County Warwickshire Member of parliament Chris White Replaced by Warwick Party Conservative Party Major settlements Warwick, Leamington Spa | European Parliament constituency West Midlands Number of members 1 Created from Warwick Electorate 66,278 (December 2010) | |
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Warwick and Leamington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Chris White, a Conservative.
Contents
Boundaries
1918-1950: The Municipal Boroughs of Royal Leamington Spa, Stratford-on-Avon, and Warwick, the Urban District of Kenilworth, the Rural Districts of Alcester and Warwick, and parts of the Rural Districts of Brailes and Stratford-on-Avon.
1950-1983: The Municipal Boroughs of Leamington Spa and Warwick, the Urban District of Kenilworth, and the Rural District of Warwick.
1983-1997: The District of Warwick wards of Bishop's Tachbrook, Brunswick, Budbrooke, Clarendon, Crown, Cubbington, Lapworth, Leek Wootton, Manor, Milverton, Radford Semele, Warwick North, Warwick South, Warwick West, Whitnash, and Willes.
1997-2010: The District of Warwick wards of Bishop's Tachbrook, Brunswick, Budbrooke, Clarendon, Crown, Cubbington, Lapworth, Leek Wootton, Manor, Milverton, Radford Semele, Warwick North, Warwick South, Warwick West, Whitnash, and Willes, and the District of Stratford-on-Avon wards of Henley, Tanworth, and Tanworth Earlswood.
2010-present: The District of Warwick wards of Bishop’s Tachbrook, Brunswick, Budbrooke, Clarendon, Crown, Manor, Milverton, Warwick North, Warwick South, Warwick West, Whitnash, and Willes.
The 2010 boundary changes reduced the constituency's area by removing outlying villages, reflecting population and housing growth.
History
The constituency was created under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, partially replacing the earlier and ancient Warwick constituency which until that year had sent two MPs to Westminster.
Represented by Conservatives from 1910–1997, the seat was for much of this time a safe seat, seeing frequent majorities of more than 10,000 votes. The seat had not been expected to change hands in the 1997 general election: as such James Plaskitt's defeat of Dudley Smith was a Portillo moment, without the decapitation of a government frontbencher. Plaskitt increased his majority in the 2001 election, but on a lower turnout. In the 2005 election, Warwick and Leamington was 85th on the Conservative list of target seats, meaning that to gain it they would have required a somewhat greater swing than was seen nationally. With a greater swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats, Plaskitt narrowly held the seat with a majority slashed from nearly 6,000 votes to only 266.
However, minor boundary changes in Labour's favour took effect at the 2010 general election and the winner was variously predicted. In the event the seat was gained by a Conservative, Chris White, with a majority of 7% of the vote. On this occasion the Conservative Party was the main beneficiary from swings away from the Labour Party and the Green Party.
For 34 years the seat was represented by former prime minister Anthony Eden, until the end of his premiership caused by his resignation (after the Suez Crisis and falling ill).
In part of the early 1920s, the Solicitor General for England and Wales, then Attorney General for England and Wales represented the seat, Sir Ernest Pollock – Eden's successor was also in these senior positions, Sir John Hobson, in the part of early 1960s.
Constituency profile
The seat comprises the two eponymous towns, with modest hills surrounding them, in the upper valley of the River Avon (Warwickshire).
The towns of Warwick and Royal Leamington Spa are still distinct however form, in the modern seat, a contiguous urban area. Both towns are relatively affluent, although there are pockets of deprivation in Leamington. Warwick, with its historic castle, is an internationally advertised tourist destination, while Leamington's economy is more dependent on storage, distribution, manufacturing, processing, engineering and industry. Leamington is also more ethnically diverse (e.g. five per cent of the constituency's population is of Asian ethnicity) and is home to some students of the University of Warwick that lies close to Coventry.
Workless claimants who were registered jobseekers were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.2% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.
Election 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;