Oxford East | |
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Borough constituency | |
for the House of Commons | |
Boundary of Oxford East in Oxfordshire. |
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Location of Oxfordshire within England. |
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County | Oxfordshire |
Electorate | 81,644 (December 2010)[1] |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1983 |
Member of Parliament | Andrew Smith (Labour) |
Number of members | One |
Created from | Oxford |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | South East England |
Oxford East is a borough 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 system of election. The current MP is Andrew Smith of the Labour Party, first elected at the 1987 general election.
Contents |
Until 1983, the whole of Oxford, including most of this seat, was part of the Oxford constituency.
The 1997 boundary changes moved two semi-rural Conservative-leaning wards out of the seat, and incorporated the urban Oxford South ward that was strong for the Liberal Democrats and Labour.
The constituency covers the eastern and southern parts of Oxford in Oxfordshire. It borders Oxford West and Abingdon to the West and Henley to the North, East and South.
The constituency includes Oxford city centre and the majority of the Oxford Colleges, Cowley (famous for its car factory) and the Blackbird Leys council estate, but there is a large percentage of student voters from both Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities (the latter being based in the seat, in leafy suburban Headington).
Due to the high student, and university-related, vote, Labour came within a thousand votes of losing the seat to the Lib Dems at the 2005 election with such issues as the Iraq War and top-up fees losing many votes for former Work and Pensions Secretary Andrew Smith.
Following their review of parliamentary representation in Oxfordshire, the Boundary Commission for England has made minor changes to the existing arrangement as a consequence of population changes.
The modified Oxford East constituency consists of the following electoral wards from Oxford City Council:
These changes have the effect of moving the Carfax and Holywell wards into Oxford East from Oxford West and Abingdon. This means that Oxford city centre and the majority of Oxford Colleges now sit in Oxford East, whereas they had previously sat in Oxford West and Abingdon for the most part. It was expected that this would benefit the Liberal Democrats in this marginal constituency, however, in a schock result, when the seat was first contested on its new boundaries in 2010, the Labour incumbent Andrew Smith managed to quadruple his majority.
In 2008 Labour won 11 of the wards, Lib Dems 4, the Greens 3 and the Independent Working Class Association 1.
When created in 1983, the seat was won by the Conservative Steve Norris. In 1987 he was defeated by the current Labour incumbent, former Cabinet minister, Andrew Smith.
Election | Member[2] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
1983 | Steve Norris | Conservative | |
1987 | Andrew Smith | Labour |
General Election 2010: Oxford East | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Andrew Smith | 21,938 | 42.5 | +6.5 | |
Liberal Democrat | Steve Goddard | 17,357 | 33.6 | −1.6 | |
Conservative | Ed Argar | 9,727 | 18.8 | +1.5 | |
Green | Sushila Dhall[3] | 1,238 | 2.4 | −2.1 | |
UKIP | Julia Gasper | 1,202 | 2.3 | +0.6 | |
Socialist Equality | David O'Sullivan | 116 | 0.2 | N/A | |
Equal Parenting Alliance | Roger Crawford | 73 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Majority | 4,581 | 8.9 | |||
Turnout | 51,651 | 63.1 | +5.6 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | +4.2 |
General Election 2005: Oxford East | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Andrew Smith | 15,405 | 36.9 | −12.5 | |
Liberal Democrat | Steve Goddard | 14,442 | 34.6 | +11.2 | |
Conservative | Virginia Morris | 6,992 | 16.7 | −2.0 | |
Green | Jacob Sanders | 1,813 | 4.3 | +0.5 | |
Independent ('New Loony') | Honest Blair | 1,485 | 3.6 | N/A | |
Independent Working Class | Maurice Leen | 892 | 2.1 | N/A | |
UKIP | Peter Gardner | 715 | 1.7 | +0.3 | |
Independent | Pathmanathan Mylvaganam | 46 | 0.1 | -0.1 | |
Majority | 963 | 2.3 | |||
Turnout | 41,790 | 57.9 | +2.1 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | −11.8 |
General Election 2001: Oxford East | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Andrew Smith | 19,681 | 49.4 | -7.4 | |
Liberal Democrat | Steve Goddard | 9,337 | 23.4 | +8.7 | |
Conservative | Cheryl Potter | 7,446 | 18.7 | -3.3 | |
Green | Pritam Singh | 1,501 | 3.8 | +1.7 | |
Socialist Alliance | John Lister | 708 | 1.8 | N/A | |
UKIP | Peter Gardner | 570 | 1.4 | +0.9 | |
Socialist Labour | Fahim Ahmed | 274 | 0.7 | N/A | |
ProLife Alliance | Linda Hodge | 254 | 0.6 | -0.1 | |
Independent | Pathmanathan Mylvaganam | 77 | 0.2 | 0.0 | |
Majority | 10,344 | 26.0 | |||
Turnout | 39,848 | 55.8 | -12.6 | ||
Labour hold | Swing |
General Election 1997: Oxford East[4][5][6] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Andrew Smith | 27,205 | 56.8 | +6.6 | |
Conservative | Jonathan Djanogly | 10,540 | 22.0 | −11.5 | |
Liberal Democrat | George Kershaw | 7,038 | 14.7 | +0.7 | |
Referendum Party | Martin Young | 1,391 | 2.9 | N/A | |
Green | Craig Simmons | 975 | 2.0 | +0.0 | |
ProLife Alliance | William Harper-Jones | 318 | 0.7 | N/A | |
UKIP | Peter Gardner | 234 | 0.5 | N/A | |
Natural Law | John Thompson | 108 | 0.2 | N/A | |
Independent | Pathmanathan Mylvaganam | 68 | 0.2 | N/A | |
Majority | 16,665 | 34.8 | +18.1 | ||
Turnout | 47,877 | 68.4 | |||
Labour hold | Swing | +9.1 |
General Election 1992: Oxford East[7][8] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Andrew Smith | 23,702 | 50.4 | +7.4 | |
Conservative | Dr Mark Mayall | 16,164 | 34.3 | −6.1 | |
Liberal Democrat | Martin Horwood | 6,105 | 13.0 | −2.6 | |
Green | Caroline Lucas | 933 | 2.0 | +1.1 | |
Natural Law | Miss Ann M. Wilson | 101 | 0.2 | N/A | |
Revolutionary Communist | Keith Thompson | 48 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Majority | 7,538 | 16.1 | +13.5 | ||
Turnout | 47,053 | 74.6 | −4.3 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | +6.8 |
General Election 1987: Oxford East | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Andrew Smith | 21,103 | 43.0 | +5.7 | |
Conservative | Stephen Norris | 19,815 | 40.4 | +0.4 | |
Liberal | M Godden | 7,648 | 15.6 | -7.1 | |
Green | D Dalton | 441 | 0.9 | N/A | |
Independent | Pathmanathan Mylvaganam | 60 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Majority | 1,288 | 2.6 | −0.1 | ||
Turnout | 78.9 | +5.0 | |||
Labour gain from Conservative | Swing | +2.7 |
General Election 1983: Oxford East | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | Stephen Norris | 18,808 | 40.0 | ||
Labour | Andrew Smith | 17,541 | 37.3 | ||
Liberal | M Godden | 10,690 | 22.7 | ||
Majority | 1,267 | 2.7 | |||
Turnout | 73.9 |
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