Taunton Deane (UK Parliament constituency)

Taunton Deane
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Taunton Deane in Somerset
Location of Somerset within England
County	Somerset
Electorate	82,882 (December 2010) [1]
Major settlements	Taunton, Wellington
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of Parliament	Rebecca Pow (Conservative)
Seats	One
Created from	Taunton
Replaced by	Taunton and Wellington

Taunton Deane is a constituency ^{[n 1]} in Somerset represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Rebecca Pow of the Conservative Party since 2015. ^{[n 2]}

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be subject to moderate boundary changes and will be renamed Taunton and Wellington , to be first contested at the next general election. ^[2]

History

Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which created this constituency for the General Election 2010 as a reduced form of the Taunton seat. The western wards, transferred to the new seat of Bridgwater and West Somerset for 2010, were all close to or in Exmoor, which were five in number:

• Aville Vale, Brompton Ralph and Haddon, Dulverton and Brushford, Exmoor and, Qualme. ^[3]

Political history

The predecessor seat, while approximately 7% larger in electorate (and thus due to population and settlements' growth, oversized), had been held by a Liberal Democrat, Jeremy Browne, since 2005, who won Taunton Deane as its main successor with a relatively marginal majority. In the two previous elections, the seat had seen alternation between Conservative and a Liberal Democrat control. The Taunton Deane seat was won by the Conservatives in the 2015 general election with a large majority.

The last general election in which either party polled less than 38% of the vote, thus allowing a larger majority, was in 1987, taking into account only one of their notionally equivalent predecessors, the Social Democratic Party - their candidate participated in the SDP–Liberal Alliance.

Prominent members

Between 2010 and 2015, the seat was represented by Jeremy Browne, who served in the Coalition government as a Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office. ^[4]

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries

The seat has electoral wards:

• Bishop's Hull, Bishops Lydeard, Blackdown, Bradford on Tone, Comeytrowe, Milverton and North Deane, Monument, Neroche, North Curry, Norton Fitzwarren, Ruishton and Creech, Staplegrove, Stoke St Gregory, Taunton: Blackbrook and Holway, Eastgate, Fairwater, Halcon, Killams and Mountfield, Lyngford, Manor and Wilton, Pyrland and Rowbarton wards, Trull, Wellington: East, North, Rockwell Green and West wards, West Monkton, Wiveliscombe and West Deane forming the Borough of Taunton Deane ^{[3] [5]}

This borough centres on the town of Taunton while extending to include Wellington within an approximate rhombus-shaped swathe of land forming the south-western portion of Somerset. The constituency covers a large part of the Devon—Somerset border.

History

In the 2005 general election, the victorious Liberal Democrats' candidate in Taunton required the smallest percentage swing from the Conservative MP for them to take the seat. In the 2010 general election, the seat was identified as a target for the Conservative Party, ranking 29th on their target list. ^[6] The incumbent, Jeremy Browne had a notional 3.3% lead from the 2005 election. Browne held the seat in 2010, increasing his majority to 6.9%, a 1.8% swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats. ^[7]

Constituency profile

The seat is a mixture of partially agricultural commuter villages and a spacious urban town, which has business parks in a similar way to Wells, connected by road and rail to the major conurbations, north and south, Bristol and Exeter. The majority of the eastern half of the ridge-like Blackdown Hills is in the Blackdown electoral ward. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.6% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian . ^[8]

Members of Parliament

2010–present

Election		Member [9]	Party	Notes
	2010	Jeremy Browne	Liberal Democrats	Previously MP for Taunton from 2005. Stood down in 2015.
	2015	Rebecca Pow	Conservative	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Arts, Heritage and Tourism (2019) Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Nature Recovery and the Domestic Environment (2019–2022)

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Taunton Deane ^{[10] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rebecca Pow	34,164	53.6	+0.7
	Liberal Democrats	Gideon Amos	22,464	35.2	+7.5
	Labour	Liam Canham	4,715	7.4	-8.0
	Independent	John Hunt	2,390	3.8	New
Majority			11,700	18.4	-6.8
Turnout			63,733	71.9	-1.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	-3.5

General election 2017: Taunton Deane ^{[12] [13]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rebecca Pow	33,334	52.9	+4.8
	Liberal Democrats	Gideon Amos	17,446	27.7	+6.4
	Labour	Martin Jevon	9,689	15.4	+6.2
	UKIP	Alan Dimmick	1,434	2.3	-9.7
	Green	Clive Martin	1,151	1.8	-2.7
Majority			15,887	25.2	-1.6
Turnout			63,053	73.8	+3.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	-0.7

General election 2015: Taunton Deane ^{[14] [15]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rebecca Pow	27,849	48.1	+5.9
	Liberal Democrats	Rachel Gilmour	12,358	21.3	-27.8
	UKIP	Laura Bailhache	6,921	12.0	+8.4
	Labour	Neil Guild	5,347	9.2	+4.1
	Green	Clive Martin	2,630	4.5	New
	Independent	Mike Rigby	2,568	4.4	New
	TUSC	Stephen German	118	0.2	New
	Independent	Bruce Gauld	96	0.2	New
Majority			15,491	26.8	NA
Turnout			57,887	70.7	+0.2
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing	+16.8

General election 2010: Taunton Deane ^[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Jeremy Browne	28,531	49.1	+4.7
	Conservative	Mark Formosa	24,538	42.2	+0.8
	Labour	Martin Jevon	2,967	5.1	-6.8
	UKIP	Tony McIntyre	2,114	3.6	+1.2
Majority			3,993	6.9	+3.9
Turnout			58,150	70.5	+1.2
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	+1.8

See also

• List of parliamentary constituencies in Somerset

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. "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
2. "South West | Boundary Commission for England". boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
3. 2010 post-revision map non-metropolitan areas and unitary authorities of England
4. "Lib Dem MP Browne to stand down". 15 October 2014 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
5. "New Parliamentary Constituencies for England SN/PC/04297" (PDF). House of Commons Library. 5 November 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
6. "Election 2010: Conservative target seats". BBC News. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
7. "Election 2010: UK, England, South West, Taunton Deane". BBC News. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
8. Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
9. "Taunton Deane". Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
10. "Statement of Persons Nominated" (PDF).
11. BBC Election Results 2019 GE https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000988
12. "General Election 2017: these are the Taunton Deane candidates". somersetlive.co.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
13. "Taunton Deane". BBC. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
14. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
15. "Taunton Deane Parliamentary constituency". BBC News . Retrieved 8 May 2015.
16. James, P (20 April 2010). "Statement of Persons Nominated & Notice of Poll" (PDF). Acting Returning Officer, Taunton Deane Borough Council. Retrieved 24 April 2010.

Sources

• UK Constituency Maps
• BBC Vote 2001
• BBC Election 2005

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