Clacton (UK Parliament constituency)
51°50′N 1°09′E / 51.83°N 1.15°E
Clacton | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
County | Essex |
Population | 85,359 (2011 census)[1] |
Electorate | 67,447 (December 2010)[2] |
Major settlements | Clacton, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze |
Current constituency | |
Created | 2010 |
Member of Parliament | Giles Watling (Conservative) |
Seats | One |
Created from | Harwich |
Clacton is a constituency[n 1] in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, represented by Giles Watling of the Conservative Party.
Boundaries
Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission created this as a new seat, consisting of essentially the former Harwich constituency, minus the town of Harwich itself and a few nearby villages, plus St. Osyth and Weeley, moved from the old North Essex constituency. Apart from the North Sea it is surrounded by the Harwich and North Essex constituency on all other sides.
This new seat contains the towns of Clacton-on-Sea, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze, as well as surrounding villages.
The electoral wards used to form the Clacton constituency are entirely within the district of Tendring
- Alton Park, Beaumont and Thorpe, Bockings Elm, Burrsville, Frinton, Golf Green, Hamford, Haven, Holland and Kirby, Homelands, Little Clacton and Weeley, Peter Bruff, Pier, Rush Green, St Bartholomews, St James, St Johns, St Marys, St Osyth and Point Clear, St Pauls and Walton.
Constituency profile
The new seat is almost completely coastal, comprising seaside resorts along the Tendring peninsula. It shares an inland border with just one constituency – Harwich and North Essex.
Like some other coastal seats, such as Christchurch in Dorset, the electorate is one of the oldest in the country, with a high proportion of retirees, and low numbers of non-white residents. The area has experienced a considerable influx of White British families from areas of East London such as Barking and Dagenham, leading to the town of Clacton becoming known as "Little Dagenham."[3]
The stark exception is the village of Jaywick, which suffers from extremely high levels of deprivation.
In Both the Indices of deprivation 2010 and 2015 an area of Jaywick was identified as the single most deprived LSOA in all of England, out of around 32,000, with unemployment estimated at almost 50%. Many homes are essentially beach huts and lack basic amenities. In the 2007 Index, this area was the third most deprived in the country.
Members of Parliament
The constituency's member of parliament until 3 April 2017 was Douglas Carswell, who had previously sat for the Harwich constituency since gaining that seat for the Conservatives in 2005.
On 28 August 2014, Carswell announced his defection to UKIP.[4] Although not required to seek re-election following a change of party allegiance, Carswell triggered a by-election, held on 9 October 2014, in which he was elected as the UKIP candidate.[5] Carswell retained the seat for UKIP at the 2015 general election, seeing his majority cut by roughly three-quarters, an 11% swing to the Conservatives. Mr Carswell then became UKIP's only MP in the Commons, as Mark Reckless, a fellow Conservative defector, lost his seat.
On 25 March 2017, Carswell announced that he was quitting UKIP to sit as an independent MP,[6] saying that "I switched to UKIP because I desperately wanted us to leave the EU. Now we can be certain that that is going to happen, I have decided that I will be leaving UKIP".[7]
After Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap election on 19 April 2017, Carswell announced that he would not stand for re-election, and he endorsed the Conservative candidate Giles Watling.[8] Watling was elected in the 2017 general election; in that election, UKIP's share of the vote fell by 36.8%, one of its largest falls in the country, and Clacton turning blue marked the first time every seat in Essex has voted Conservative since 1987.
