North West Norfolk (UK Parliament constituency)

North West Norfolk
County constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of North West Norfolk in Norfolk.
Location of Norfolk within England.
County	Norfolk
Electorate	73,269 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created	1974 (1974)
Member of Parliament	Henry Bellingham (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	King's Lynn
1885 (1885)–1918 (1918)
Number of members	One
Replaced by	King's Lynn
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	East of England

North West Norfolk is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.

Contents 1 History 2 Boundaries 3 Constituency profile 4 Members of Parliament 4.1 MPs 1885-1918 4.2 MPs since 1974 5 Elections 5.1 Elections in the 2010s 5.2 Elections in the 2000s 5.3 Elections in the 1990s 6 See also 7 Notes and references

History

The constituency was created under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1918 general election. It was re-established for the February 1974 general election, replacing the former King's Lynn constituency.

The Conservatives won the seat on its recreation in 1974, though in March 1981 the sitting Conservative MP, Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler, became the only Conservative MP to defect to the newly formed Social Democratic Party. Brocklebank-Fowler lost his seat to the new Conservative candidate Henry Bellingham at the 1983 general election. Bellingham increased his lead over Brocklebank-Fowler at the 1987 general election. Brocklebank-Fowler chose to contest the South Norfolk constituency instead at the 1992 general election and Labour regained second place, almost doubling their share of the vote. Labour gained the seat at the 1997 general election but Bellingham regained the seat at the 2001 general election and increased his majority subsequently in both 2005 and 2010.

The latter election provoked controversy when the Labour candidate for North West Norfolk, Manish Sood, a Leicester councillor,^[2] stated in an interview with the local newspaper Lynn News that Gordon Brown was "the worst prime minister we have had in this country", which gained national attention and resulted in Labour disowning their candidate. Sood did not attend the count and stated he would watch it from his home in Leicester.^[3] He finished third, behind Bellingham and the Liberal Democrat candidate William Summers, whose party received their best ever result in the constituency,^[4] with an 18.3% swing against Labour.^[5][6][7]

Boundaries

For the general elections from 1997 to 2005 North West Norfolk consisted of 30 wards from the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. The boundary changes which took effect for the 2010 general election transferred four wards in the areas of Walton, Marshland St. James, Tilney St Lawrence, and Wiggenhall to the South West Norfolk constituency creating a smaller North West Norfolk constituency.

Constituency profile

Norfolk North West constituency covers an extensive hinterland in the far corner of East Anglia - remote from East London and Essex, but close to Lincolnshire and the East Midlands, with which the area arguably has more in common.

King's Lynn is a town with its fair share of poverty and social problems in some quarters - within the relatively affluent East Anglia region, only Jaywick and Great Yarmouth tend to score higher in deprivation indices.

Also in the constituency is the tourist resort of Hunstanton and the royal estate at Sandringham, along with many small villages and acres of farmland, all of which add up to a seat that should be safely Conservative in all but the very worst years for the party.

Labour's share of the vote has fallen from a winning 43.8% in the 1997 election to just 13.3% in 2010. No seat in the country has swung more heavily against Labour since they came to power.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1885-1918

Election		Member [8]	Party
	1885	Joseph Arch	Liberal
	1886	Lord Henry Cavendish-Bentinck
	1892	Joseph Arch	Liberal
	1900	Sir George White	Liberal
	1912 by-election	Edward George Hemmerde	Liberal
	1918	constituency abolished: see King's Lynn

MPs since 1974

Election		Member [8]	Party
	Feb. 1974	Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler	Conservative
	1981		SDP
	1983	Henry Bellingham	Conservative
	1997	George Turner	Labour
	2001	Henry Bellingham	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: North West Norfolk[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Bellingham	25,916	54.2	+4.3
	Liberal Democrat	William Summers	11,106	23.2	+8.5
	Labour	Manish Sood	6,353	13.3	-18.3
	UKIP	John William Gray	1,841	3.9	+0.2
	BNP	David Fleming	1,839	3.8	+3.8
	Green	Mike de Whalley	745	1.6	+1.6
Majority			14,810	31.0
Turnout			47,800	65.3	+3.7
	Conservative hold		Swing	+11.3

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: North West Norfolk
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Bellingham	25,471	50.3	+1.8
	Labour	Damien Welfare	16,291	32.2	-9.5
	Liberal Democrat	Simon Higginson	7,026	13.9	+5.5
	UKIP	Michael Stone	1,861	3.7	+2.3
Majority			9,180	18.1	+11.3
Turnout			50,649	61.6	-3.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	+5.7

General Election 2001: North West Norfolk
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Bellingham	24,846	48.5	+7.0
	Labour	George Turner	21,361	41.7	-2.1
	Liberal Democrat	Ian Mack	4,292	8.4	-1.2
	UKIP	Ian Durrant	704	1.4	N/A
Majority			3,485	6.8
Turnout			51,203	65.1	-9.7
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: North West Norfolk[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Turner	25,250	43.8	+10.2
	Conservative	Henry Bellingham	23,911	41.5	-10.6
	Liberal Democrat	E Knowles	5,513	9.6	-4.2
	Referendum Party	R Percival	2,923	5.1	N/A
Majority			1,339	2.3
Turnout				74.7	-6.0
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	10.4

General Election 1992: North West Norfolk[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Bellingham	32,554	52.1	+1.6
	Labour	George Turner	20,990	33.6	+16.1
	Liberal Democrat	AM Waterman	8,599	13.8	−18.2
	Natural Law	SRA Pink	330	0.5	N/A
Majority			11,564	18.5	−0.1
Turnout			62,473	80.7	+1.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	−7.3

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Norfolk

Notes and references

Constituencies in the East of England (58) Conservative (52) Basildon and Billericay Bedford Braintree Brentwood and Ongar Broadland Broxbourne Bury St Edmunds Castle Point Central Suffolk and North Ipswich Chelmsford Clacton Epping Forest Great Yarmouth Harlow Harwich and North Essex Hemel Hempstead Hertford and Stortford Hertsmere Hitchin and Harpenden Huntingdon Ipswich Maldon Mid Bedfordshire Mid Norfolk North East Bedfordshire North East Cambridgeshire North East Hertfordshire North West Cambridgeshire North West Norfolk Norwich North Peterborough Rayleigh and Wickford Rochford and Southend East Saffron Walden St Albans South Basildon and East Thurrock South Cambridgeshire South East Cambridgeshire Southend West South Norfolk South Suffolk South West Bedfordshire South West Hertfordshire South West Norfolk Stevenage Suffolk Coastal Thurrock Watford Waveney Welwyn Hatfield West Suffolk Witham Liberal Democrats (4) Cambridge Colchester North Norfolk Norwich South Labour (2) Luton North Luton South East of England European constituency: Conservative (3) UKIP (2) Liberal Democrats (1) Labour (1)