Wantage (UK Parliament constituency)

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Wantage
Former county constituency
for the House of Commons
Wantage2007Constituency.svg
Boundary of Wantage in Oxfordshire
EnglandOxfordshire.svg
Location of Oxfordshire within England
County Oxfordshire
Electorate 90,876 (December 2019)
Major settlements Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford, Faringdon
19832024
SeatsOne
Created from Abingdon (majority of) (note: abolished)
Replaced by Didcot and Wantage

Wantage was a constituency [n 1] in Oxfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. [n 2]

Contents

Its final MP was the Conservative David Johnston, who was first elected at the 2019 general election replacing Ed Vaizey who served as MP for Wantage for 14 years after first being elected at the 2005 general election. [1]

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was abolished. Subject to a reduction in size, with northern and western areas, including the town of Faringdon, being transferred to Witney, it was reformed as Didcot and Wantage , to be first contested at the 2024 general election. [2]

Constituency profile

The Wantage constituency covered the south-western part of Oxfordshire. There were three market towns in the constituency: Faringdon, Wallingford and Wantage. All have tourist attractions, Wantage having monuments to being the birthplace of King Alfred the Great, Wallingford, ancient enclosure walls of a castle and a medieval bridge. [n 3] Faringdon bears a scar of the English Civil War as its church lost its steeple. The largest town in the constituency was Didcot, which grew up around the Great Western Railway when Isambard Kingdom Brunel built a branch line from its main line between London and Bristol to Oxford, siting the junction at the then-sparsely-populated parish and it has a power station and many major national construction and aggregate industries.

The constituency was mostly rural in character, with more than 400 farms in operation. Included were the Uffington White Horse and The Ridgeway, a prehistoric road, runs along its southern border. The River Thames runs along the northern and western border. The area is affluent and Conservative in nature containing many commuters with fast transport links to London, with Didcot the only area with a strong Labour vote locally. The seat includes international race horse breeders and trainers with racing stables across a broad area that reaches into the Lambourn Downs, crossing over the southern border into the Newbury constituency in Berkshire.

Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.6% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian .

History

The constituency was created for the 1983 general election further to the Third Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. This followed on from the reorganisation of local government under the Local Government Act 1972 which came into force in April 1974, and saw the bulk of the area represented by the constituency of Abingdon in Berkshire being transferred to Oxfordshire. Under the Review, the majority of the Abingdon constituency formed the new constituency of Wantage, with the town of Abingdon-on-Thames and areas to the west of Oxford being included in the new constituency of Oxford West and Abingdon.

The first MP for Wantage was Robert Jackson, who served as a junior minister under both Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Jackson defected to the Labour Party in 2005 shortly before standing down as an MP for the 2005 general election. At that election, Ed Vaizey was elected as the MP for Wantage and between 2010 and 2016 held the post of Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries.

Ed Vaizey served as MP for Wantage until the 2019 general election whereby Vaizey announced that he would be standing down. Shortly prior to this, Vaizey had the Conservative whip removed after voting against Prime Minister Boris Johnson on 3 September 2019. [3] Vaizey had the Conservative whip restored on 29 October 2019. [4] This meant that, for a brief time, Wantage was represented by an independent MP. David Johnston was selected as the Conservative candidate to represent Wantage and was duly elected as the new MP for Wantage at the 2019 general election. [5]

The seat, including its forerunner, was won by Conservative Party candidates since 1924. The 2015 result made the seat the 76th-safest of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority. [6]

All five parties' candidates achieved more than the deposit-retaining threshold of 5% of the vote in 2015. Social Democrat candidate Winifred Tumin won the largest third-party share of the vote to date, in the 1983 election 32.3% of the vote.

Boundaries and boundary changes

1983–2010

The new constituency included Wantage, Wallingford, Faringdon and Didcot which had previously all been part of the abolished constituency of Abingdon.

2010–2024

Wantage (UK Parliament constituency)
Map of boundaries 2010–2024

Marginal changes due to the realignment of the boundaries following changes to local authority wards.

Abolition

Under the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the Boundary Commission for England proposed boundary changes to the Wantage constituency to reduce the number of electorate in the constituency. [10] At the time of the 2019 General Election, Wantage's total electorate was 90,845, making it the largest constituency in Oxfordshire and the 13th largest in the United Kingdom. [11] The proposals reduced the total electorate to 74,356 which is significantly closer to the average electorate of 72,200 for constituencies in England. [12] [13]

The commission proposed the renaming of the Wantage constituency to Didcot and Wantage. [14] The boundary changes saw the wards of Faringdon, Kingston Bagpuize, Thames, and Watchfield and Shrivenham move into the Witney constituency, whilst the new Didcot and Wantage constituency absorbed the small villages of Clifton Hampden, Culham, Nuneham Courtenay and Sandford-on-Thames from the Henley constituency. [15] [16]

