Most atypical ward in a parliamentary constituency

[andrewp]

Which ward in the Uk is the weakest area for a party in a constituency that the party holds at Westminster level? Ie a very Weak Tory area in a Con constituency or a very weak Labour area in a Labour held constituency?

For the Conservatives I have parts of Corby- Kingswood and Hazel Leys ward where they got 14.2 % in the ward locally on GE day 2015
For Labour- a rural part in Workington constituency? -there are wards where they didn’t stand in but they got 17% in Marsh ward which is a set of villages around the Solway Firth in that constituency.

What others are there?

[swanarcadian]

A good way to find this out (unless someone already knows the answer) is perhaps to go through a list of party compositions of each council and find some in which a party has only one councillor, such as Labour's sole councillor in Buckinghamshire, or the Conservatives' sole councillor in Leicester, for instance.

[Deleted]

There’s still a Tory Councillor in Cranbrook ward. In parliamentary seat Ilford South, which gave Labour 75% of the vote.

Other wards that come to mind are Northfields (3 Tory councillors) in Ealing Southall, Rainford (likewise) in St Helens North. I’d imagine we’d only keep the ones in St. Helens.

For Tory seats - harder- best I can think of is Labours Court Ward in Epsom and Ewell.

[swanarcadian]

In Meriden, Labour has one councillor in Kingshurst and Fordbridge (part of Solihull MBC).  The Conservatives got just 13.3% of the vote there in 2016.

[Deleted]

Feb 24, 2018 8:51:09 GMT swanarcadian said:

In Meriden, Labour has one councillor in Kingshurst and Fordbridge (part of Solihull MBC).  The Conservatives got just 13.3% of the vote there in 2016.

Probably not the worst ward for the Tories in that seat - we may have sneaked it in the general. Smiths Wood seems weaker.

[swanarcadian]

The Conservatives won a seat in Sgir’ Uige agus Ceann a Tuath Nan Loch ward in Comhairle nan Eilean Siar last year.

[Deleted]

South Dorset was Labour held in 2008, and Labour got 8.5% and 18.9% in the Swanage wards and 4.7% in Wool ward, all within the constituency in the Purbeck District.

Or even lower, Labour got 2.7% in Castle Ward in 2003 (again, Purbeck within South Dorset, Labour seat at the time).

In the same constituency, the Conservatives didn’t win any wards in Weymouth & Portland in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1998 - despite holding the constituency throughout that time.


I suppose it’s cheating a bit, but there are some good examples in independent dominated councils in Northern Scotland. The last Shetland Council election where the Lib Dems ran in 2007 saw the two candidates get 5% and 15% of first preferences.

[Deleted]

Labour got over 70% in Edmonton and Ilford South. The Conservatives still have Councillors in these seats (in Bush Hill Park and Cranbrook respectively).

Conversely, the Tories got 19% in Brighton, Pavilion and still hold Council seats in the wards of Patcham and Withdean.

There are also Tory Councillors in Poplar & Limehouse, Sefton Central, also Glasgow East...

Ilford South must be the most extreme case. I expect the Conservatives to lose their remaining representation here.

[Deleted]

Hackney North & Stoke Newington has Tory Councillors.

Although Labour got 75.8% in Ilford South and 75.1% in Hackney North.

For Labour, the party has Councillors in Spelthorne and also Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine where Labour lost its deposit in 2015.

[Deleted]

I think Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine and Perth & North Perthshire are the weakest Labour seats where the party has Councillors.

A lot of these seats will be in Scotland because of the use of STV in local elections.

[Devil Wincarnate]

At one point, you could have said all the Oxford wards in Oxford West & Abingdon.

[Chris from Brum]

Feb 24, 2018 9:27:58 GMT swanarcadian said:

The Conservatives won a seat in Sgir’ Uige agus Ceann a Tuath Nan Loch ward in Comhairle nan Eilean Siar last year.

Your keyboard seems to have garbled your typing there.  Care for another go?

[Andrew_S]

Labour has a councillor in the Huntington and Hatherton ward of South Staffs District Council despite the fact that the Tories polled 70% at the general election in the constituency.

www.sstaffs.gov.uk/doc/172238/name/Dec%20of%20result%20Wards%20Huntington%20%26%20Hatherton.pdf/

[Robert Waller]

This thread is right up my street, of course. But I'd point out that it seems to have gone off track with the mention of Scottish councils, where the STV system would clearly seem designed to give parties representation in their weaker areas.

Andrew P's original point was not about elected councillors, but about atypical wards.

These would 'typically' be
- small knots of deprivation in affluent areas
- an isolated 'good' residential area
- the weird product of constituency boundaries

I've come across quite a few of these over my travels (for example Preston ward in Reigate & Banstead and the old Broom ward in Rotherham) and would always be interested in more from those with local knowledge.

[Pete Whitehead]

Lynemouth ward in Berwick upon Tweed would be a good example

[Pete Whitehead]

Eye & Thorney, Peterborough. Bisley and Painswick wards in Stroud. There are some very weak Labour/strong Conservative wards in Bassetlaw.
When Weaver Vale wa Conservative held there some spectacular examples in the Runcorn part of the seat (eg Windmill Hill was 92.2% Labour 7.8% Conservative at the most recent local elections)

[swanarcadian]

Feb 24, 2018 10:25:22 GMT Chris from Brum said:

Feb 24, 2018 9:27:58 GMT swanarcadian said:

The Conservatives won a seat in Sgir’ Uige agus Ceann a Tuath Nan Loch ward in Comhairle nan Eilean Siar last year.

Your keyboard seems to have garbled your typing there.  Care for another go?

Eileen and her wotsits.

[andrewp]

Feb 24, 2018 10:54:55 GMT Robert Waller said:

This thread is right up my street, of course. But I'd point out that it seems to have gone off track with the mention of Scottish councils, where the STV system would clearly seem designed to give parties representation in their weaker areas.

Andrew P's original point was not about elected councillors, but about atypical wards.

These would 'typically' be
- small knots of deprivation in affluent areas
- an isolated 'good' residential area
- the weird product of constituency boundaries

I've come across quite a few of these over my travels (for example Preston ward in Reigate & Banstead and the old Broom ward in Rotherham) and would always be interested in more from those with local knowledge.

Yes. Apart from Corby being outvoted by the Tory villages of East Northamptonshire, the other one that sprang to my mind were some quite Tory areas of West Lancashire which are outvoted by Skelmersdale and have a Labour MP. I’m not sure those villages are as Tory as they were though.

In my neck of the woods there are a couple of wards in Bridgwater which would been like this 20-25 years ago when Tom King was the Tory Mp. 1991, Labour beat the Tories 65/15 in Bridgwater Hamp, and then in 1995 Labour got 79% there and the Tories didn’t stand. The Tories polled 9% in Bridgwater Eastover in 1991. Those wards are still deprived but the Tories are much more competitive now losing 57/43 and 48/35 in 2015.

[therealriga]

If we're talking about the UK rather than just Great Britain, it must surely be Shankill ward in Belfast West. Sinn Fein gets 66-71% of the vote at Westminster level. In Shankill ward, it's obscured by the use of STV but is less than 1% of the vote. Before Court District Electoral Area was amended in 2014 to include parts of the catholic nationalist Lower Falls Road, they got 2.8% in Court. But most of that would have come from the catholic nationalist Mountainview estate in Glencairn ward. According to my friend, who had box figures from there, in Shankill ward the Sinn Fein vote share is around 0.2%. I doubt that can be beaten in England, Scotland or Wales.

[Robert Waller]

Pace Andrew P (and this is his thread, after all!), I don't think Corby and West Lancashire are so much examples of atypical wards as of 'starkly divided constituencies', another category I tried to identify in the Almanac. These are seats where there are two contrasting and competing blocs of voters, there being several wards of the minority persuasion.
Another case would be Kensington.

I interpreted atypical wards as being more lone outliers such as those Pete and AJS have identified, for example.

I had thought of Bridgwater myself. When I was becoming interested in geographical psephology in the late 1960s, the number of local councils controlled by Labour was becoming fewer each May. Great strongholds were falling each year - Islington, Sheffield, Stoke (then). But Bridgwater, Somerset (then a council in its own right) remained in Labour hands. I was very keen to visit to see why!
However, Bridgwater is not an 'atypical ward'. It is an atypical town.
As indeed I saw when I eventually did get there ..