South East Cambridgeshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 52°07′52″N 0°18′36″E / 52.131°N 0.310°E / 52.131; 0.310

South East Cambridgeshire is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Lucy Frazer, a Conservative.^{[n 2]}

Boundaries

1983-1997: The District of East Cambridgeshire wards of Bottisham, Burwell, Cheveley, Dullingham Villages, Ely North, Ely South, Ely West, Fordham Villages, Isleham, Soham, The Swaffhams, and Woodditton, and the District of South Cambridgeshire wards of Abington, Balsham, Bar Hill, Castle Camps, Coton, Cottenham, Elsworth, Fulbourn, Girton, Histon, Linton, Longstanton, Milton, Over, Swavesey, Teversham, The Wilbrahams, Waterbeach, and Willingham.

1997-2010: The District of East Cambridgeshire wards of Bottisham, Burwell, Cheveley, Dullingham Villages, Ely North, Ely South, Ely West, Fordham Villages, Haddenham, Isleham, Soham, Stretham, The Swaffhams, Witchford, and Woodditton, and the District of South Cambridgeshire wards of Abington, Balsham, Castle Camps, Cottenham, Fulbourn, Histon, Linton, Milton, Over, Teversham, The Wilbrahams, Waterbeach, and Willingham.

2010-present: The District of East Cambridgeshire wards of Bottisham, Burwell, Cheveley, Dullingham Villages, Ely East, Ely North, Ely South, Ely West, Fordham Villages, Haddenham, Isleham, Soham North, Soham South, Stretham, and The Swaffhams, and the District of South Cambridgeshire wards of Balsham, Fulbourn, Histon and Impington, Linton, Milton, Teversham, The Wilbrahams, Waterbeach, and Willingham and Over.

The constituency includes the eastern half of South Cambridgeshire district and the southern part of East Cambridgeshire. Ely is the city, in fact with cathedral city status, and largest community, with many smaller settlements including Burwell, Fulbourn, Isleham, Linton, Milton, Soham and Waterbeach.

History

The constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the former seats of Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely. Its first MP, Francis Pym, was a Conservative Cabinet Minister, serving in roles such as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1973-4) in the Heath government, and Secretary of State for Defence (1979-81), Leader of the House of Commons (1981-2) and most prominently Foreign Secretary (1982-3, during the Falklands War) under Thatcher. However, during the four years he served South East Cambridgeshire, he was a Tory 'wet' backbencher, having been sacked by Thatcher for famously remarking during the 1983 election that "Landslides don't on the whole produce successful governments."

It has to date been a safe Conservative seat, although in 2010 the margin was cut to a relatively small 10.3% by the Liberal Democrat candidate (possibly helped by controversies surrounding the Labour candidate). In 2015 and 2017 Labour achieved the largest increase in their share of the vote, and in 2017 achieved their highest ever voteshare in the seat (27.7%) and overtook the Liberal Democrats for the first time since 1997; despite this, the Conservatives achieved over 50% of the vote in the seat for the first time since 1992.

According to approximate analysis of the 2016 EU referendum, South East Cambridgeshire (which is made up of wards from East Cambridgeshire District Council, which voted 51% to leave, and South Cambridgeshire District Council, which voted 60% to remain) voted 54% to remain in the EU. ^[2]

Constituency profile

Workless claimants were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.4% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.^[3]

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2017: South East Cambridgeshire ^[5][6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Lucy Frazer	33,601	53.3	4.9
	Labour	Huw Jones	17,443	27.7	12.5
	Liberal Democrat	Lucy Nethsingha	11,958	19.0	1.2
Majority			16,158	25.6	2.7
Turnout			63,002	73.0	2.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	3.8

General Election 2015: South East Cambridgeshire^[7][8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Lucy Frazer [9][n 3]	28,845	48.5	0.5
	Liberal Democrat	Jonathan Chatfield [11]	12,008	20.2	17.5
	Labour	Huw Jones [12]	9,013	15.1	7.5
	UKIP	Deborah Rennie [13]	6,593	11.1	7.4
	Green	Clive Semmens [14]	3,047	5.1	3.8
Majority			16,837	28.3	18.0
Turnout			59,506	70.4	1.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	9.0

General Election 2010: South East Cambridgeshire^[15][16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	James Paice	27,629	48.0	0.8[17]
	Liberal Democrat	Jonathan Chatfield	21,683	37.6	6.2
	Labour	John Cowan	4,380	7.6	13.8 [n 4]
	UKIP	Andy Monk	2,138	3.7	N/A
	Green	Simon Sedgwick-Jell	766	1.3	N/A
	Independent	Geoffrey Woollard	517	0.9	N/A
	Christian Peoples	Daniel Bell	489	0.8	N/A
Majority			5,946	10.3	5.1
Turnout			57,602	69.3	4.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	2.7

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: South East Cambridgeshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	James Paice	26,374	47.1	2.9
	Liberal Democrat	Jonathan Chatfield	17,750	31.7	4.8
	Labour	Fiona Ross	11,936	21.3	5.1
Majority			8,624	15.4	1.9
Turnout			56,060	65.3	1.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	1.0

General Election 2001: South East Cambridgeshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	James Paice	22,927	44.2	1.2
	Liberal Democrat	Sal Brinton	13,937	26.9	1.8
	Labour	Andrew Inchley	13,714	26.4	0.1
	UKIP	Neil Scarr	1,308	2.5	N/A
Majority			8,990	17.3	-
Turnout			51,886	63.5	10.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	0.3

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: South East Cambridgeshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	James Paice	24,397	42.9	15.0
	Labour	Rex Collinson	15,048	26.5	6.5
	Liberal Democrat	Sal Brinton	14,246	25.1	4.8
	Referendum	John Howlett	2,838	5.0	N/A
	Building a Fair Society	Karl Lam	167	0.3	N/A
	Natural Law	Peter While	111	0.2	0.2
Majority			9,349	17.3	20.2
Turnout			56,807	75.1	5.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	10.8

General Election 1992: South East Cambridgeshire^[20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	James Paice	36,693	57.9	0.9
	Liberal Democrat	Ronald Wotherspoon	12,883	20.3	7.2
	Labour	Arthur Jones	12,688	20.0	6.3
	Green	John Marsh	836	1.3	N/A
	Natural Law	Bridget Langridge	231	0.4	N/A
Majority			23,810	37.5	6.2
Turnout			63,331	80.6	3.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	3.2

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: South East Cambridgeshire^[21]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	James Paice	32,901	58.8	1.2
	Social Democratic	Peter Lee	15,399	27.5	2.3
	Labour	Thomas Ling	7,694	13.7	1.1
Majority			17,502	31.3	3.5
Turnout			55,994	77.4	3.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	1.8

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Cambridgeshire

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

South East Cambridgeshire Conservative Association