Election | Member | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | 2010 | Douglas Carswell | Conservative |
style="background-color: Template:UKIP/meta/color" | | 2014 by-election | UKIP | |
style="background-color: Template:Independent/meta/color" | | Mar 2017 | Independent | |
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | 2017 | Giles Watling | Conservative |
Elections
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Giles Watling[10] | 27,031 | 61.2 | +24.6 | |
Labour | Natasha Osben | 11,203 | 25.4 | +11.0 | |
UKIP | Paul Oakley | 3,357 | 7.6 | −36.8 | |
Liberal Democrats | David Grace | 887 | 2.0 | +0.2 | |
Green | Chris Southall | 719 | 1.6 | −1.0 | |
Independent | Caroline Shearer[11] | 449 | 1.0 | N/A | |
English Democrat | Robin Tilbrook | 289 | 0.7 | N/A | |
Independent | Nick Martin | 210 | 0.5 | N/A | |
Majority | 15,828 | 35.8 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 44,145 | 63.7 | |||
Conservative gain from UKIP | Swing | 30.7 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
UKIP | Douglas Carswell | 19,642 | 44.4 | N/A | |
Conservative | Giles Watling | 16,205 | 36.7 | −16.3 | |
Labour | Tim Young | 6,364 | 14.4 | −10.6 | |
Green | Chris Southall | 1,184 | 2.7 | +1.5 | |
Liberal Democrats | David Grace | 812 | 1.8 | −11.2 | |
Majority | 3,437 | 7.8 | |||
Turnout | 44,207 | 64.1 | +0.1 | ||
UKIP hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
UKIP | Douglas Carswell | 21,113 | 59.7 | N/A | |
Conservative | Giles Watling | 8,709 | 24.6 | −28.4 | |
Labour | Tim Young[15] | 3,957 | 11.2 | −13.8 | |
Green | Chris Southall | 688 | 1.9 | +0.7 | |
Liberal Democrats | Andy Graham | 483 | 1.3 | −11.6 | |
Independent | Bruce Sizer | 205 | 0.6 | N/A | |
Monster Raving Loony | Alan "Howling Laud" Hope[16] | 127 | 0.4 | N/A | |
Independent | Charlotte Rose | 56 | 0.2 | N/A | |
Majority | 12,404 | 35.1 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 35,338 | 51.2 | −13.0 | ||
UKIP gain from Conservative | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Douglas Carswell | 22,867 | 53.0 | +8.6 | |
Labour | Ivan Henderson | 10,799 | 25.0 | −10.9 | |
Liberal Democrats | Michael Green | 5,577 | 12.9 | −0.6 | |
BNP | Jim Taylor | 1,975 | 4.6 | N/A | |
Tendring First | Terry Allen | 1,078 | 2.5 | N/A | |
Green | Chris Southall | 535 | 1.2 | N/A | |
Independent | Chris Humphrey | 292 | 0.7 | N/A | |
Majority | 12,068 | 28.0 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 43,123 | 64.2 | +1.6 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +9.7 |
See also
Notes
- ^ A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
References
- ^ "Clacton: Usual Resident Population, 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
- ^ "Electorate Figures – Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Why have the white British left London?". BBC News.
- ^ "Tory MP Douglas Carswell defects to UKIP and forces by-election". BBC News.
- ^ "Clacton by-election candidates". BBC News.
- ^ "Job done – thank UKIP!". talkcarswell.com. 25 March 2017.
- ^ "Douglas Carswell quitting UKIP to become independent MP for Clacton". 25 March 2017 – via bbc.co.uk.
- ^ "Douglas Carswell will not stand in general election". 20 April 2017 – via bbc.co.uk.
- ^ "Statement of Persons Nominated – Clacton Constituency" (PDF). Tendring District Council. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
- ^ "Norfolk North and Penistone & Stocksbridge choose their candidates. Latest selection news. – Conservative Home".
- ^ "Knife death mother in MP election bid for Clacton". 21 April 2017 – via bbc.com.
- ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ "Clacton parliamentary constituency – Election 2015 – BBC News" – via bbc.co.uk.
- ^ Lodge, Will (16 September 2014). "Clacton: Carswell strolls to victory for UKIP at Clacton by-election". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
- ^ "Poll: Is Clacton a town that's going nowhere?".
- ^ "Clacton on sea by election". 11 September 2014.
- ^ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ "Clacton". BBC News. 7 May 2010.
External links
- nomis Constituency Profile for Clacton – presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics.