Created 1997 Number of members 1 | Electorate 73,680 (December 2010) European Parliament constituency South East England | |
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Replaced by Chertsey and Walton (majority), North West Surrey (minority) | ||
Runnymede and Weybridge is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1997 creation by the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
The constituency contains the whole of the area of Runnymede borough, and also the town of Weybridge in the Borough of Elmbridge district.
Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies to make no changes to this constituency for the 2010 general election which has electoral wards:
History
The constituency was created in 1997 from parts of the former seats of Chertsey and Walton and North West Surrey.
Since its creation, it has been represented by Philip Hammond (Con) who served as a Cabinet Minister throughout the First Cameron Ministry then holding in succession two Great Offices of State, Foreign Secretary (2014-2016) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (2016-).
The seat is a safe seat based on both length of tenure and size of majorities — the narrowest margin of victory was in the 1997 "Labour landslide" general election, of 19.2% of the vote,
Constituency profile
The constituency consists of Census Output Areas of two local government districts with similar characteristics: a working population whose income is higher than the national average and lower than average reliance upon social housing. At the end of 2012 the unemployment rate in the constituency stood as 1.3% of the population claiming jobseekers allowance, compared to the regional average of 2.4%. The borough contributing to the bulk of the seat has a low 14.7% of its population without a car, 18.3% of the population without qualifications and a high 29.9% with level 4 qualifications or above.
In terms of tenure 69.2% of homes are owned outright or on a mortgage as at the 2011 census across Runnymede.