The Times Guide to the House of Commons

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• Publisher: Times Books
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780007351589
• eBook ISBN: 9780007411054
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

General Election 2010: results by constituency

House of Commons, May 2010

Extensive boundary changes were made to the parliamentary constituencies in which the general election of 2010 was fought, larger in scale than the last such exercise before 1997. The net effect was to create four additional constituencies, taking the total to 650. The new boundaries complicate the presentation of results by constituency. To be meaningful, voting figures should be compared with those of the general election of 2005; yet so far-reaching were the boundary changes in many seats (outside Scotland, which underwent a similar process before the 2005 general election, and were unchanged this time) that such comparisons are often not possible.

In order to give a benchmark, notional voting figures for 2005 are used, based on projections by Professor Colin Rallings and Professor Michael Thrasher, of Plymouth University. Where a constituency has been redrawn extensively, or a new one created, the change from 2005 is based on these notional figures, signified by an asterisk above the column.

Each result is summarised as a ‘hold’ or ‘gain’ for the winning party. Again, in the majority of seats this description is a notional one, based on the Rallings-Thrasher calculation transferring the 2005 result into the new constituency boundaries. In a handful of seats, their calculation was that a constituency would have been won by a different party in 2005 had it been fought under the new boundaries: Thanet South in Kent, for instance, would have been gained by the Conservatives in 2005 rather than held by Labour. For consistency, the Guide therefore describes Thanet South, which the Tories gained in 2010, as a Conservative hold.

These results include the election in Thirsk & Malton, which was delayed by three weeks owing to the death during the general election campaign of the candidate for the United Kingdom Independence Party.

Constituencies are listed in alphabetical order. Those within cities, counties or towns are listed with the name of the city, county or town first: Manchester Central comes under ‘M’, above Manchester Gorton. Dorset West is under ‘D’, after Dorset South. City of York appears as York, City of.

The new boundaries confer added importance to the short profiles of each constituency in the results pages, a feature introduced in the Guide of 2001. Readers can refer to the colour maps featured elsewhere in the Guide to look up constituencies of interest to them. Short descriptions are provided of unsuccessful candidates who attracted more than 5 per cent of the vote in their constituency and thus held their deposit, where biographical details were supplied by candidates or were readily available. Not all were.

Profiles of each Member of Parliament retain their core purpose of a biographical summary of their background and political experience. To these have been added, where applicable, comments intended to answer the questions most readers may want to know: what is an individual MP like? What motivates them? How effective are they? Where do they fit within the jigsaw of politics? These are intended to be informative but are necessarily subjective; like the accompanying constituency descriptions, they represent the opinions of journalists and writers at The Times

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Greg Hurst

Party abbreviations

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Parties with MPs

C Conservative; Lab Labour; Lab Co-op Labour and Co-operative; LD Liberal Democrat; PC Plaid Cymru; SNP Scottish National Party; Green Green; DUP Democratic Unionist Party; SDLP Social Democratic and Labour Party; SF Sinn Féin; Alliance Alliance

