County Isle of Wight Created 1832 Member of parliament Andrew Turner | Electorate 105,448 European Parliament constituency South East England Number of members 1 | |
 | ||
Created from Hampshire
Newtown
Yarmouth Replaced by Hampshire, Newtown, Yarmouth | ||
Isle of Wight (/ˈwaɪt/) is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2001 by Andrew Turner of the Conservative Party.
Contents
Created by the Great Reform Act for the 1832 general election it covers the whole of the Isle of Wight and has had the largest electorate of any constituency in all General Elections since 1983.
Boundaries
The Isle of Wight forms a single constituency of the House of Commons. It covers exactly the same land as the ceremonial county of the Isle of Wight and the area administered by the unitary authority, Isle of Wight Council, which comprises the island itself together with a few uninhabited rocks.
Its electorate of 110,924 (as of 2010) is by far the largest in the UK, being more than 50% above the England average of 71,537 and five times the size of the smallest (Na h-Eileanan an Iar, formerly known as the Western Isles), despite the Isle of Wight having some of the same problems as other island constituencies.
Recent history
Successive Boundary Commission Reports considered the possibility of splitting the island into two constituencies (or possibly having a constituency crossing the Solent onto the mainland) but with a distinct lack of local enthusiasm for either option the Boundary Commission, party-interested and neutral commentators felt that the island would still be best represented by a single MP. One problem the independent body cited in 2008 was a difficulty of dividing the island in two in a way that would be acceptable to all interests. However, in the 2018 review now underway, dividing the island into two separate constituencies (both significantly smaller than the allowable range for mainland constituencies) is a requirement. The Commission's draft proposals divide the island into two seats, East and West.
History
Before the Reform Act 1832 the island usually had three Parliamentary boroughs: Newport, Newtown, and Yarmouth each electing two MPs. In 1654 an Isle of Wight constituency was created for the First Protectorate Parliament but the island subsequently reverted to the three constituencies. Otherwise, the island was represented by the two members for Hampshire. The Reform Act abolished Newtown and Yarmouth parliamentary boroughs, and created a county constituency for the whole of the Isle of Wight. The county electorate included freeholders, qualified by property, in the remaining parliamentary borough. The separate Newport borough constituency was abolished in 1885.
The constituency has traditionally been a battleground between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Between 1974 and 1987 the seat was a Liberal seat, then becoming Conservative until 1997 when the Liberal Democrats won on a reduced Conservative vote. The seat reverted to the Conservatives in 2001. At the 2015 election, whilst the Conservatives scored one of their largest reductions in vote share in the UK, the Liberal Democrats dropped by even more and finished in fifth place.
Pre 1832
Elections in the 1940s
General Election 1939/40
Another general election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;
Election in the 1910s
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;