South Basildon and East Thurrock (UK Parliament constituency)

South Basildon and East Thurrock
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons

Outline map

Boundary of South Basildon and East Thurrock in Essex.

Outline map

Location of Essex within England.
County Essex
Electorate 71,819 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created 2010
Member of parliament Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative)
Number of members One
Created from Basildon, Billericay and Thurrock[2]
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency East of England

South Basildon and East Thurrock is a constituency[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation by Stephen Metcalfe, a Conservative.[n 2]

History

Its predecessor seat, Basildon, was a much-referenced bellwether seat, having consistently voted for the most successful party (in terms of number of seats) in each election since its 1974 creation. In 2010, South Basildon and East Thurrock maintained this tradition by electing a Conservative MP, Stephen Metcalfe. The average Essex swing voters to which either party needs to appeal to win an election (matching the national outcome since 1966), have been represented by the combination of the old Billericay seat and its southern-part, Basildon replacements, this being the latest of these.

Before 1974 the area came within the older version of the Billericay constituency and, for just five years before 1950, this area was the eastern part of the Thurrock seat – from 1885–1945 the area was within the South East Essex seat. From 1832–1885 the area was in the South Essex seat.

Boundaries

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission for England made a number of radical changes to existing constituencies to allow for an extra seat to be awarded to the county.

Despite its long name, this new constituency is to the greatest extent the successor to the Basildon constituency.[3]

The Basildon constituency that existed after 1997 was never wholly within the Basildon district, nor even contained the whole of the Basildon urban area, but it extended south into the Thurrock council area to take in towns such as Stanford-le-Hope and Corringham.

This new seat retains all of the Thurrock wards, loses some areas around central Basildon, and replaces them with Pitsea to the east of Basildon. Additionally, the ward of East Tilbury is added from the Thurrock constituency.

The electoral wards in the seat are:

Constituency profile

Economically the seat has a very similar proportion of jobseekers to the national average seat 3.8%, at 4.0%, (based on The Guardian's November 2012 study). This is higher than the average for the Eastern counties of 3.1% but significantly lower than Bedford, Great Yarmouth, Peterborough, Luton South, Rochford and Southend East, and Thurrock seats.[4]

Members of Parliament

ElectionMember[5] Party
2010 Stephen Metcalfe Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: South Basildon and East Thurrock[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Stephen Metcalfe 19,788 43.4 -0.5
UKIP Ian Luder [7] 12,097 26.5 +20.6
Labour Mike Le-Surf [8] 11,493 25.2 -5.8
Liberal Democrat Geoff Williams[9] 1,356 3.0 -10.4
Independent Kerry Smith[10] 401 0.9 N/A
Independent None Of The Above X 253 0.6 +0.3
Independent Stuart Hooper[11] 205 0.4 N/A
Majority 7,692 16.9
Turnout 45,593 64.1
Conservative hold Swing 2.6
General Election 2010: South Basildon and East Thurrock[12][13][14]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Stephen Metcalfe 19,624 43.9 +5.3
Labour Angela Evans Smith* 13,852 31.0 -9.7
Liberal Democrat Geoff Williams 5,977 13.4 +2.8
UKIP Kerry Smith 2,639 5.9 +3.3
BNP Chris Roberts 2,518 5.6 +0.8
Independent None of the Above X 125 0.3 N/A
Majority 5,772 12.9%
Turnout 44,735 62.3% +3.0%
* Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament

See also

Notes and references

Notes
  1. ↑ A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
  2. ↑ As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
References
  1. ↑ "Electorate Figures – Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  2. ↑ "Basildon South and Thurrock East' UK Parliament, 6 May 2010 -". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  3. ↑ 2010 post-revision map non-metropolitan areas and unitary authorities of England
  4. ↑ Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
  5. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)
  6. ↑ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  7. ↑ http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/basildonsouthandthurrockeast/
  8. ↑ http://www.labour.org.uk/candidates
  9. ↑ http://www.libdems.org.uk/general_election_candidates#East of England
  10. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30708132
  11. ↑ http://www.yourthurrock.com/List-General-Election-candidates-South-Basildon/story-26317247-detail/story.html
  12. ↑ Statement of Persons Nominated Basildon Council
  13. ↑ "BBC NEWS – Election 2010 – Basildon South & Thurrock East". BBC News.
  14. ↑ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.

Coordinates: 51°32′08″N 0°28′48″E / 51.5355°N 0.4800°E / 51.5355; 0.4800

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