Basildon (UK Parliament constituency)

Last updated

Basildon
Former borough constituency
for the House of Commons
BasildonConstituency.svg
Boundary of Basildon in Essex from 1997-2010.
EnglandEssex.svg
Location of Essex within England.
County Essex
February 1974–2010
SeatsOne
Created from Billericay
Replaced by Basildon and Billericay, South Basildon and East Thurrock
During its existence contributed to new seat(s) of Billericay

Basildon was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Contents

History

The seat was created for the February 1974 general election from the majority of the abolished constituency of Billericay. Its electorate was reduced for the 1983 general election when Billericay was re-established. It underwent a major redistributions for the 1997 election and again for the 2010 election, when it was renamed as South Basildon and East Thurrock.

Basildon was one of the best known bellwether constituencies in Britain, having voted for the winning party in each election for the duration of its existence. The failure of the Labour Party to win it in the 1992 election — Basildon would be the first to declare of all the marginal seats — foreshadowed Labour's fourth straight defeat at the hands of the Conservative Party.

It was a (famously) Conservative seat between 1979 and 1997 as the quintessential "Essex man" constituency based on the new town of Basildon. Much of its population has its origins in the East End of London, who as a group traditionally voted for the Labour Party.

However, throughout the 1980s and until the Labour landslide victory of 1997, many voters in the area transferred their loyalties to the Conservative Party. The MP throughout that period was David Amess, who himself originated from east London (Plaistow), and later moved to the safer seat of Southend West. New Labour sought to take seats exactly like this one, which were crucial in ensuring they won the 1997 general election by a landslide. Labour took the seat in 1997 and 2001 with a large majority, and in 2005 with a reduced majority.

Both the successor seats that replaced Basildon in 2010 were considered to be much less favourable to Labour than the old Basildon seat, ending Basildon's bellwether status. [1]

Boundaries and boundary changes

DatesLocal authorityMaps Wards
1974–1983 Borough of Basildon Basildon1974Constiuency.svg The Borough of Basildon [2]
1983–1997 Basildon1983Constiuency.svg Fryerns Central, Fryerns East, Langdon Hills, Lee Chapel North, Nethermayne, Pitsea East, Pitsea West, and Vange. [3]
1997–2010 Borough of Basildon
Borough of Thurrock 		BasildonConstituency.svg Basildon wards of Fryerns Central, Fryerns East, Langdon Hills, Lee Chapel North, Nethermayne, and Vange
Thurrock wards of Corringham and Fobbing, Orsett, Stanford-le-Hope, and The Homesteads. [4]

1974–1983

Formed from the majority of the abolished constituency of Billericay, comprising the former Urban District thereof, which had been reconstituted as the Urban District of Basildon.

1983–1997

Northern parts, including Billericay and Wickford transferred to the re-established constituency of Billericay.

1997–2010

Major realignment of boundaries with Billericay; Pitsea was transferred to Billericay in exchange for the northern part of the Borough of Thurrock.

Post 2010

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission for England made radical changes to all parliamentary constituencies in the county for the 2010 general election, and the Basildon constituency was divided. The majority of the seat formed the basis of the new South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency, while the wards around central Basildon were merged with the majority of the former Billericay constituency to form a new seat called Basildon and Billericay.

Members of Parliament

ElectionMember [5] PartyNotes
February 1974 Eric Moonman Labour
1979 Harvey Proctor Conservative Contested Billericay following redistribution
1983 David Amess Conservative Contested Southend West following redistribution
1997 Angela Smith Labour Co-op Contested South Basildon and East Thurrock following redistribution
2010 constituency abolished: see South Basildon and East Thurrock and Basildon and Billericay