Minor parties

BB A Better Britain for All; MP Expense A Vote Against MP Expense Abuse; South All The South Party; Green Soc Alliance for Green Socialism; Workers Lib Alliance for Workers Liberty; APP Animal Protection Party; Animals Animals Count; AD Apolitical Democrats; BCP Basingstoke Common Man; Blaenau Voice Blaenau Gwent People’s Voice; Blue Blue Environment Party; BNP British National Party; BIC Bromsgrove Independent Conservative; BP Elvis Bus-Pass Elvis Party; BIB Bushra Irfan of Blackburn; CIP Campaign for Independent Politicians; Christian Christian; Ch M Christian Movement for Great Britain; Ch P Christian Party; CPA Christian Peoples Alliance; Rand E Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality; City Ind City Independent; Clause 28 Clause 28, Children’s Protection Christian Democrats; CSP Common Sense Party; Comm Lge Communist League; Comm Communist Party; Comm Brit Communist Party of Britain; CNBPG Community Need Before Private Greed; Cornish D Cornish Democrats; Deficit Cut the Deficit Party; Dem Lab Democratic Labour Party; D Nat Democratic Nationalist; DDP Direct Democracy Party; Eng Dem English Democrats; Eng Ind English Independence Party; Parenting Equal Parenting Alliance; FDP Fancy Dress Party; Anti-War Fight for an Anti-War Government; F and R For Freedom and Responsibility; Snouts Get Snouts Out The Trough; YP Go Mad and Vote For Yourself Party; Humanity Humanity; Impact Impact Party; Ind Independent; Ind CHC Independent Community and Health Concern; Ind EACPS Independent Ealing Action Communities Public Services; Leave EU Independent Leave-the-EU Alliance; Ind People Independent People Together; Ind Rantzen Independent Rantzen; Green Belt Independent Save Our Green Belt; Ind Voice Independent Voice for Halifax; Ind Fed Independents Federation UK; UK Integrity Independents Federation UK – Honest Integrity Democracy; Save QM Independents to Save Queen Mary’s Hospital; Integrity Integrity UK; IZB Islam Zinda Baad Platform; J & AC Justice & Anti-Corruption Party; JP Justice Party; Land Land is Power; LTT Lawfulness Trustworthiness and Transparency; Lib Liberal; Libertarian Libertarian Party; Lincs Ind Lincolnshire Independents; LLPBPP Local Liberals People Before Politics Party; Magna Carta Magna Carta Party; Mansfield Ind Mansfield Independent Forum; Meb Ker Mebyon Kernow; Med Ind Medway Independent; Mid England Middle England Party; MRP Money Reform Party; Loony Monster Raving Loony Party; Nat Dem National Democrat; NF National Front; NFP Nationwide Reform Party; Ind CCF New Independent Conservative Chelsea and Fulham; Bean New Millennium Bean; No vote No candidate deserves my vote; ND No description; Nobody Nobody Party; NSPS Northampton – Save Our Public Services; PPN-V Peace Party, non-violence, justice, environment; PBP People Before Profit; PNDP People’s National Democratic Party; PP Essex Peoples Party Essex; Pirate Pirate Party UK; Battersea Putting the People of Battersea First; RRG Radical Reform Group; Beer Reduce Tax on Beer Party; Reform Reform 2000; Respect Respect the Unity Coalition; George Save King George Hospital; SACL Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers; Jacobite Scottish Jacobite Party; SSP Scottish Socialist Party; SMA Scrap Members Allowances; Soc Dem Social Democratic Party; Soc Alt Socialist Alternative Party; SEP Socialist Equality Party; Soc Lab Socialist Labour Party; Soc Socialist Party; RA Solihull and Meriden Residents’ Association; Staffs Ind Staffordshire Independent Group; TOC Tamsin Omond to the Commons; Tendring Tendring First; Best The Best of a Bad Bunch; Good The Common Good; Joy The Joy of Talk; Macc Ind The Macclesfield Independent; New Party The New Party; RP The Restoration Party; Science The Science Party; Speaker The Speaker; Poetry The True English (Poetry) Party; TUSC Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition; TUV Traditional Unionist Voice; Trust Trust; UKIP UK Independence Party; Voice United Voice; UPS Unity for Peace and Socialism; Currency Virtue Currency Cognitive Appraisal Party; Reg Wessex Regionalist Wessex; UCUNF Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force; WP Workers’ Party; WRP Workers’ Revolutionary Party; You You Party; YRDPL Your Right to Democracy Party Limited; Youth Youth Party

Aberavon-Labour hold

ABE

Hywel Francis

b.Jun 6,1946 MP 2001-

Campaigner in the Welsh miners strikes and official historian of the miners’ union. Son of Dai Francis, communist and NUM South Wales secretary. Chair, select committees: Welsh Affairs 2005-10 (member 2001-05). Member, Socialist Education Association, Co-op Party. Member European standing committee B. University professor, lecturer and tutor. Fellow, Royal Society of the Arts. Married, one daughter, two sons – one deceased. Ed: Whitchurch GS, Cardiff; Uni Coll of Wales, Swansea (BA history, PhD).

Keith Davies (LD) b. July 24, 1946.

Retired petrochemical engineer.

Contested Vale of Glamorgan 1992 and 1987. Ed: Neath Technical Coll, Neath.

Caroline Jones (C) Entrepreneur.

Former teacher, local government officer and prison officer.

Paul Nicholls-Jones (PC) b. 1954. Renewable energy entrepreneur. Ed: Porth Grammar School.

Constituency

This South Wales seat encompasses a stretch of industrial coastline around Port Talbot. A controversial new power station lies by the mouth of the River Neath and Aberavon Sands, while the Corus steelworks is close to the Margam Sands. This is a working-class seat in which about a fif...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• THE TIMES An aid to the navigation of uncharted political waters
• The House of Commons
• The new Parliament
• The old era
• The work of the House of Commons
• General Election 2010: results by constituency
• Manifestos
• Index to candidates
• Copyright
• About the Publisher