Basildon (UK Parliament constituency)
Encyclopedia : B : BA : BAS : Basildon (UK Parliament constituency)
| Borough constituency | |
|---|---|
|
| |
| Basildon shown within Essex, and Essex shown within England | |
| Created: | 1974 |
| MP: | Angela Smith |
| Party: | Labour Co-operative |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| County: | Essex |
| EP constituency: | East of England |
Basildon is a 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.
It is one of the best known bellwether constituencies in the UK, having voted for the winning party in each election since its creation. The failure of the Labour Party to win it in the 1992 election, which was the first result in a marginal seat to be declared, prefixed that party's failure to dislodge the Conservative majority.
Boundaries
Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission for England has made radical changes to all parliamentary constituncies in the county in time for the 2009/10 UK General Election.Basildon constituency is to be divided. The largest element is to be merged with Billericay to form a new Basildon and Billericay constituency, whilst the southern electoral wards will form a new constituency of South Basildon and East Thurrock
Profile
A famously Conservative seat between 1979 and 1997, this quintessential "Essex man" constituency is based on the new town of Basildon. Much of its population are, or are descended, from the East End of London, which traditionally voted mostly Labour. But throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, many transferred their loyalties to the Tories, much to Labour's embarrassment. The Conservative MP here in those years, the voluable David Amess, was himself from Plaistow in East London. He has since travelled to the safer seat of Southend West, but Labour had an unconvincing majority in 2005 after comfortable victories in 1997 and 2001, and the seat is certainly marginal again.Members of Parliament
- 1974 – 1979: Eric Moonman, Labour
- 1979 – 1983: Harvey Proctor, Conservative
- 1983 – 1997: David Amess, Conservative
- 1997 – "present": Angela Smith, Labour Co-operative
Election results
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.