Surrey Heath (UK Parliament constituency)

Surrey Heath
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Surrey Heath in Surrey
Location of Surrey within England
County	Surrey
Electorate	81,349 (December 2019)
Major settlements	Camberley, Lightwater and Ash
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of Parliament	Michael Gove (Conservative)
Created from	North West Surrey, Guildford and Woking

Surrey Heath is a constituency ^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Michael Gove, a Conservative who has also been the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since October 2022. ^{[n 2]} The Home counties suburban constituency is in the London commuter belt, on the outskirts of Greater London. Surrey Heath is in the north west of Surrey and borders the counties of Berkshire and Hampshire.

History

The seat was created under the Fourth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies in 1997 from the most part of North West Surrey, a seat that was abolished, and smaller parts of Woking and Guildford, seats that remain.

On its creation, Nick Hawkins was elected to parliament as Surrey Heath's MP, after Michael Grylls, who had in 1992 achieved a majority of 28,392, retired. ^[1] One of Hawkins' opponents for selection was future Speaker John Bercow, selected for Buckingham the same day. ^[2]

In 1999 then-party chairman Michael Ancram was intervened to prevent a move to deselect Hawkins following local party disquiet about him leaving his wife of 20 years for a local councillor. ^{[3] [4]} In 2004, the Conservative constituency association, then the richest in the country, deselected Hawkins for the next election, following accusations of racism, in the hope of obtaining an MP of cabinet calibre. ^{[5] [6]}

The MP since 2005, Michael Gove, has served in four Conservative governments across multiple departments since 2010, the longest appointment being his 4 years as Education Secretary. Most recently he has held office as Levelling Up Secretary since 25 October 2022, having previously held the same office from 2021 until 6 September 2022.

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries

Fourth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies

Surrey Heath occupies the northwest corner of the county. From its inception in 1997 until the next general election, it covers the Borough of Surrey Heath and the Guildford wards knows as 'The Ashes'. ^[7] :

• Bagshot, Bisley and West End, Frimley, Frimley Green, Heatherside, Lightwater, Mytchett and Deepcut, Old Dean, Parkside, St Michaels, St Pauls, Town, Watchett, and Windlesham & Chobham in the Surrey Heath District
• Ash South and Tongham, Ash Vale, and Ash Wharf in the Borough of Guildford .

The large village of Ash with Ash Vale and smaller one of Tongham are contiguous, similar to Frimley and Frimley Green.

2023 Boundary review

Under the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, the boundaries of the constituency from the next general election, due by January 2025, will be composed of the following wards:

Surrey Heath Borough - all wards

Guildford Borough - Normandy and Pirbright. (The wards were amalgamated into one two member wards after the review had commensed so are listed as individual wards in the review but now are one wards).

The electorate will be reduced to bring it within the permitted range by transferring the three Guildford Borough wards which constitute the community of Ash to the newly created constituency of Godalming and Ash. The two small wards of Normandy and Pirbright are move from the current Woking constituency.

Constituency profile

70% of homes were detached or semi-detached at the 2011 census. The detached percentage (45.2%) was at that time the second highest in the South East, behind the New Forest. ^[8] The area is well connected to London Heathrow Airport, IT, telecommunications and logistics centres of the M3 and M4 corridors, and to the military towns of Aldershot and Sandhurst. Farnborough, with its civil, private aviation base with certain military uses, is also nearby, as is Blackbushe Airport.

Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.7% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian . ^[9]

According to the British Election Study, it was the most right-wing seat in the UK as of 2014. ^[10]

Constituents on balance voted to leave the European Union in 2016 but an analysis of YouGov polling by Focaldata suggested support for remain rose from 48% then to 50.2% in August 2018. ^[11]

Until the 2019 general election, the constituency was seen as one of the Conservative Party's safest seats. This election saw an unexpected 11.1% swing to the Liberal Democrats' candidate Alasdair Pinkerton, polling the second-highest second place since the constituency's creation, with Labour recording the lowest share of the vote since the seat's creation.

Surrey Heath is seen as the Liberal Democrats' 60th target seat under new boundary changes, ^[12] having taken control in 2023 ending a 49 years of continuous Conservative administration ^[13] and pushed the Conservatives to the lowest number of councillors on Guildford Borough Council since its creation in 1973. ^[14]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [15]	Party
	1997	Nick Hawkins	Conservative
	2005	Michael Gove	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2020s

Next general election: Surrey Heath

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Reform UK	Samantha Goggin [16]
	Conservative	Michael Gove [17]
	Liberal Democrats	Alasdair Pinkerton [18]
Majority
Turnout
Registered electors
			Swing

Elections in the 2010s

2019 general election: Surrey Heath ^[19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Gove	34,358	58.6	–5.6
	Liberal Democrats	Alasdair Pinkerton	16,009	27.3	+16.5
	Labour	Brahma Mohanty	5,407	9.2	–11.9
	Green	Sharon Galliford	2,252	3.8	–0.1
	UKIP	David Roe	628	1.1	New
Majority			18,349	31.3	–11.8
Turnout			58,654	72.1	+0.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	–11.1

2017 general election: Surrey Heath ^[20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Gove	37,118	64.2	+4.3
	Labour	Laween Atroshi	12,175	21.1	+9.9
	Liberal Democrats	Ann-Marie Barker	6,271	10.8	+1.7
	Green	Sharon Galliford	2,258	3.9	–0.5
Majority			24,943	43.1	–2.5
Turnout			57,822	71.6	+3.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	–2.8

