Beverley and Holderness
Apr 23, 2020 22:43:34 GMT
Pete Whitehead, Robert Waller, and 2 more like this
Post by BossMan on Apr 23, 2020 22:43:34 GMT
BEVERLEY AND HOLDERNESS
This seat covers the rural and coastal south eastern side of East Riding of Yorkshire Council district, to the north and east of Hull. It includes the market town of Beverley, and the somewhat remote agricultural area of Holderness. Its coastline stretches from Hornsea, through Withernsea down to Spurn Point, the spit of land projecting into the North Sea at the mouth of the Humber Estuary.
Holderness suffers the highest rate of coastal erosion in Europe – about five feet a year. It is thought that around three miles of land have been claimed by the sea since the Roman era. Entire villages, such as Ravenser, which sent representatives to the parliament of King Edward I, have disappeared.
The Beverley and Holderness constituency was created for the 1997 general election, and in that first contest demonstrated clearly the scale of Tony Blair’s first landslide that year. Based on the notional election result from 1992, there was a 16% swing to New Labour, who leapt from third place to cut Conservative MP James Cran’s majority down to 1,211 votes. In 2001 it was reduced even further, to 781, having become a Labour target in public consciousness.
Cran retired in 2005 after 18 years as an MP (he had represented the old Beverley seat from 1987), having been accused by opponents of inactivity – his attendance in the House of Commons was low, although he was a more active participant in various Select Committees.
His successor as Conservative candidate, Graham Stuart, managed to win by two and a half thousand – but 15 years later he is still there, having managed to restore the constituency to the Conservative safe seat it was thought to be prior to its creation. His majority jumped to five figures when the Tories returned to government in 2010 and at the "Brexit election" of 2019, it hit 20,448 (38% of the vote); this constituency was estimated to have voted 59% to leave the European Union, although Graham Stuart had in fact himself supported the Remain campaign.
The Tory improvement at parliamentary level has been matched at the four yearly elections to the local unitary authority. The two wards which include Beverley itself are the most difficult for them - Labour have not had a councillor elected here since 2007, and that was in Minster and Woodmansey ward, but they do still have potential. As do the Liberal Democrats, who took all three seats in St. Mary’s in May 2019 following the momentum of a by-election gain from the Tories a few years earlier. The successful Lib Dem candidate was Denis Healy, who has also contested the parliamentary seat.
The strongest Tory wards are Beverley Rural and South East Holderness, which includes Withernsea and Spurn Head. The Independents consistently win North Holderness, which includes Hornsea.
Holderness South West includes Hedon – it has returned a full slate of Tory councillors since 2015, but prior to that elected a mix of Lib Dems and Independents.
Despite a very shaky start for them in the heyday of Blairism, the Conservatives now seem very secure in Beverley and Holderness. Labour have managed to retain second place in all but one occasion (2010), but they would need an even greater swing than they achieved in 1997 to come close to winning again.
This seat covers the rural and coastal south eastern side of East Riding of Yorkshire Council district, to the north and east of Hull. It includes the market town of Beverley, and the somewhat remote agricultural area of Holderness. Its coastline stretches from Hornsea, through Withernsea down to Spurn Point, the spit of land projecting into the North Sea at the mouth of the Humber Estuary.
Holderness suffers the highest rate of coastal erosion in Europe – about five feet a year. It is thought that around three miles of land have been claimed by the sea since the Roman era. Entire villages, such as Ravenser, which sent representatives to the parliament of King Edward I, have disappeared.
The Beverley and Holderness constituency was created for the 1997 general election, and in that first contest demonstrated clearly the scale of Tony Blair’s first landslide that year. Based on the notional election result from 1992, there was a 16% swing to New Labour, who leapt from third place to cut Conservative MP James Cran’s majority down to 1,211 votes. In 2001 it was reduced even further, to 781, having become a Labour target in public consciousness.
Cran retired in 2005 after 18 years as an MP (he had represented the old Beverley seat from 1987), having been accused by opponents of inactivity – his attendance in the House of Commons was low, although he was a more active participant in various Select Committees.
His successor as Conservative candidate, Graham Stuart, managed to win by two and a half thousand – but 15 years later he is still there, having managed to restore the constituency to the Conservative safe seat it was thought to be prior to its creation. His majority jumped to five figures when the Tories returned to government in 2010 and at the "Brexit election" of 2019, it hit 20,448 (38% of the vote); this constituency was estimated to have voted 59% to leave the European Union, although Graham Stuart had in fact himself supported the Remain campaign.
The Tory improvement at parliamentary level has been matched at the four yearly elections to the local unitary authority. The two wards which include Beverley itself are the most difficult for them - Labour have not had a councillor elected here since 2007, and that was in Minster and Woodmansey ward, but they do still have potential. As do the Liberal Democrats, who took all three seats in St. Mary’s in May 2019 following the momentum of a by-election gain from the Tories a few years earlier. The successful Lib Dem candidate was Denis Healy, who has also contested the parliamentary seat.
The strongest Tory wards are Beverley Rural and South East Holderness, which includes Withernsea and Spurn Head. The Independents consistently win North Holderness, which includes Hornsea.
Holderness South West includes Hedon – it has returned a full slate of Tory councillors since 2015, but prior to that elected a mix of Lib Dems and Independents.
Despite a very shaky start for them in the heyday of Blairism, the Conservatives now seem very secure in Beverley and Holderness. Labour have managed to retain second place in all but one occasion (2010), but they would need an even greater swing than they achieved in 1997 to come close to winning again.
