Warwick and Leamington (UK Parliament constituency)

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Warwick and Leamington County constituency

Warwick and Leamington shown within Warwickshire, and Warwickshire shown within England
Created:	1885
MP:	James Plaskitt
Party:	Labour
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Warwickshire
EP constituency:	West Midlands

Warwick and Leamington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency includes the towns of Warwick and Leamington Spa as well as surrounding villages. Its current MP is James Plaskitt of the Labour Party, who was first elected in the 1997 general election.

The constituency was created in 1885, partially replacing the earlier Warwick constituency.

1 History
2 Members of Parliament
3 Election results
4 See also
5 References

[edit] History

Warwick and Leamington are close together and although still distinct towns, they are now joined into a continuous urban area. Both are relatively prosperous, although there are pockets of deprivation in Leamington. Warwick is a popular tourist destination while Leamington's economy is more industrial. Leamington is also more ethnically diverse (some five per cent of the constituency's population is Asian) and is home to many students of the University of Warwick.

Represented by Conservatives since 1910, including for 34 years Anthony Eden, the seat had not been expected to change hands in the 1997 general election. James Plaskitt's defeat of the Conservative incumbent, Dudley Smith, came as a surprise, even in the context of Labour's landslide victory. Plaskitt increased his majority in the 2001 election, but on a lower turnout. In the 2005 election, Warwick and Leamington was 85th on the Conservative list of target seats, meaning that to gain it they would have required a somewhat greater swing than was seen nationally. With the greatest increase in support being seen by the Liberal Democrats, Plaskitt only narrowly held the seat, with his majority slashed from nearly 6,000 votes to only 266.

However, boundary changes in Labour's favour which will take effect at the next general election mean that Warwick and Leamington will not necessarily be as marginal as this result suggests.

[edit] Members of Parliament

	Member	Party
1885	Arthur Wellesley Peel	Liberal
1895	Alfred Lyttelton	Liberal Unionist
1906	Thomas Berridge	Liberal
1910	Ernest Pollock	Conservative
1923	Anthony Eden	Conservative
1957	John Hobson	Conservative
1968	Dudley Smith	Conservative
1997	James Plaskitt	Labour

[edit] Election results

General election, 2005: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Plaskitt	22,238	40.6	−8.2
	Conservative	Chris White	21,972	40.1	+2.5
	Liberal Democrats	Linda Forbes	8,119	14.8	+3.7
	Green	Ian Davison	1,534	2.8	N/A
	UKIP	Greville Warwick	921	1.7	+0.5
Majority			266	0.5	−10.7
Turnout			54,744	67.4	+1.6
	Labour hold		Swing	−5.4

General election, 2001: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Plaskitt	26,108	48.8	+4.3
	Conservative	David Bannerman	20,155	37.6	−1.2
	Liberal Democrats	Linda Forbes	5,964	11.1	−0.7
	Socialist Alliance	Claire Kime	664	1.2	N/A
	UKIP	Greville Warwick	648	1.2	N/A
Majority			5,953	11.2	+5.5
Turnout			53,539	65.8	−9.3
	Labour hold		Swing	2.8

General election, 1997: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Plaskitt	26,747	44.5	+11.5
	Conservative	Dudley Smith	23,349	38.9	−9.5
	Liberal Democrats	Nigel Hicks	7,133	11.9	−4.7
	Referendum Party	Val Davis	1,484	2.5	N/A
	Green	Paul Baptie	764	1.3	−0.1
	Independent (politician)	Greville Warwick	306	0.5	N/A
	Independent (politician)	Michael Gibbs	183	0.3	N/A
	Natural Law	Roddy McCarthy	125	0.2	−0.1
Majority			3,398	5.7
Turnout			60,091	75.1	−6.5
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	10.5

General election, 1992: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Dudley Smith	28,093	48.4	−1.4
	Labour	Matthew Taylor	19,158	33.0	+9.5
	Liberal Democrats	S. E. Boad	9,645	16.6	−7.9
	Green	J. A. Alty	803	1.4	−0.6
	Independent (politician)	R. Newby	251	0.4	N/A
	Natural Law	J. Brewster	156	0.3	N/A
Majority			8,935	15.4	−9.9
Turnout			58,108	81.6	−5.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	−5.5