2015 general election: Surrey Heath ^[21]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Gove	32,582	59.9	+2.3
	UKIP	Paul Chapman [22]	7,778	14.3	+8.0
	Labour	Laween Atroshi	6,100	11.2	+1.0
	Liberal Democrats	Ann-Marie Barker	4,937	9.1	–16.8
	Green	Kimberley Lawson [23]	2,400	4.4	New
	Christian	Juliana Brimicombe	361	0.7	New
	Independent	Bob and Roberta Smith [24]	273	0.5	New
Majority			24,804	45.6	+13.8
Turnout			54,431	68.5	–1.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

2010 general election: Surrey Heath ^[25]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Gove	31,326	57.6	+6.1
	Liberal Democrats	Alan Hilliar	14,037	25.8	–3.0
	Labour	Matt Willey	5,552	10.2	–6.5
	UKIP	Mark Stroud	3,432	6.3	+3.3
Majority			17,289	31.8	+9.1
Turnout			54,347	70.0	+7.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	+4.5

Elections in the 2000s

2005 general election: Surrey Heath ^[26]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Gove	24,642	51.5	+1.8
	Liberal Democrats	Rosalyn Harper	13,797	28.8	+3.1
	Labour	Chris Lowe	7,989	16.7	–4.7
	UKIP	Steve Smith	1,430	3.0	–0.3
Majority			10,845	22.7	–1.3
Turnout			47,858	62.9	+3.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	–0.7

2001 general election: Surrey Heath ^[27]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Nick Hawkins	22,401	49.7	–1.9
	Liberal Democrats	Mark Lelliott	11,582	25.7	+3.9
	Labour	James Norman	9,640	21.4	+0.4
	UKIP	Nigel Hunt	1,479	3.3	+2.1
Majority			10,819	24.0	–5.8
Turnout			45,102	59.5	–14.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

1997 general election: Surrey Heath ^[28]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Nick Hawkins	28,231	51.6
	Liberal Democrats	David Newman	11,944	21.8
	Labour	Susan Jones	11,511	21.0
	Referendum	John Gale	2,385	4.4
	UKIP	Richard Squire	653	1.2
Majority			16,287	29.8
Turnout			54,724	74.1
	Conservative win (new seat)

See also

• List of parliamentary constituencies in Surrey

Notes

1. A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
2. 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.

References

1. "General Election Results, 9 April 1992" (PDF). House of Commons Library . Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
2. "BBC NEWS - UK - UK Politics - The John Bercow story". news.bbc.co.uk. 24 June 2009. Archived from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
3. "Tory MP deselected for 'neglect of voters'". The Independent. 9 April 2004. Archived from the original on 15 February 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
4. Kite, Melissa (3 April 2004). "A Surrey saga of intrigue as Tories in one of Britain's safest seats attempt to deselect their MP". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
5. Melissa Kite (27 June 2004). "Surrey Heath members believe that their money ought to be able to buy a future prime minister". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 November 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
6. "Senior Tory kicked out by party". 8 April 2004. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
7. "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1995". legislation.gov.uk. 28 June 1995. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
8. "2011 census interactive maps". Archived from the original on 29 January 2016.
9. Unemployment claimants by constituency Archived 2 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian
10. Wheeler, Brian (1 December 2014). "The strange truth about how and why we vote". BBC News. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
11. Savage, Michael (11 August 2018). "More than 100 seats that backed Brexit now want to remain in EU". The Observer. Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
12. "Liberal Democrat Targets Seats 2024 - Election Polling". www.electionpolling.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 July 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
13. "Michael Gove's local council 'faces bankruptcy within two years', due to Tories' 'horrific financial mismanagement'". LBC. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
14. McKeon, Christopher (5 May 2019). "How Guildford's Tories collapsed under Brexit and Local Plan". getsurrey. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
15. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 6)
16. "Surrey Heath Constituency". Reform UK . Retrieved 17 February 2024.
17. "Michael Gove re-selected as our Parliamentary candidate". Surrey Heath Conservatives . Retrieved 17 February 2024.
18. "Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidates". Mark Pack . Retrieved 17 February 2024.
19. "STATEMENT OF PERSONS NOMINATED, NOTICE OF POLL AND SITUATION OF POLLING STATIONS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
20. "Loony Party Candidates". Archived from the original on 18 January 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
21. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
22. webteam, Surrey Heath UKIP. "Leave the EU - Surrey Heath Constituency UKIP branch. News, articles, videos, policies, join, in.camberley, frimley, bagshot, chobham, bisley, mytchett". surreyheathukip.org.uk. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
23. "Kimberley Lawson PPC page". Green Party of England and Wales. Archived from the original on 20 September 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
24. Clark, Nick (3 December 2014). "Bob and Roberta Smith will run against Michael Gove at the election on culture platform". Independent. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
25. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
26. "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
27. "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
28. "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

Sources

• Election result, 2010 (BBC)
• Election result, 2005 (BBC)
• Election results, 1997 - 2001 (BBC)
• Election results, 1997 - 2001 (Election Demon)
• Election results, 1997 - 2010 (Guardian)

51°21′N0°42′W / 51.35°N 0.70°W / 51.35; -0.70