County Essex European Parliament constituency East of England Number of members 1 Created from Southend | Electorate 66,780 (December 2010) Member of parliament David Amess Replaced by Southend | |
 | ||
Major settlements Southend-on-Sea, Leigh-on-Sea, Westcliff-on-Sea | ||
Southend West is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by David Amess, a Conservative.
Contents
History
Because four members of the Guinness family have held the seat (or its predecessor, Southend) it has been dubbed in political analyses in the media as "Guinness-on-Sea".
It is currently represented by David Amess, previously MP for Basildon.
Boundaries
1950-1983: The County Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh, Milton, Prittlewell, St Clements, Victoria, and Westborough.
1983-2010: The Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Belfairs, Blenheim, Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh, Prittlewell, and Westborough.
2010-present: The Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Belfairs, Blenheim Park, Chalkwell, Eastwood Park, Leigh, Prittlewell, St Laurence, Westborough, and West Leigh.
The constituency comprises a small part of the West of Southend-on-Sea, and includes Leigh-on-Sea and Westcliff-on-Sea. It is bounded to the North and East by Rochford and Southend East, to the North by Rayleigh and Wickford, to the West by Castle Point, and to the South by the very end of the Thames estuary.
Constituency profile
Workless claimants (registered jobseekers) were in November 2012 close to the national average of 3.8%, at 3.5% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
Leigh-on-Sea has a number of Liberal Democrat councillors, and there is some Labour strength in Westborough, but the remaining areas are predominantly Conservative.
Elections in the 2010s
For 2015, the British Constitution Party announced Tom Darwood as a candidate, but he failed to stand.