Post by greenhert on Apr 29, 2020 18:04:18 GMT
South East Cornwall was created in 1983 from the former Bodmin constituency, but without the actual town of Bodmin which was moved to the North Cornwall constituency. It contains all of the former district of Caradon plus the small town of Lostwithiel.
South East Cornwall's main towns are Saltash and Torpoint. Saltash, which faces Plymouth across the River Tamar (the crucial dividing line between Devon and Cornwall) also hosted key ferry crossings across that river, and today also serves as a commuter base for workers in Plymouth. Torpoint, which faces Plymouth across the tributary stream of the Hamoaze, and is the site of the Royal Navy's main training facility, HMS Raleigh. Another notable town is Looe, a small fishing port which is still important today and which serves as a seaside resort once dubbed "the playground of Plymouth". The only other town of significance is Liskeard, important in ancient times but less so today, and the constituency also contains the old monastery of St Germans. Demographically, South East Cornwall is average in qualification levels but like the rest of Cornwall is almost exclusively white in ethnic make-up and like the rest of Cornwall its population is noticeably older than average.
South East Cornwall and its predecessor, Bodmin, switched hands between the Liberals and Conservatives many times although ironically it is the most Conservative (big and small c) constituency in all of Cornwall. Its most notable former MPs are the Liberals' Isaac Foot (MP from 1922-24 and again from 1929-35), father of the Foot political dynasty which included Labour leader Michael Foot (one of his other sons, John Foot, unsuccessfully tried to win back his father's old seat of Bodmin in 1945 and 1950), and Peter Bessell, a key prosecution witness in the trial of former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe. Sensationally, Paul Tyler (Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall from 1992-2005 and now Baron Tyler) won Bodmin by 9 votes from Robert Hicks in February 1974 after five recounts, but Mr Hicks won the seat back in October by the nevertheless narrow margin of 665, and he increased his majority to 10,029 in 1979. He served as MP for this seat until he retired in 1997 and the Liberal Democrats won the seat then via Colin Breed,who had twice been Mayor of Saltash. Mr Breed held the seat with relative ease for the next 13 years until he retired in 2010; the Conservatives' Sheryll Murray won the seat of a 9.1% swing partly because the Liberal Democrats' candidate, Karen Gilliard, had no connection with Cornwall, whereas Mrs Murray was born and raised in the constituency's boundaries. The Liberal Democrats fell back heavily just as they did in most of Cornwall in 2015 but retained second place. In 2017, for the first time ever, Labour finished second in South East Cornwall even though the Liberal Democrats' vote recovered somewhat. In 2019, the Liberal Democrats actually suffered a greater loss of vote share than Labour (3.3% as opposed to 2.4%), giving Mrs Murray an unprecedented Conservative majority of 20,971. The increasing numbers of Plymouth commuters settling in Saltash and Torpoint is eroding their Liberal Democrat tradition somewhat, although Liskeard, Looe and the surrounding areas retain a strong Independent tradition at local level.
South East Cornwall's main towns are Saltash and Torpoint. Saltash, which faces Plymouth across the River Tamar (the crucial dividing line between Devon and Cornwall) also hosted key ferry crossings across that river, and today also serves as a commuter base for workers in Plymouth. Torpoint, which faces Plymouth across the tributary stream of the Hamoaze, and is the site of the Royal Navy's main training facility, HMS Raleigh. Another notable town is Looe, a small fishing port which is still important today and which serves as a seaside resort once dubbed "the playground of Plymouth". The only other town of significance is Liskeard, important in ancient times but less so today, and the constituency also contains the old monastery of St Germans. Demographically, South East Cornwall is average in qualification levels but like the rest of Cornwall is almost exclusively white in ethnic make-up and like the rest of Cornwall its population is noticeably older than average.
South East Cornwall and its predecessor, Bodmin, switched hands between the Liberals and Conservatives many times although ironically it is the most Conservative (big and small c) constituency in all of Cornwall. Its most notable former MPs are the Liberals' Isaac Foot (MP from 1922-24 and again from 1929-35), father of the Foot political dynasty which included Labour leader Michael Foot (one of his other sons, John Foot, unsuccessfully tried to win back his father's old seat of Bodmin in 1945 and 1950), and Peter Bessell, a key prosecution witness in the trial of former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe. Sensationally, Paul Tyler (Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall from 1992-2005 and now Baron Tyler) won Bodmin by 9 votes from Robert Hicks in February 1974 after five recounts, but Mr Hicks won the seat back in October by the nevertheless narrow margin of 665, and he increased his majority to 10,029 in 1979. He served as MP for this seat until he retired in 1997 and the Liberal Democrats won the seat then via Colin Breed,who had twice been Mayor of Saltash. Mr Breed held the seat with relative ease for the next 13 years until he retired in 2010; the Conservatives' Sheryll Murray won the seat of a 9.1% swing partly because the Liberal Democrats' candidate, Karen Gilliard, had no connection with Cornwall, whereas Mrs Murray was born and raised in the constituency's boundaries. The Liberal Democrats fell back heavily just as they did in most of Cornwall in 2015 but retained second place. In 2017, for the first time ever, Labour finished second in South East Cornwall even though the Liberal Democrats' vote recovered somewhat. In 2019, the Liberal Democrats actually suffered a greater loss of vote share than Labour (3.3% as opposed to 2.4%), giving Mrs Murray an unprecedented Conservative majority of 20,971. The increasing numbers of Plymouth commuters settling in Saltash and Torpoint is eroding their Liberal Democrat tradition somewhat, although Liskeard, Looe and the surrounding areas retain a strong Independent tradition at local level.
