Southcote wards were previously in Reading West, with the remainder, comprising 73% of the new seat, in Reading East.[10]
As a result of a local government boundary review[11] which came into effect in May 2022,[12] the constituency now comprises the following Borough of Reading wards from the 2024 general election:
Electoral Calculus characterises the seat as "Progressive", with soft left or liberal views and high levels of university education.[16] Incomes and house prices in the seat are slightly higher than UK averages.
^A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
^For the purposes of this definition, the Boundary Commission have used the borough ward names and definitions as existed prior to 2022 rather than the current names and definitions.
