Post by greenchristian on Apr 20, 2020 4:17:08 GMT
Coventry North West was first created in 1974, originally consisting of four of the city's eighteen council wards (Bablake, Holbrook, Radford, and Sherbourne). It gained two more wards (Whoberley and Woodlands) when the city went from four constituencies to three in 1997 (the last time its boundaries changed). Of the three Coventry constituencies this is the only one which doesn't contain anywhere particularly notable to non-residents (the most notable location being Hearsall Common, where Frank Whittle – inventor of the jet engine – first saw an aeroplane fly). It contains most of the city's greenbelt land (in the Bablake ward), including two villages (Allesley and Keresley).
For most of its existence the constituency was represented by a single MP – Labour millionaire Geoffrey Robinson - who held it from the 1976 by-election through to his retirement in 2019. Robinson is most notable for his brief stint as paymaster-general and his role in Peter Mandelson's first cabinet resignation. Towards the end of his time in office Robinson was something of an absentee MP -living in Surrey, rarely visiting the city, and becoming notoriously difficult to contact. Despite this, he had a substantial personal vote. Part of this is his historical association with major local employer Jaguar Land Rover, but it's mostly because of his association with Coventry City FC, and a widespread perception that he once bailed the club out financially during a tight spot.
Demographically, the constituency contains both heavily deprived areas (Spon End, Tile Hill, parts of Holbrooks and Radford) and more affluent ones (Allesley Park, Coundon, Eastern Green, Mound Nod). There are a substantial number of students in the Whoberley Ward (about a third of students at the University of Warwick live off-campus in Coventry, most of them n this area).
Whilst the constituency is predominantly white British, there are substantial Asian minorities (making up over 10% of the Holbrook and Radford wards), with notable Black and ethnically Irish groups. The largest minority religion is Sikhism (4.1%), followed by Islam (3.9%) and Hinduism (2.7%), with the Sikh community particularly concentrated in the Holbrooks area.
At local government level the constituency has stayed solidly two-party (except for one Liberal/SDP Alliance councillor elected in 1987 for Woodlands, and occasional defections to Independent). When the Conservatives controlled the council in the mid-2000s, they had seats in four of the six wards (Bablake, Sherbourne, Whoberley, and Woodlands), but in more recent years they have only won seats in two (Bablake and Woodlands), though they have come close in Sherbourne. In the most recent local elections the main challenger to Labour in two of the other wards were third parties (the Greens in Holbrooks and UKIP in Radford, with the Greens just two votes behind the Conservative second place in Whoberley).
The seat change was the Conservatives gaining Bablake from Labour. The constituency's councillor count is currently:
For most of its existence the constituency was represented by a single MP – Labour millionaire Geoffrey Robinson - who held it from the 1976 by-election through to his retirement in 2019. Robinson is most notable for his brief stint as paymaster-general and his role in Peter Mandelson's first cabinet resignation. Towards the end of his time in office Robinson was something of an absentee MP -living in Surrey, rarely visiting the city, and becoming notoriously difficult to contact. Despite this, he had a substantial personal vote. Part of this is his historical association with major local employer Jaguar Land Rover, but it's mostly because of his association with Coventry City FC, and a widespread perception that he once bailed the club out financially during a tight spot.
Demographically, the constituency contains both heavily deprived areas (Spon End, Tile Hill, parts of Holbrooks and Radford) and more affluent ones (Allesley Park, Coundon, Eastern Green, Mound Nod). There are a substantial number of students in the Whoberley Ward (about a third of students at the University of Warwick live off-campus in Coventry, most of them n this area).
Whilst the constituency is predominantly white British, there are substantial Asian minorities (making up over 10% of the Holbrook and Radford wards), with notable Black and ethnically Irish groups. The largest minority religion is Sikhism (4.1%), followed by Islam (3.9%) and Hinduism (2.7%), with the Sikh community particularly concentrated in the Holbrooks area.
At local government level the constituency has stayed solidly two-party (except for one Liberal/SDP Alliance councillor elected in 1987 for Woodlands, and occasional defections to Independent). When the Conservatives controlled the council in the mid-2000s, they had seats in four of the six wards (Bablake, Sherbourne, Whoberley, and Woodlands), but in more recent years they have only won seats in two (Bablake and Woodlands), though they have come close in Sherbourne. In the most recent local elections the main challenger to Labour in two of the other wards were third parties (the Greens in Holbrooks and UKIP in Radford, with the Greens just two votes behind the Conservative second place in Whoberley).
At Westminster level the seat has usually been seen as safe Labour, with Labour picking up a majority of the vote in 7 of its 14 elections (including 3 of the 7 fought on current boundaries), with their lowest voteshare being 41% in 2015. Despite this dominance, the seat became ultra-marginal in 2019, with Labour's new candidate retaining the seat by only 208 votes (a lead which dropped from around 400 during a recount), Labour's vote here dropped by more than the national average. The most likely reasons for this are that the constituency is leave-leaning (though we do not have a constituency figure for the referendum result), and the replacement of “local boy” Geoffrey Robinson with a candidate who was widely perceived as a parachute from London.
2019 General Election Result
| Party | Votes | Percentage | Change |
| Labour | 20,918 | 43.8% | -10.2% |
| Conservative | 20,710 | 43.4% | +6.7% |
| Liberal Democrat | 2,717 | 5.7% | +3.1% |
| Brexit Party | 1,956 | 4.1% | +1.0% compared to UKIP |
| Green Party | 1,443 | 3.0% | +1.7% |
| Turnout | 47,744 | 63.5% | -2.8% |
Note: there was an Independent candidate in 2017, but not 2019.
May 2019 Coventry City Council Results (this constituency only)
| Party | Candidates | Vote | Percentage | Change (on 2015) | Change (on 2018) | Seats | Change (on 2015) |
| Labour | 6 | 8233 | 39.9% | -2.3% | -11.9% | 4 | -1 |
| Conservative | 6 | 6139 | 29.7% | +1.8% | -2.9% | 2 | +1 |
| Green | 6 | 2977 | 14.4% | +7.4% | +6.2% | 0 | - |
| UKIP | 5 | 2536 | 12.3% | -4.6% | +8.2% | 0 | - |
| Liberal Democrat | 2 | 667 | 3.2% | +0.1% | +1.1% | 0 | - |
| Socialist Alternative | 1 | 109 | 0.5% | -2.4% | -0.7% | 0 | - |
Labour: 12
Conservative: 5
Independent: 1 (elected as Conservative)