Elections

Elections in the 1970s

1970 notional result [6]
PartyVote %
Labour 32,20052.2
Conservative 29,50047.8
Turnout61,70074.1
Electorate83,276
General election February 1974: Basildon
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Eric Moonman 33,499 45.2 –7.0
Conservative Ronald Denney22,83230.8–17.0
Liberal Edward Fortune17,79424.0New
Majority10,66714.4+10.0
Turnout 74,12582.0+7.9
Registered electors 90,357
Labour hold Swing +5.0
General election October 1974: Basildon
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Eric Moonman 32,298 47.9 +2.7
Conservative David Atkinson 21,74732.2+1.4
Liberal Edward Fortune12,81619.0−5.0
Ind. Labour Party Robert Chaplin5990.9New
Majority10,55115.6+1.3
Turnout 67,46073.8−8.2
Registered electors 91,416
Labour hold Swing +0.6
General election 1979: Basildon
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Harvey Proctor 37,919 46.9 +14.7
Labour Eric Moonman 32,73940.5−7.4
Liberal Raymond Auvray9,28011.5−7.5
National Front GA Sawyer8801.1New
Majority5,1806.4N/A
Turnout 79,93878.0+4.2
Registered electors 103,595
Conservative gain from Labour Swing +11.0
1979 notional result [7]
PartyVote %
Labour 24,55252.6
Conservative 16,38935.1
Liberal 5,26711.3
Others5001.1
Turnout46,708
Electorate

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1983: Basildon [8]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative David Amess 17,516 38.7 +3.6
Labour Co-op Julian Fulbrook16,13735.6−16.9
SDP Sue Slipman 11,63425.7+14.4
Majority1,3793.0N/A
Turnout 45,28769.0−9.0
Registered electors 69,604
Conservative gain from Labour (Notional.) Swing +10.3
General election 1987: Basildon [9]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative David Amess 21,858 43.5 +4.9
Labour Co-op Julian Fulbrook19,20938.3+2.6
Liberal Raymond Auvray9,13918.2−7.5
Majority2,6495.3+2.3
Turnout 50,20673.3+4.8
Registered electors 68,500
Conservative hold Swing +1.1

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1992: Basildon [10] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative David Amess 24,159 44.9 +1.4
Labour Co-op John Potter22,67942.2+3.9
Liberal Democrats Geoffrey Williams6,96712.9−5.3
Majority1,4802.7−2.6
Turnout 53,80579.6+6.3
Registered electors 67,585
Conservative hold Swing −1.3
1992 notional result
PartyVote %
Conservative 27,29145.1
Labour 24,64540.7
Liberal Democrats 8,59914.2
Turnout60,53579.4
Electorate76,236
General election 1997: Basildon [12]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Co-op Angela Smith 29,646 55.8 +15.1
Conservative John Baron 16,36630.8−14.3
Liberal Democrats Lindsay Granshaw 4,6088.7−5.5
Referendum Craig Robinson2,4624.6New
Majority13,28025.0N/A
Turnout 53,08271.7−7.7
Registered electors 73,989
Labour Co-op gain from Conservative Swing +14.7

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2001: Basildon [13]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Co-op Angela Smith 21,551 52.7 −3.1
Conservative Dominic Schofield13,81333.8+3.0
Liberal Democrats Jane Smithard3,6919.0+0.3
UKIP Frank Mallon1,3973.4New
Socialist Alliance Dick Duane4231.0New
Majority7,73818.9−6.1
Turnout 40,87555.1−16.6
Registered electors 74,121
Labour Co-op hold Swing −3.0
General election 2005: Basildon [14]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Co-op Angela Smith 18,720 43.4 −9.3
Conservative Aaron Powell15,57836.1+2.3
Liberal Democrats Martin Thompson4,47310.4+1.3
BNP Emma Colgate2,0554.8New
UKIP Alix Blythe1,1432.6−0.8
Green Vikki Copping6621.5New
English Democrat Kim Gandy5101.2New
Majority3,1427.3−11.6
Turnout 43,14158.4+3.3
Registered electors 73,912
Labour Co-op hold Swing −5.8

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Waller, Robert; Criddle, Byron (2007). The Almanac of British Politics (8th ed.). UK: Routledge. pp. 127–128, 160–161. ISBN   978-0-415-37823-9.
  2. ↑ "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1970". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  3. ↑ "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1983". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  4. ↑ "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1995". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
  5. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)
  6. ↑ Michael Stead. "1970 notional general election & February 1974 general election". BBC. Retrieved 18 March 2025.
  7. ↑ "BBC/ITN NOTIONAL ELECTION 1979". election.demon.co.uk. BBC/ITN. Archived from the original on 28 May 2004. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
  8. ↑ "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  9. ↑ "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  10. ↑ "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  11. ↑ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
  12. ↑ "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

51°31′N0°24′E / 51.52°N 0.40°E / 51.52; 0.40

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.