Epping Forest (UK Parliament constituency)
Template:UK constituency infobox
Epping Forest is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Boundaries
Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission for England has created a modified Epping Forest constituency with the following electoral wards:
- Broadley Common, Epping Upland and Nazeing, Buckhurst Hill East, Buckhurst Hill West, Chigwell Row, Chigwell Village, Epping Hemnall, Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common, Grange Hill, Loughton Alderton, Loughton Broadway, Loughton Fairmead, Loughton Forest, Loughton Roding, Loughton St John’s, Loughton St Mary’s, Theydon Bois, Waltham Abbey High Beach, Waltham Abbey Honey Lane, Waltham Abbey North East, Waltham Abbey Paternoster, and Waltham Abbey South West.
Other wards of Epping Forest have been used in the creation of a modified Harlow seat.
Historic wards
In the boundaries in place from the February 1974 general election to the 1983 general election the constituency officially was made up of:
- Urban Districts:
- Rural Districts: Part of Epping and Ongar Rural District
- Civil Parishes of Epping Upland, Lambourne, Stapleford Abbots, Stapleford Tawney, Theydon Bois, Theydon Garnon, Theydon Mount
Political geography
When Epping Forest was first created, it was instinctively more pro-Conservative than the old Epping seat, as it lost the new town of Harlow (inside the old Epping Rural District) and gained the less pro-Labour Chigwell Urban District. During the Thatcher period the Labour Party's vote was crushed. Even though the Liberals managed to move into second place, their vote did little more than follow national trends and as soon as 1987 they lost votes far faster than would be expected when looking at national results.
Labour almost took the seat in 1997, but since then, Epping Forest has swung far quicker to the right than the country as a whole, and the majority the Conservatives got in 2005 would resemble a Tory national victory in the early 1990s, even though Labour won with a 66-seat majority in 2005.
Two former candidates in the Epping Forest constituency have also stood for election as Mayor of London: Steve Norris (Conservative; MP 1988-97) and Julian Leppert (British National Party).
Members of Parliament
The constituency was created in 1974, replacing the seats of Epping & Chigwell; the former had been represented by Winston Churchill throughout his tenure as Prime Minister during the Second World War. The present MP is the Conservative Eleanor Laing.
Election | Member | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | 1974 | Sir John Biggs-Davison | Conservative |
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | 1988 by-election | Steve Norris | Conservative |
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" | | 1997 | Eleanor Laing | Conservative |
Election results
Elections in the 2000s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Ann Haigh | ||||
Conservative | Eleanor Laing | ||||
UKIP | Andrew Smith | ||||
Labour | Bill Turner |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Eleanor Laing | 23,783 | 53.0 | +3.9 | |
Labour | Bambos Charalambous | 9,425 | 21.0 | −8.3 | |
Liberal Democrats | Michael Heavens | 8,279 | 18.5 | −0.1 | |
BNP | Julian Leppert | 1,728 | 3.9 | N/A | |
UKIP | Andrew Smith | 1,014 | 2.2 | −0.7 | |
English Democrat | Robin Tibrook | 631 | 1.4 | N/A | |
Majority | 14,358 | 32.0 | |||
Turnout | 44,860 | 61.6 | +3.2 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +6.1 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Eleanor Laing | 20,833 | 49.1 | +3.6 | |
Labour | Christopher Naylor | 12,407 | 29.3 | −6.3 | |
Liberal Democrats | Michael Heavens | 7,884 | 18.6 | +5.2 | |
UKIP | Andrew Smith | 1,290 | 3.0 | N/A | |
