Witham (UK Parliament constituency)

Witham
County constituency
for the House of Commons

Outline map

Boundary of Witham in Essex.

Outline map

Location of Essex within England.
County Essex
Electorate 67,451 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created 2010
Member of parliament Priti Patel (Conservative)
Number of members One
Created from Braintree, Colchester
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency East of England

Witham is a parliamentary constituency represented by Priti Patel, who has served as Secretary of State for International Development since 14 July 2016 in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Boundaries

Following a review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission for England made radical alterations to existing constituencies to allow for an extra seat to be created due to increased population. As a consequence, electoral wards from the districts of Braintree, Colchester and Maldon were used to create a new constituency of Witham.

From Braintree
From Maldon
From Colchester

Constituency profile

One of the safest Conservative seats in the county, and by extension one of the safest in the United Kingdom, Essex's newest seat seems likely to return only Conservative members, though paradoxically, the town of Witham is the only area of real Labour strength in the region.

Witham itself is an industrial town, on the Great Eastern main line railway from London to Norwich, with some heavy industry and London commuter belt residential areas – the strength of the Labour vote here was just enough to turn the former Braintree seat red in 1997 on the previous boundaries.

However, the town is small, and the Witham seat extends to cover a huge part of rural central Essex where affluent commuter villages and farming communities sit side by side, united in almost universal support for the Conservatives.

Members of Parliament

ElectionMember[2] Party
2010 Priti Patel Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Witham[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Priti Patel 27,123 57.5 +5.3
UKIP Garry Cockrill[4] 7,569 16.0 +9.5
Labour John Clarke 7,467 15.8 −2.7
Liberal Democrat Josephine Hayes[5] 2,891 6.1 −13.6
Green James Abbott[6] 2,038 4.3 +1.3
Christian Peoples Doreen Scrimshaw[7] 80 0.2 N/A
Majority 19,554 41.5 +9.1
Turnout 47,168 70.3 +0.1
Conservative hold Swing +9.5
General Election 2010: Witham[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Priti Patel 24,448 52.2 +2.5
Liberal Democrat Margaret Phelps 9,252 19.8 +4.6
Labour John Spademan 8,656 18.5 −13.9
UKIP David Hodges 3,060 6.5 +3.8
Green James Abbott 1,419 3.0 +3.0
Majority 15,196 32.4
Turnout 46,835 70.2 +6.6
Conservative hold Swing +1.1

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Electorate Figures – Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  2. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 4)
  3. ↑ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  4. ↑ http://meetyournextmp.com/area/287-witham/humans
  5. ↑ http://www.libdems.org.uk/general_election_candidates#East of England
  6. ↑ http://witham-braintree.greenparty.org.uk/news/2014-11-19-candidates.html
  7. ↑ "CPA Candidates for the General Election". Christian Peoples Alliance. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  8. ↑ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.

Coordinates: 51°48′N 0°39′E / 51.80°N 0.65°E / 51.80; 0.65

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