County West Sussex Major settlements Crawley European Parliament constituency South East England Major settlement Crawley | Electorate 74,369 (May 2015) Created 1983 Member of parliament Henry Smith Number of members 1 | |
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Created from Horsham and Crawley and Mid Sussex Replaced by Horsham and Crawley, Mid Sussex | ||
Crawley is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Henry Smith of the Conservative Party.
Contents
Boundaries
1983-1997: The Borough of Crawley, and the District of Mid Sussex wards of Balcombe, Copthorne and Worth, Crawley Down, Slaugham, and Turners Hill.
1997-present: The Borough of Crawley.
The constituency covers the whole of the town and borough of Crawley in West Sussex which includes London Gatwick Airport. Crawley borders Horsham in the same county on all sides other than the north, where it borders a part of East Surrey.
The Boundary Commission analysed population increase and recommended that no changes to the constituency were made for the 2010 general election so the seat remains coterminous with the borough.
History
Before the 1983 General Election, Crawley had been part of the Horsham & Crawley, Horsham, and Horsham & Worthing constituencies at times. Due to the growth of Crawley, which was a small town, into a substantial new town in the 1960s and 70s, the Boundary Commission took the decision to separate it from Horsham in 1983 and create a new seat. Labour majorities with comfortable victories in 1997 and 2001 suggested a safe seat, but the sometimes volatile nature of new town voters, especially in South-East England, made the seat highly marginal in 2005. Labour had a majority of 37 votes in the 2005 election, making this seat the most marginal in the UK. The 2010 election saw Henry Smith win the seat at the third attempt, beating Labour's Chris Oxlade by 5,928, on an (averaged two-party) swing of 6.3%.
Elections in the 2010s
The Christian Peoples Alliance announced Katherine Mills as candidate, but she did not stand.
Elections in the 1990s
This constituency underwent boundary changes between the 1992 and 1997 general
elections and thus change in share of vote is based on a notional calculation.