Majority | 8,426 | 19.8 | |||
Turnout | 42,414 | 58.4 | −14.5 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +5.0 |
Elections in the 1990s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Eleanor Laing | 24,117 | 45.5 | −14.0 | |
Labour | Stephen Murray | 18,865 | 35.6 | +12.6 | |
Liberal Democrats | Stephen Robinson | 7,074 | 13.3 | −3.7 | |
Majority | 5,252 | 9.9 | |||
Turnout | 53,007 | 72.9 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | -13.3 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Steve Norris | 32,407 | 59.5 | −1.4 | |
Labour | Stephen Murray | 12,219 | 22.4 | +4.0 | |
Liberal Democrats | Beryl Austen | 9,265 | 17.0 | −2.4 | |
Epping Forest Residents Association | A O'Brien | 552 | 1.0 | N/A | |
Majority | 20,188 | 37.1 | |||
Turnout | 54,443 | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing | -2.7 |
Elections in the 1980s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Steven Norris | 13,183 | 39.5 | −21.5 | |
Liberal Democrats | Andrew Thompson | 8,679 | 26.0 | +6.6 | |
Labour | Stephen Murray | 6,261 | 18.7 | +0.4 | |
SDP | Michael Pettman | 4,077 | 12.2 | −7.2 | |
Green | Andrew Simms | 672 | 2.0 | ||
Independent National Front | Tina Wingfield | 286 | 0.6 | ||
Monster Raving Loony | David Sutch | 208 | 0.6 | ||
Rainbow Alliance - Change the World | Jackie Moore | 33 | 0.1 | ||
Vote no Belsen for South Africans | Brian Goodier | 16 | 0.0 | ||
Majority | 4,504 | 13.5 | |||
Turnout | 33,415 | 49.1 | −27.2 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | John Biggs-Davison | 31,536 | 60.9 | +4.4 | |
Liberal | A Humphris | 10,023 | 19.4 | −5.4 | |
Labour | S Murray | 9,499 | 18.4 | +1.3 | |
Green | R Denhard | 695 | 1.3 | N/A | |
Majority | 21,513 | 41.6 | |||
Turnout | 51,753 | 76.3 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | +4.9 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | John Biggs-Davison | 27,373 | 56.5 | −1.2 | |
Liberal | M Pettman | 11,995 | 24.8 | +12.0 | |
Labour | HJ Bryan | 8,289 | 17.1 | −10.3 | |
Ecology | R Boenke | 452 | 0.9 | N/A | |
BNP | S Smith | 330 | 0.7 | N/A | |
Majority | 15,378 | 31.8 | |||
Turnout | 48,439 | 72.0 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | -6.6 |
Elections in the 1970s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | John Biggs-Davison | 29,447 | 57.7 | +10.0 | |
Labour | W D Shepherd | 13,994 | 27.4 | −5.9 | |
Liberal | D Kitching | 6,528 | 12.8 | −6.3 | |
National Front | B Wilkins | 1,110 | 2.2 | N/A | |
Majority | 15,453 | 30.3 | |||
Turnout | 51,079 | 76.6 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | +8.0 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | John Biggs-Davison | 22,392 | 47.7 | +0.9 | |
Labour | S J Palfreman | 15,618 | 33.3 | +2.2 | |
Liberal | D F J Wood | 8,952 | 19.1 | −3.0 | |
Majority | 6,774 | 14.4 | |||
Turnout | 46,962 | 73.3 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | −0.7 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | John Biggs-Davison | 24,290 | 46.8 | −7.5 | |
Labour | W J Sheaff | 16,123 | 31.1 | −14.7 | |
Liberal | D F Wood | 11,478 | 22.1 | +22.1 | |
Majority | 8,167 | 15.7 | |||
Turnout | 51,891 | 81.8 | +8.7 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +3.6 |
Notional results (before 1974)
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | John Biggs-Davison | 35,010 | 54.3 | +9.2 | |
Labour | 29,506 | 45.7 | +4.3 | ||
Majority | 5,504 | 8.5 | |||
Turnout | 64,516 | 73.1 | |||
Conservative hold | Swing | +2.5 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | 21,834 | 44.1 | |||
Labour | 20,504 | 41.4 | |||
Liberal | 7,202 | 14.5 | |||
Majority | 1,330 | 2.7 | |||
Turnout | 82.5 | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing |
Boundary changes
See also
References
- ^ Epping Forest, UKPollingReport