Post by Admin Twaddleford on Apr 20, 2020 22:29:10 GMT
BATLEY AND SPEN
The West Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen received national attention of a tragic kind in June 2016, when its 41 year old Labour MP Jo Cox, who had been first elected only a year before, was brutally murdered by a man associated with far right organisations, in a street in the village of Birstall – where Mrs Cox had been due to hold a constituency surgery. Her successor as Labour candidate was television actress Tracy Brabin, who faced opposition only from minor parties in the subsequent by-election when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats took the unprecedented decision to stand aside as a mark of respect – and she won with 86% of the vote.
Since its creation in 1983, this West Yorkshire constituency has seemed to have an aversion to, and distrust of, change. The first MP was the active, feisty and independently minded Conservative, Elizabeth Peacock, a magistrate and former county councillor. In 1983 she ousted, with a majority of just 862, Labour’s Ken Woolmer, who had represented the abolished Batley and Morley seat. There was a rematch between the pair in 1987, but Mrs Peacock, benefitting from an incumbency of her own, increased her majority to 1,365. In November 1990 she rather memorably stood up to ask John Major a question at his first PMQs, with Margaret Thatcher now sitting beside her on the backbenches.
Most astonishingly of all, in 1992, there was virtually no swing in Batley and Spen, and Mrs Peacock became something of an electoral heroine by holding on by 1,408. It wasn’t until the Tory landslide defeat of 1997 that her luck ran out. Labour’s Mike Wood won by 6,141, but even then, the swing of 7.7% was well below the national average.
By 2001, Wood was already benefitting from his seat’s seeming unwillingness to move against incumbents. Elizabeth Peacock stood again, but as in 1992, there was virtually no change (other than a drop in turnout). Since then, Labour have held onto the seat in every general election fairly comfortably in this low swing seat. Their best result other than the by-election was in 2017, when Tracy Brabin won by 8,961, possibly in large part due to the sympathy over the murder of her predecessor.
In 2019, Tracy Brabin managed to hold on by 3,525 votes notwithstanding the backlash over the Labour leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and the “Get Brexit Done” campaign of the Conservatives. This seat had voted nearly 60% to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. It is worth noting also the presence of a Heavy Woollen District Independent candidate, whose 12% of the vote almost matched the decline of the Labour vote.
Things are just as unlikely to change at a local level within this predominantly working class seat. There are six wards in this constituency, all within the Kirklees borough, which seem very reliable for the parties that win them. The town of Batley is decidedly Labour. Its eastern ward is has a very significant Asian community, and the western side is comprised of extensive council housing. Labour were helped in the 2010 boundary changes by the introduction of Heckmondwike, from Dewsbury – although that ward did return BNP councillors in the mid 2000s.
The Conservatives fight back in two very good wards for them: the semi-rural communities Birstall & Birkenshaw, and Liversedge & Gomersal. The Liberal Democrats have also been able to count on one ward, Cleckheaton, for many years. All these wards have stuck loyally to their respective parties since 2007.
One thing that has changed over the decades is the growing Asian population - mostly of Gujurati Indian origin rather than Pakistani - particularly in the Batley wards.
The upshot seems to be three solid Labour wards and two solid Tory wards, leading to a fairly reliable Labour constituency overall.
The West Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen received national attention of a tragic kind in June 2016, when its 41 year old Labour MP Jo Cox, who had been first elected only a year before, was brutally murdered by a man associated with far right organisations, in a street in the village of Birstall – where Mrs Cox had been due to hold a constituency surgery. Her successor as Labour candidate was television actress Tracy Brabin, who faced opposition only from minor parties in the subsequent by-election when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats took the unprecedented decision to stand aside as a mark of respect – and she won with 86% of the vote.
Since its creation in 1983, this West Yorkshire constituency has seemed to have an aversion to, and distrust of, change. The first MP was the active, feisty and independently minded Conservative, Elizabeth Peacock, a magistrate and former county councillor. In 1983 she ousted, with a majority of just 862, Labour’s Ken Woolmer, who had represented the abolished Batley and Morley seat. There was a rematch between the pair in 1987, but Mrs Peacock, benefitting from an incumbency of her own, increased her majority to 1,365. In November 1990 she rather memorably stood up to ask John Major a question at his first PMQs, with Margaret Thatcher now sitting beside her on the backbenches.
Most astonishingly of all, in 1992, there was virtually no swing in Batley and Spen, and Mrs Peacock became something of an electoral heroine by holding on by 1,408. It wasn’t until the Tory landslide defeat of 1997 that her luck ran out. Labour’s Mike Wood won by 6,141, but even then, the swing of 7.7% was well below the national average.
By 2001, Wood was already benefitting from his seat’s seeming unwillingness to move against incumbents. Elizabeth Peacock stood again, but as in 1992, there was virtually no change (other than a drop in turnout). Since then, Labour have held onto the seat in every general election fairly comfortably in this low swing seat. Their best result other than the by-election was in 2017, when Tracy Brabin won by 8,961, possibly in large part due to the sympathy over the murder of her predecessor.
In 2019, Tracy Brabin managed to hold on by 3,525 votes notwithstanding the backlash over the Labour leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and the “Get Brexit Done” campaign of the Conservatives. This seat had voted nearly 60% to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. It is worth noting also the presence of a Heavy Woollen District Independent candidate, whose 12% of the vote almost matched the decline of the Labour vote.
Things are just as unlikely to change at a local level within this predominantly working class seat. There are six wards in this constituency, all within the Kirklees borough, which seem very reliable for the parties that win them. The town of Batley is decidedly Labour. Its eastern ward is has a very significant Asian community, and the western side is comprised of extensive council housing. Labour were helped in the 2010 boundary changes by the introduction of Heckmondwike, from Dewsbury – although that ward did return BNP councillors in the mid 2000s.
The Conservatives fight back in two very good wards for them: the semi-rural communities Birstall & Birkenshaw, and Liversedge & Gomersal. The Liberal Democrats have also been able to count on one ward, Cleckheaton, for many years. All these wards have stuck loyally to their respective parties since 2007.
One thing that has changed over the decades is the growing Asian population - mostly of Gujurati Indian origin rather than Pakistani - particularly in the Batley wards.
The upshot seems to be three solid Labour wards and two solid Tory wards, leading to a fairly reliable Labour constituency overall.
