South Basildon and East Thurrock (UK Parliament constituency)

South Basildon and East Thurrock
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of South Basildon and East Thurrock in Essex.
Location of Essex within England.
County	Essex
Electorate	71,819 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of parliament	Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Basildon, Billericay and Thurrock[2]
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	East of England

South Basildon and East Thurrock is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation by Stephen Metcalfe, a Conservative.^{[n 2]}

History

Its predecessor seat, Basildon, was a much-referenced bellwether seat, having consistently voted for the most successful party (in terms of number of seats) in each election since its 1974 creation. In 2010, South Basildon and East Thurrock maintained this tradition by electing a Conservative MP, Stephen Metcalfe. The average Essex swing voters to which either party needs to appeal to win an election (matching the national outcome since 1966), have been represented by the combination of the old Billericay seat and its southern-part, Basildon replacements, this being the latest of these.

Before 1974 the area came within the older version of the Billericay constituency and, for just five years before 1950, this area was the eastern part of the Thurrock seat – from 1885–1945 the area was within the South East Essex seat. From 1832–1885 the area was in the South Essex seat.

Boundaries

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission for England made a number of radical changes to existing constituencies to allow for an extra seat to be awarded to the county.

Despite its long name, this new constituency is to the greatest extent the successor to the Basildon constituency.^[3]

The Basildon constituency that existed after 1997 was never wholly within the Basildon district, nor even contained the whole of the Basildon urban area, but it extended south into the Thurrock council area to take in towns such as Stanford-le-Hope and Corringham.

This new seat retains all of the Thurrock wards, loses some areas around central Basildon, and replaces them with Pitsea to the east of Basildon. Additionally, the ward of East Tilbury is added from the Thurrock constituency.

The electoral wards in the seat are:

• Corringham and Fobbing, East Tilbury, Orsett, Stanford East and Corringham Town, Stanford-le-Hope West and The Homesteads in the Thurrock district
• Langdon Hills, Nethermayne, Pitsea North West, Pitsea South East and Vange in the Borough of Basildon.

Constituency profile

Economically the seat has a very similar proportion of jobseekers to the national average seat 3.8%, at 4.0%, (based on The Guardian's November 2012 study). This is higher than the average for the Eastern counties of 3.1% but significantly lower than Bedford, Great Yarmouth, Peterborough, Luton South, Rochford and Southend East, and Thurrock seats.^[4]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[5]	Party
	2010	Stephen Metcalfe	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: South Basildon and East Thurrock[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stephen Metcalfe	19,788	43.4	-0.5
	UKIP	Ian Luder [7]	12,097	26.5	+20.6
	Labour	Mike Le-Surf [8]	11,493	25.2	-5.8
	Liberal Democrat	Geoff Williams[9]	1,356	3.0	-10.4
	Independent	Kerry Smith[10]	401	0.9	N/A
	Independent	None Of The Above X	253	0.6	+0.3
	Independent	Stuart Hooper[11]	205	0.4	N/A
Majority			7692	16.9
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing	2.6

General Election 2010: South Basildon and East Thurrock[12][13][14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stephen Metcalfe	19,624	43.9	+5.3
	Labour	Angela Evans Smith*	13,852	31.0	-9.7
	Liberal Democrat	Geoff Williams	5,977	13.4	+2.8
	UKIP	Kerry Smith	2,639	5.9	+3.3
	BNP	Chris Roberts	2,518	5.6	+0.8
	Independent	None of the Above X	125	0.3	N/A
Majority			5,772	12.9%
Turnout			44,735	62.3%	+3.0%

* Served as an MP in the 2005–2010 Parliament

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Essex

Notes and references

Notes

1. A borough 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. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
2. "Basildon South and Thurrock East' UK Parliament, 6 May 2010 -". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
3. 2010 post-revision map non-metropolitan areas and unitary authorities of England
4. Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
5. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)
6. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
7. http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/basildonsouthandthurrockeast/
8. http://www.labour.org.uk/candidates
9. http://www.libdems.org.uk/general_election_candidates#East of England
10. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30708132
11. http://www.yourthurrock.com/List-General-Election-candidates-South-Basildon/story-26317247-detail/story.html
12. Statement of Persons Nominated Basildon Council
13. "BBC NEWS – Election 2010 – Basildon South & Thurrock East". BBC News.
14. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.

Coordinates: 51°32′08″N 0°28′48″E / 51.5355°N 0.4800°E