Members of Parliament

ElectionMember [17] Party
1983 Robert Jackson Conservative
Jan 2005 Labour [18]
2005 Ed Vaizey Conservative
Oct 2019 Independent [19]
Conservative
2019 David Johnston Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Wantage [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative David Johnston 34,085 50.7 −3.5
Liberal Democrats Richard Benwell21,43231.9+17.4
Labour Jonny Roberts10,18115.2−11.7
Independent Mark Gray1,4752.2New
Majority12,65318.8−8.5
Turnout 67,17373.9+1.4
Conservative hold Swing −10.4
General election 2017: Wantage [20]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Ed Vaizey 34,459 54.2 +0.9
Labour Co-op Rachel Eden17,07926.9+10.9
Liberal Democrats Christopher Carrigan9,23414.5+1.4
Green Sue Ap-Roberts1,5462.4−2.7
UKIP David McLeod1,2842.0−10.5
Majority17,38027.3−10.0
Turnout 63,60272.5+2.2
Conservative hold Swing −4.95
General election 2015: Wantage [21] [22] [23]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Ed Vaizey 31,092 53.3 +1.3
Labour Stephen Webb9,34316.0+2.1
Liberal Democrats Alex Meredith7,61113.1−14.8
UKIP Lee Upcraft7,28812.5+8.2
Green Kate Prendergast2,9865.1+3.2
Majority21,74937.3+17.2
Turnout 58,32070.3+0.3
Conservative hold Swing −0.4
General election 2010: Wantage
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Ed Vaizey 29,284 52.0 +8.9
Liberal Democrats Alan Armitage15,73727.9+0.3
Labour Steven Mitchell7,85513.9−10.0
UKIP Jacqueline Jones2,4214.3+2.8
Green Adam Twine1,0441.9−0.7
Majority13,54724.1+8.7
Turnout 56,34170.0+1.9
Conservative hold Swing +4.3

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2005: Wantage
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Ed Vaizey 22,354 43.0 +3.4
Liberal Democrats Andrew Crawford14,33727.6−0.4
Labour Mark McDonald12,46424.0−4.2
Green Adam Twine1,3322.6+0.4
UKIP Nikolai Tolstoy 7981.5−0.4
English Democrat Gerald Lambourne6461.2New
Majority8,01715.4+4.0
Turnout 51,93168.2+3.7
Conservative hold Swing +1.9
General election 2001: Wantage
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Robert Jackson 19,475 39.6 −0.2
Labour Stephen Beer13,87528.2−0.7
Liberal Democrats Neil Fawcett13,77628.0+1.5
Green David Brooks-Saxl1,0622.2+1.1
UKIP Nikolai Tolstoy 9411.9+1.1
Majority5,60011.4+0.5
Turnout 49,12964.5−13.6
Conservative hold Swing +0.3

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1997: Wantage
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Robert Jackson 22,311 39.8 −14.2
Labour Celia Wilson16,22228.9+9.4
Liberal Democrats Jenny Riley14,86226.5−2.4
Referendum Stuart Rising1,5492.8New
Green Miriam Kennet6401.1−0.4
UKIP Nikolai Tolstoy 4650.8New
Majority6,08910.9−18.2
Turnout 56,04978.1−4.6
Conservative hold Swing
General election 1992: Wantage [24]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Robert Jackson 30,575 54.1 +0.1
Liberal Democrats RMC Morgan14,10225.0−5.5
Labour Co-op Vivian Woodell10,95519.4+3.9
Green RJ Ely8671.5New
Majority16,47329.1+5.6
Turnout 56,49982.7+4.8
Conservative hold Swing +2.8

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1987: Wantage
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Robert Jackson 27,951 54.0 +1.1
SDP Winifred Tumim 15,79530.5−1.8
Labour Stephen Ladyman 8,05515.5+1.0
Majority12,15623.5+2.9
Turnout 51,80177.9+1.0
Conservative hold Swing +1.5
General election 1983: Wantage
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Robert Jackson 25,992 52.9
SDP Winifred Tumim 15,86732.3
Labour Andrew Popper7,11514.5
Wessex Regionalist AP Mockler1830.4
Majority10,12520.6
Turnout 49,15776.9
Conservative win (new seat)

Neighbouring constituencies

See also

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.
  3. The town was granted a Royal Charter in 1155 and sent two MPs from 1295 until 1832, see Wallingford (UK Parliament constituency)

References

  1. "Rt Hon Edward Vaizey". UK Parliament. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  2. "The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report – South East | Boundary Commission for England". boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  3. "Brexit showdown: Who were Tory rebels who defied Boris Johnson?". BBC News. 5 September 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  4. "Boris Johnson readmits 10 Brexit rebels to Tory party". BBC News. 29 October 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  5. 1 2 "Wantage Parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  6. "Conservative Members of Parliament 2015". UK Political.info. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  7. "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1983" (PDF).
  8. "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1995".
  9. "The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 2007".
  10. Lynch, David (9 June 2021). "What the new election boundaries for Oxfordshire could look like". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  11. "Wantage Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  12. "The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume two: Constituency names, designations and composition – South East | Boundary Commission for England". boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  13. "Parliamentary constituencies". UK Parliament. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  14. "South East". Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  15. Courts, Robert (8 June 2021). "Robert Responds to Boundary Commission's Initial Proposals". Robert Courts MP. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  16. "Our proposals for South East". Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  17. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 1)
  18. See List of British politicians who have crossed the floor#2001–2005 Parliament
  19. (Lost Conservative whip for voting to stop a no deal Brexit, reinstated on October 29)
  20. "Wantage Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  21. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  22. "Parliamentary election - Vale of White Horse District Council". 17 June 2015. Archived from the original on 17 June 2015.
  23. "Wantage". bbc.co.uk.
  24. "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2010.

51°36′N1°26′W / 51.60°N 1.43°W / 51.60; -1.43