The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. As modern prime ministers hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons, they sit as members of Parliament.
A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a system of democratic government where the head of government derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of the legislature, typically a parliament, to which they are accountable.
Sir David Anthony Andrew Amess was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Southend West from 1997 until his murder in 2021. He previously served as MP for Basildon from 1983 to 1997. A member of the Conservative Party, he was a Catholic with socially conservative political views, and was in favour of Britain leaving the European Union.
Castle Point is a local government district with borough status in south Essex, England, lying around 30 miles (48 km) east of London. The borough comprises the towns of South Benfleet, Hadleigh and Thundersley on the mainland, and the adjoining Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary, which is connected to the mainland by bridges.
Southend West and Leigh is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. In the 2024 general election the seat was won by David Burton-Sampson for Labour. It was previously held by Anna Firth who won the 2022 by-election, following the murder of the incumbent MP, David Amess.
Politics in Wales forms a distinctive polity in the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with Wales as one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (UK).
Southend-on-Sea was a parliamentary constituency centred on the then-town of Southend-on-Sea in Essex. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Essex North East was a constituency of the European Parliament located in the United Kingdom, electing one Member of the European Parliament by the first-past-the-post electoral system. Created in 1979 for the first elections to the European Parliament, it was abolished in 1994 and succeeded by the constituencies of Essex North and Suffolk South and Essex South.
Essex South was a constituency of the European Parliament located in the United Kingdom, electing one member of the European Parliament by the first-past-the-post electoral system. Created in 1994 from parts of Essex South West and Essex North East, it was abolished in 1999 on the adoption of proportional representation for European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. It was succeeded by the East of England region.
In the United Kingdom, devolution is the Parliament of the United Kingdom's statutory granting of a greater level of self-government to the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the London Assembly and to their associated executive bodies: the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and in England, the Greater London Authority and combined authorities.
The 2011 Basildon Council election took place on 5 May 2011 to elect members of Basildon Borough Council in Essex, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Conservative party stayed in overall control of the council.
The Socialist Labour Party (SLP) is a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. The party was established in 1996 and was led by Arthur Scargill, a former Labour Party member and the former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers. The party's name highlights its commitment to socialism and acknowledges Clause IV of the Labour Party's former constitution, as fundamental to the party's identity. As of 2024, it is led by Jim McDaid.
Essex is a ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the south, Greater London to the south-west, and Hertfordshire to the west. The largest settlement is Southend-on-Sea, and the county town is Chelmsford.
The region of the East of England is divided into 58 parliamentary constituencies which is made up of 16 borough constituencies and 42 county constituencies. Since the general election of December 2019, 50 are represented by Conservative MPs, seven by Labour MPs, and one by a Liberal Democrat MP.
Elections to Southend-on-Sea Borough Council took place on 2 May 2019. This was on the same day as other local elections across the United Kingdom.
The Heritage Party is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist, and socially conservative minor political party in the United Kingdom, founded in October 2020 when then-London Assembly Member David Kurten left the UK Independence Party (UKIP) to form the party. Kurten was also a member of the Brexit Alliance, a Eurosceptic technical group he formed in 2018 with fellow former UKIP member Peter Whittle.
A by-election was held on 3 February 2022 in the parliamentary constituency of Southend West following the murder of the Conservative MP Sir David Amess on 15 October 2021. Amess had been the MP for the constituency since 1997, and previously represented the nearby seat of Basildon from 1983 to 1997. Similarly to the 2016 Batley and Spen by-election—held after Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered—the major opposition parties declined to stand out of respect for Amess. The Conservative candidate Anna Firth won the by-election with 86% of the vote, with a turnout of 24%. No other candidate reached the 5% threshold to save their election deposit.
Annalissa Firth is a British politician and former barrister who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Southend West from 2022 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, she was also a councillor on Sevenoaks District Council between 2011 and 2022.
