Wantage (UK Parliament constituency)

Wantage
County constituency
for the House of Commons

Outline map

Boundary of Wantage in Oxfordshire.

Outline map

Location of Oxfordshire within England.
County Oxfordshire
Electorate 82,931 (May 2015)
Major settlements Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford, Faringdon
Current constituency
Created 1983
Member of parliament Ed Vaizey (Conservative)
Number of members One
Created from Abingdon
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency South East England

Wantage is a constituency[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Ed Vaizey, a Conservative.[n 2]

In terms of electorate, at the time of the 2015 general election, Wantage was the 37th largest constituency in the United Kingdom and the second largest in Oxfordshire.

Boundaries

1983-2010: The District of Vale of White Horse wards of Appleton, Craven, Drayton, Faringdon and Littleworth, Greendown, Grove, Harwell and Chilton, Hendred, Icknield, Island Villages, Kingston Bagpuize and Southmoor, Longworth, Marcham, Segsbury, Shrivenham, Stanford, Steventon, Sutton Courtenay, The Coxwells, and Upton and Blewbury, and the District of South Oxfordshire wards of Brightwell, Cholsey, Didcot North, Didcot Northbourne, Didcot South, Hagbourne, and Wallingford.

2010-present: The District of Vale of White Horse wards of Blewbury and Upton, Craven, Drayton, Faringdon and The Coxwells, Greendown, Grove, Hanneys, Harwell, Hendreds, Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, Longworth, Marcham and Shippon, Shrivenham, Stanford, Sutton Courtenay and Appleford, Wantage Charlton, and Wantage Segsbury, and the District of South Oxfordshire wards of Brightwell, Cholsey and Wallingford South, Didcot All Saints, Didcot Ladygrove, Didcot Northbourne, Didcot Park, Hagbourne, and Wallingford North.

In September 2016, the boundary commission proposed plans to amend the boundaries of five of the six constituencies in Oxfordshire with Wantage being one of the five with proposed new boundaries. The main proposed change would see Wallingford become part of a renamed Henley and Thame constituency - currently just Henley. Whilst Wallingford would be part of the Henley and Thame constituency, the villages surrounding Wallingford currently in the Wantage constituency (including Brightwell-cum-Sotwell and Cholsey) will remain part of the Wantage constituency. The changes will also see several villages currently in the Oxford West and Abingdon (including Appleton, Besselsleigh and Eaton) become part of the Wantage constituency.[1] It had previously been thought that the boundary commission may rename the Wantage constituency to include Didcot in the name however no such plans are included in the proposal.

History

The constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the seat of Abingdon. It is a safe seat for the Conservative Party. Its first MP was Robert Jackson, who served as a junior minister under both Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

However, Jackson defected to the Labour Party in 2005, and so Wantage unexpectedly had a Labour MP. Jackson was deemed unlikely to be re-elected in Wantage as a Labour MP, so he did not stand at the 2005 general election. At that election, Ed Vaizey was elected as MP for Wantage and, until July 2016, held the post of Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries.

Constituency profile

There are three market towns in the constituency: Faringdon, Wallingford and Wantage. Wantage is famous as the birthplace of King Alfred the Great, Wallingford has the ancient enclosure walls of a castle and medieval bridge.[n 3] Faringdon bears a scar of the English Civil War, when its church lost the top of its steeple. The largest town in the constituency is 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 of Didcot.

The constituency is mostly rural in character, with more than 400 farms in operation. Included are 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 border into the Newbury seat.

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.[2]

Members of Parliament

ElectionMember[3] Party
1983 Robert Jackson Conservative
2005 Labour
2005 Ed Vaizey Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Wantage[4][5][6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Ed Vaizey 31,092 53.3 +1.3
Labour Stephen Webb 9,343 16.0 +2.1
Liberal Democrat Alex Meredith 7,611 13.1 -14.9
UKIP Lee Upcraft 7,288 12.5 +8.2
Green Kate Prendergast 2,986 5.1 +3.3
Majority 21,749 37.3 +17.2
Turnout 58,320 70.3 +0.3
Conservative hold Swing -0.4
General Election 2010: Wantage
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Ed Vaizey 29,284 52.0 +8.9
Liberal Democrat Alan Armitage 15,737 27.9 +0.3
Labour Steven Mitchell 7,855 13.9 -10.0
UKIP Jacqueline Jones 2,421 4.3 +2.8
Green Adam Twine 1,044 1.9 -0.7
Majority 13,547 24.1
Turnout 56,341 70.0 +1.9
Conservative hold Swing +4.3

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Wantage
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Ed Vaizey 22,354 43.0 +3.4
Liberal Democrat Andrew Crawford 14,337 27.6 −0.4
Labour Mark McDonald 12,464 24.0 −4.2
Green Adam Twine 1,332 2.6 +0.4
UKIP Nikolai Tolstoy-Miloslavsky 798 1.5 -0.4
English Democrat Gerald Lambourne 646 1.2 N/A
Majority 8,017 15.4
Turnout 51,931 68.2 +3.7
Conservative hold Swing +1.9
General Election 2001: Wantage
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Robert Jackson 19,475 39.6 -0.2
Labour Stephen Beer 13,875 28.2 -0.7
Liberal Democrat Neil Fawcett 13,776 28.0 +1.5
Green David Brooks-Saxl 1,062 2.2 +1.0
UKIP Nikolai Tolstoy 941 1.9 +1.1
Majority 5,600 11.4
Turnout 49,129 64.5 -13.6
Conservative hold Swing +0.3

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Wantage
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Robert Jackson 22,311 39.81
Labour Celia Wilson 16,222 28.94
Liberal Democrat Jenny Riley 14,862 26.52
Referendum Stuart Rising 1,549 2.76
Green Miriam Kennet 640 1.14
UKIP Nikolai Tolstoy 465 0.83
Majority 6,089 10.86
Turnout 78.10
Conservative hold Swing
General Election 1992: Wantage[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Robert Jackson 30,575 54.1 +0.2
Liberal Democrat RMC Morgan 14,102 25.0 −5.5
Labour VS Woodell 10,955 19.4 +3.8
Green RJ Ely 867 1.5 +1.5
Majority 16,473 29.2 +5.7
Turnout 56,499 82.7 +4.8
Conservative hold Swing +2.8

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Wantage
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Robert Jackson 27,951 53.96
Social Democratic W Tumin 15,795 30.49
Labour Stephen Ladyman 8,055 15.55
Majority 12,156 23.47
Turnout 77.90
Conservative hold Swing
General Election 1983: Wantage
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Robert Jackson 25,992 52.88
Social Democratic W Tumin 15,867 32.28
Labour AJD Popper 7,115 14.47
Wessex Regionalist AP Barrett Mockler 183 0.37
Majority 10,125 20.60
Turnout 76.87
Conservative win (new seat)

Neighbouring constituencies

Constituencies bordering Wantage
Witney, Oxford West and Abingdon, Henley
Swindon North
Swindon South		 Henley
   Wantage  
Devizes, Newbury

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. ↑ Oliver, Matt (13 September 2016). "Boundary Commission proposes changes to Oxford East, Oxford West & Abingdon, Henley, Banbury and Wantage constituencies". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  2. ↑ "Unemployment: the key UK data and benefit claimants for every constituency". The Guardian. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  3. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 1)
  4. ↑ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  5. ↑ http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/services-and-advice/local-democracy/elections-and-registering-vote/elections-2015/parliamentary-elec
  6. ↑ "Wantage". bbc.co.uk.
  7. ↑ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 2010-12-06.

Coordinates: 51°36′N 1°26′W / 51.60°N 1.43°W / 51.60; -1.43

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