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Notional election results are calculations made, usually following boundary changes of electoral districts brought about by population shifts, to determine what election results would have been in previous elections had the newly created boundaries then been in place. Such calculations are used by psephologists and media for the purposes of detecting changing voting patterns and swings from one party to another from one election to the next, which is easier to calculate when no boundary changes have been implemented.
Boundary reviews can favour a particular political party, as notional election calculations have found. In the case of the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party usually benefits slightly due to population shifts away from inner cities towards suburban areas, where the Conservative Party has a stronger vote base. Consequently, representation in inner city areas - usually areas where the Labour Party has its strongest voter base - declines as its population declines.
Notional election result calculations are of particular importance in the United Kingdom because the country is unusual in not releasing official breakdowns in voting data, which enables such data to be applied to electoral areas which are subject to boundary changes. Parliamentary constituencies are based on smaller local government wards, and it is the results from local government elections that are the primary source used to calculate notional results at a constituency level.
Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of Plymouth University have been involved in calculating notional results for general elections since 1992 where periodic boundary changes have taken place. The data compiled from their work has been used by several prominent media companies including television channels for the purposes of comparing one general election result to the last.
Notional results have their limitations in that voting patterns may well have been different had new boundaries been in force at previous elections, because some voters who vote tactically may have chosen to vote differently under different boundaries, depending on which political parties or candidates were most competitive under old boundaries.
Other problems with making notional calculations is that people vote differently between national and local elections, particularly as many councilors enjoy a cross-party personal vote. Local factors can also have a great effect on voting patterns. In addition, a large number of wards are not contested by all the major political parties, some of them electing independent candidates or candidates from residents' associations. Sometimes wards themselves are subject to boundary changes.
On a national level, notional general election results by constituency have been calculated in the UK on numerous occasions in the past by academics and election experts such as Rallings and Thrasher, when boundary changes have been implemented.
In the February 1974 general election, notional results from the previous general election in 1970 were calculated on behalf of the BBC in constituencies where major boundary changes took effect. In 1983, extensive boundary changes led to notional general election results being jointly calculated by the BBC and ITN for the previous general election in 1979. [1]
Further notional results were created for the 1997 general election (to compare with the 1992 general election), in 2005 (to take into account the reduction in the number of Scottish constituencies brought about by the establishment of the Scottish Parliament), [2] and in the 2010 general election (to compare with the 2005 general election).
An electoral swing analysis shows the extent of change in voter support, typically from one election to another, expressed as a positive or negative percentage. A multi-party swing is an indicator of a change in the electorate's preference between candidates or parties, often between major parties in a two-party system. A swing can be calculated for the electorate as a whole, for a given electoral district or for a particular demographic.
Southampton, Itchen is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Royston Smith, a Conservative member of parliament. Discounting the Speaker returned in the early 1970s in two elections, local voters have elected the MP from only two parties alternately for various periods, with one party reaffiliation (defection) between elections when the Labour Party split in the 1980s.
Oxford East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Anneliese Dodds of the Labour Party, who also serves as party chair.
Oxford West and Abingdon is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat.
Barnsley Central is a constituency in South Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2011 by Dan Jarvis of the Labour Party.
South Ribble is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Katherine Fletcher, a Conservative.
Tyne Bridge was a parliamentary constituency in the north east of England, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, from 1983 until 2010. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Bolsover is a constituency in Derbyshire, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Mark Fletcher, a member of the Conservative Party. The constituency was created in 1950, and is centred on the town of Bolsover.
Staffordshire Moorlands is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Karen Bradley, a Conservative who served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport between 2016 and 2018, before she became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2018 to 2019. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years. This seat has seen a swing to the Conservatives at the past four elections.
Witney is a county constituency in Oxfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2016 by Robert Courts of the Conservative Party. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election, and was created for the 1983 general election.
Cheltenham is a constituency in Gloucestershire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1832. As with all constituencies, it elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years. Since 2015, its MP has been Alex Chalk, who was appointed Secretary of State for Justice in 2023.
The Cotswolds is a constituency in Gloucestershire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a Conservative, since its 1997 creation.
Forest of Dean is a constituency in Gloucestershire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Mark Harper, a Conservative who has served as Secretary of State for Transport since 2022.
Gloucester is a constituency centred on the cathedral city and county town of the same name, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Richard Graham of the Conservative Party.
Kingswood is a constituency in South Gloucestershire. It is currently represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Damien Egan of the Labour Party since 2024.
Stroud is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It is held by Siobhan Baillie of the Conservative Party. Formerly a safe Conservative seat, Stroud has been a marginal seat since 1997, changing hands four times in seven elections since then.
Westminster North is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Karen Buck, a member of the Labour Party. It was created in 1983 and abolished in 1997, before being created again in 2010.
Dwyfor Meirionnydd is a constituency of the Senedd, first created for the former Assembly's 2007 election. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of eight constituencies in the Mid and West Wales electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to nine constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
A general election was held in the United Kingdom on 5 May 2005 and all 59 seats in Scotland were contested. This was the first election to occur under the new boundaries which reduced the number of Scottish seats from 72 to 59. Previously, Scotland had a greater number of MPs per person than the rest of the UK to compensate for its distinct political nature and distance from Westminster. With the introduction of the Scottish Parliament, Scottish constituencies were brought into line with those found in the rest of the UK, so that they had similar electorates.
These are the notional results of the 2019 United Kingdom general election if it had taken place under the new constituency borders used from the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, as calculated by Michael Thrasher and Colin Rallings. In constituencies whose borders have changed, precise results under the new boundaries usually cannot be known as election results are not usually reported for subdivisions of constituencies. However, it is possible to estimate what the election results would have been by extrapolating from local election results for which more granular data is known.