General election, 1987: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Dudley Smith	27,530	49.8	−1.1
	Alliance (SDP)	K. P. O'Sullivan	13,548	24.5	−1.4
	Labour	A. Christina	13,019	23.5	+1.5
	Green	J. A. Alty	1,214	2.2	+0.9
Majority			13,982	25.3	+0.3
Turnout			55,311	76.0	+2.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	−1.3

General election, 1983: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Dudley Smith	26,512	50.9	−3.5
	Alliance (SDP)	R. Behrens	13,480	25.9	+10.9
	Labour	R. Chessum	11,463	22.0	−7.3
	Ecology Party	N. Charlton	685	1.3	−0.1
Majority			13,032	25.0	0.0
Turnout			52,140	73.6	−4.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	−7.2

General election, 1979: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Dudley Smith	35,925	54.4	+7.3
	Labour	C. J. Gray	19,367	29.3	−3.8
	Liberal	D. Woodcock	9,905	15.0	−4.8
	Ecology Party	P. Sizer	905	1.4	N/A
Majority			16,558	25.0	+11.0
Turnout			66,102	77.7	+2.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	+5.6

General election, October 1974: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Dudley Smith	27,721	47.1	−0.4
	Labour	J. W. England	19,476	33.1	+3.4
	Liberal	T. A. Jones	11,625	19.8	−3.0
Majority			8,245	14.0	−3.8
Turnout			58,822	74.8	−6.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	−1.9

General election, February 1974: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Dudley Smith	30,167	47.5	−15.9
	Labour	J. W. England	18,874	29.7	−6.9
	Liberal	T. A. Jones	14,500	22.8	N/A
Majority			11,293	17.8	−9.0
Turnout			63,541	81.6	+9.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	−19.4

General election, 1970: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Dudley Smith	36,994	63.4	−4.9
	Labour	John Watkinson	21,355	36.6	+20.1
Majority			15,639	26.8	−25.0
Turnout			58,349	72.6	−6.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	−12.5

Warwick and Leamington by-election, 1968
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Dudley Smith	28,914	68.3	+16.7
	Labour	Raymond Carter	6,992	16.5	−19.6
	Liberal	Antony Butcher	6,415	15.2	+2.9
Majority			21,922	51.8	+36.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	18.2

General election, 1966: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Hobson	28,918	51.6	−2.2
	Labour	L. J. Huckfield	20,221	36.1	+2.0
	Liberal	Antony Butcher	6,912	12.3	+0.2
Majority			8,697	15.5	−4.2
Turnout			56,051	78.9	−1.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	−2.1

General election, 1964: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Hobson	29,749	53.8	−8.8
	Labour	N. J. Spearing	18,865	34.1	−3.3
	Liberal	P. Gibson	6,676	12.1	N/A
Majority			10,884	19.7	−5.5
Turnout			55,290	80.4	−2.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	−10.5

General election, 1959: Warwick and Leamington
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Hobson	32,513	62.6
	Labour	W. Wilson	19,434	37.4
Majority			13,079	25.2
Turnout			51,947	82.7

[edit] See also

List of Parliamentary constituencies in Warwickshire

[edit] References

Constituencies in the West Midlands
Labour	Birmingham Edgbaston Birmingham, Erdington Birmingham Hall Green Birmingham Hodge Hill Birmingham Northfield Birmingham Perry Barr Birmingham Selly Oak Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath Burton Cannock Chase Coventry North East Coventry North West Coventry South Dudley North Dudley South Halesowen and Rowley Regis Newcastle-under-Lyme North Warwickshire Nuneaton Redditch Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Stoke-on-Trent Central Stoke-on-Trent North Stoke-on-Trent South Stourbridge Tamworth Telford Walsall North Walsall South Warley Warwick and Leamington West Bromwich East West Bromwich West Wolverhampton North East Wolverhampton South East Wolverhampton South West Worcester
Conservative	Aldridge-Brownhills Bromsgrove Leominster Lichfield Ludlow Meriden Mid Worcestershire North Shropshire Rugby and Kenilworth Shrewsbury and Atcham South Staffordshire Stone Stratford-on-Avon Sutton Coldfield The Wrekin West Worcestershire
Liberal Democrat	Birmingham Yardley Hereford Solihull
Health Concern	Wyre Forest
Independent	Birmingham, Ladywood
West Midlands European constituency: Conservative (3) Labour (2) UKIP (1) Liberal Democrats (1)