European Parliament constituency South East England | Electorate 78,453 (December 2010) | |
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Surrey Heath is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Michael Gove, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
Surrey Heath occupies the northwest corner of the county. It has electoral wards:
The largest town is Camberley. The Boundary Commission made no boundary changes for Surrey Heath in the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies before the 2010 general election.
The large village of Ash with Ash Vale and smaller one of Tongham are contiguous, similar to Frimley and Frimley Green.
History
The constituency was created in 1997 from the most part of the seat of North West Surrey (which was abolished) and smaller parts of Woking and Guildford, seats which remain.
On the seat's creation, Nick Hawkins was elected to Parliament following the retirement of Surrey North West MP Michael Grylls who in 1992 achieved a majority of 28,392. One of Hawkins' opponents for selection was future Speaker, John Bercow. Bercow was selected as the Conservative candidate for the Buckingham constituency on the same day.
In 2004, the Conservative constituency association, then the richest in the country, deselected their MP Nick Hawkins in the hope of obtaining an MP of Cabinet calibre.
The Member since 2005, Michael Gove, was formerly Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor.
Constituency profile
In terms of housing 70% of homes are detached or semi-detached at the 2011 census. The detached percentage (45.2%) was at that time the second highest in the South East, behind the New Forest. The area is well connected to London Heathrow Airport, IT, telecommunications and logistics centres of the M3 and M4 'corridors' and to the military towns of Aldershot and Sandhurst. Farnborough with its civil, private aviation base with certain military uses is also nearby, as is Blackbushe Airport.
Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.7% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
The constituency is one of the Conservative party's safest seats, with most wards firmly in their camp, the exception being the Old Dean ward which usually votes Labour at local level. According to the British Election Study, it is the most right-wing seat in the UK.