Designated a county constituency and containing a great deal more territory than just the ancient city, this seat was drawn to be identical to the City of Durham local government unit and its name distinguishes it from the six other seats in County Durham. Gerry Steinberg, MP here since 1987, recorded a majority of 22,504 in 1997.
The seat contains an ancient and beautiful city with an esteemed university based on the collegiate system of Oxbridge. It has a reasonable employment rate, a fair number of professionals and more non-manual workers than manual. This constituency has been held by Labour since 1935 and is in the heart of what was the former mining industry, and still hosts the minerís annual gala, which amongst other things celebrates the links between the industry and the Labour movement.
The centre challenged for the seat in 1983 when the SDP came within 2,000 votes of unseating Labourís Dr Mark Hughes. However, since the decline and extinction of the SDP, Liberal Democrat candidates here have struggled to make their mark.