North East Somerset is a constituency[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, since it was created for the 2010 general election, by Jacob Rees-Mogg of the Conservative Party.[n 2]
North East Somerset | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
County | Somerset |
Electorate | 70,070 (2018)[1] |
Major settlements | Chew Magna, Keynsham, Midsomer Norton and Radstock |
Current constituency | |
Created | 2010 |
Member of Parliament | Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative) |
Seats | One |
Created from | Wansdyke (19 wards) Bath constituency (two wards) |
For the next general election, the seat will be subject to major boundary changes and will be renamed North East Somerset and Hanham (see below).[2]
The constituency covers the part of Bath and North East Somerset District that is not in the Bath constituency and as such contains 18 electoral wards wholly in the constituency and two parishes in Newbridge ward of the Bath and North East Somerset:
Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which transferred all the electoral wards in Wandsyke constituency save for its four wards in South Gloucestershire to this new seat.[n 3] To compensate the new seat gained the whole of the large wards in the valley of the City, Bathavon North, and the rest of Bathavon South, both from the Bath constituency.
Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be subject to major boundary changes, with south-eastern areas, including the communities of Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Peasedown St John, being incorporated into the newly created constituency of Frome and East Somerset, and the Bathavon North ward transferred to Bath. To compensate, the boundaries will be extended northwards into the District of South Gloucestershire, adding the wards of Bitton and Oldland Common, Hanham, Longwell Green, and Parkwall and Warmley. As a consequence, the constituency will be renamed North East Somerset and Hanham, to be first contested at the next general election.[2]
This area is marked by significant agriculture and green belts around almost all of its settlements, which consist largely of detached and semi-detached properties,[4] with a low rate of unemployment[5] and negligible social housing tenancy.[6]
An unusually shaped seat that takes in all the western part of the Bath and North East Somerset council area, and the rural outskirts of Bath in the east, meaning the Bath constituency is entirely surrounded by a thin belt of North East Somerset. The seat contains some contrasting areas. The northern parts of the seat, especially the town of Keynsham, are commuter areas for Bath and Bristol.[7] To the west the seat is more rural, covering the patchwork of farmland and rural villages that make up the Chew Valley. The southern part around Midsomer Norton and Radstock is part of the old Somerset Coalfield. The last of the coal mines closed in the 1970s,[8] to be replaced by light industry, but the close knit industrial heritage of the area remains.[9]
North East Somerset is estimated to have voted to Leave the European Union by 51.6% in the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU.[10][11][12]
Election | Member | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Jacob Rees-Mogg | Conservative |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Jacob Rees-Mogg | 28,360 | 50.4 | −3.2 | |
Labour | Mark Huband | 13,631 | 24.2 | −10.5 | |
Liberal Democrats | Nick Coates | 12,422 | 22.1 | +13.8 | |
Green | Fay Whitfield | 1,423 | 2.5 | +0.2 | |
Independent | Shaun Hughes | 472 | 0.8 | −0.3 | |
Majority | 14,729 | 26.2 | +7.3 | ||
Turnout | 56,308 | 76.4 | +0.7 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +3.6 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Jacob Rees-Mogg | 28,992 | 53.6 | +3.8 | |
Labour | Robin Moss | 18,757 | 34.7 | +9.9 | |
Liberal Democrats | Manda Rigby | 4,461 | 8.3 | +0.4 | |
Green | Sally Calverley | 1,245 | 2.3 | −3.2 | |
Independent | Shaun Hughes | 588 | 1.1 | New | |
Majority | 10,235 | 18.9 | −5.9 | ||
Turnout | 54,043 | 75.7 | +2.0 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | −3.0 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Jacob Rees-Mogg | 25,439 | 49.8 | +8.5 | |
Labour | Todd Foreman | 12,690 | 24.8 | −6.9 | |
UKIP | Ernest Blaber | 6,150 | 12.0 | +8.6 | |
Liberal Democrats | Wera Hobhouse | 4,029 | 7.9 | −14.4 | |
Green | Katy Boyce[21] | 2,802 | 5.5 | +4.2 | |
Majority | 12,749 | 25.0 | +15.4 | ||
Turnout | 51,110 | 73.7 | -2.3 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +7.65 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Jacob Rees-Mogg | 21,130 | 41.3 | +2.2 | |
Labour | Dan Norris* | 16,216 | 31.7 | −7.0 | |
Liberal Democrats | Gail Coleshill | 11,433 | 22.3 | +2.7 | |
UKIP | Peter Sandell | 1,754 | 3.4 | +1.2 | |
Green | Michael Jay | 670 | 1.3 | +1.3 | |
Majority | 4,914 | 9.6 | +9.2 | ||
Turnout | 51,203 | 76.0 | |||
Conservative win (new seat) |
* Served in the 2005–2010 Parliament as MP for Wansdyke
The changes in vote share are compared to a notional calculation of the 2005 result. Although the Wansdkye seat had been held by Labour for 13 years, this seat was already notionally a Conservative seat by a margin of 0.4%. This means that, if the seat in current boundaries had been contested in 2005, the Conservatives would have won by a few hundred votes.
51°20′N 2°30′W / 51.333°N 2.500°W