Witham (UK Parliament constituency)
Witham | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
Boundary of Witham in Essex. | |
Location of Essex within England. | |
County | Essex |
Electorate | 67,451 (December 2010)[1] |
Current constituency | |
Created | 2010 |
Member of parliament | Priti Patel (Conservative) |
Number of members | One |
Created from | Braintree, Colchester |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | East of England |
Witham is a parliamentary 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.
On 20 November 2006, Priti Patel was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the seat at the 2010 election. She won the seat with a majority of 15,196; an increase against the notional Conservative majority of 7,241 votes (17.29%), (according to Media Guide To The New Parliamentary Constituencies, Rallings & Thrasher).
Boundaries
Following a review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission for England made radical alterations to existing constituencies to allow for an extra seat to be created due to increased population. As a consequence, electoral wards from the districts of Braintree, Colchester and Maldon were used to create a new constituency of Witham.
- From Braintree
- Black Notley and Terling, Bradwell, Silver End and Rivenhall, Coggeshall and North Feering, Hatfield Peverel, Kelvedon, Witham Chipping Hill and Central, Witham North, Witham South, and Witham West
- From Maldon
- Great Totham, Tollesbury, Tolleshunt D'Arcy, and Wickham Bishops and Woodham
- From Colchester
Constituency profile
One of the safest Conservative seats in the county, and by extension one of the safest in the United Kingdom, Essex's newest seat seems likely to return only Conservative members, though paradoxically, the town of Witham is the only area of real Labour strength in the region.
Witham itself is an industrial town, on the Great Eastern main line railway from London to Norwich, with some heavy industry and London commuter belt residential areas - the strength of the Labour vote here was just enough to turn the former Braintree seat red in 1997 on the previous boundaries.
However, the town is small, and the Witham seat extends to cover a huge part of rural central Essex where affluent commuter villages and farming communities sit side by side, united in almost universal support for the Conservatives.
Members of Parliament
Election | Member[2] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Priti Patel | Conservative | |
Elections
Elections in the 2010s
General Election 2015: Witham[3] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Green | James Abbott[4] | ||||
Labour | John Clarke | ||||
UKIP | Garry Cockrill[5] | ||||
Liberal Democrat | Josephine Hayes[6] | ||||
Conservative | Priti Patel | ||||
Christian Peoples | Doreen Scrimshaw[7] | ||||
General Election 2010: Witham[8] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | Priti Patel | 24,448 | 52.2 | +2.5 | |
Liberal Democrat | Margaret Phelps | 9,252 | 19.8 | +4.6 | |
Labour | John Spademan | 8,656 | 18.5 | -13.9 | |
UKIP | David Hodges | 3,060 | 6.5 | +3.8 | |
Green | James Abbott | 1,419 | 3.0 | +3.0 | |
Majority | 15,196 | 32.4 | |||
Turnout | 46,835 | 70.2 | +6.6 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +1.1 | |||
See also
Notes and references
- ↑ "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 4)
- ↑ UK Polling report
- ↑ http://witham-braintree.greenparty.org.uk/news/2014-11-19-candidates.html
- ↑ http://meetyournextmp.com/area/287-witham/humans
- ↑ http://www.libdems.org.uk/general_election_candidates#East of England
- ↑ "CPA Candidates for the General Election". Christian Peoples Alliance. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
- ↑ UK Polling report - Braintree