Gower

[Penddu]

Deleted. 

[Deleted]

The red lady of paviland is, of course, actually a male skeleton.

Also, did you intend to write Gorseinon twice in your list of towns?

[andrewp]

An entry for Gower, to replace the original deleted version.

Anyone who finds themselves in the fortunate position of visiting the Gower peninsula in South Wales, sandwiched between Swansea Bay and the salt flats of the Loughor estuary, would probably be surprised to be told that they are in a parliamentary seat that has been held by the Labour party for 109 of the last 111 years. The Gower was designated as Britain’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956 and contains some lovely sandy beaches at Rhosilli and Oxwich, and is a popular walking destination.

Gower is an admirably concise name for this constituency but probably is slightly misleading as to its politics. If the Scottish Boundary Commission got their hands on this one it might be called Gower and Swansea Outer or Gower, Gorseinon, Pontardawe and Clydach.

There are no big towns in this constituency. The boundaries have been unchanged since the 1983 redistribution when the Upper Swansea valley around Ystradlyfera was removed from this seat and replaced by the middle class seaside area of the Mumbles, which was gained from Swansea West. This significantly altered the politics of this seat. When a young Michael Heseltine had made his first attempt to enter Parliament here in 1959, he was beaten by nearly 18000 votes. In the first contest on the new boundaries in the Conservative landslide year of 1983, the Labour majority here was 1200 but the transfer of the Mumbles area to this seat cost the Conservatives a gain in Swansea West in that year. Ultimately the swap has made this Gower constituency much more competitive between Labour and the Conservatives.

The seat now can be described as a seat of two halves. The slightly smaller half of around 25000 voters comes from the eponymous Gower peninsula and the middle class commuter areas around the Mumbles including Bishopston, Newton and Oystermouth. In a 2018 Sunday times report the community of the Mumbles, named after 2 distinctive Islands jutting out into Swansea Bay with a lighthouse on the outer island, was named as the best place to live in Wales. These 2 areas elect a majority of Conservative councillors and in the close parliamentary contests since 2015, the Conservatives will have been comfortably ahead in this part of the constituency.

The constituency then sweeps around the West and North of Swansea to a rather different area, which can outvote the Gower and the Mumbles. To the West of Swansea is the Gowerton and Gorseinon area. This area is very much on the outskirts of Swansea and were communities that were built around Coal mining at the Mountain Colliery, which closed in the 1960’s. Finally the seat sweeps around the North of Swansea on the other ( North) side of the M4 to the rather separate communities of Pontardawe and Clydach. Pontardawe was not a mining town, rather an Industrial town that developed around Tinworks and steelworks. Clydach developed on the route from the coal mines of the Upper Swansea Valley to the port at Swansea, first on the Swansea canal and then on the railway. This is all usually Labour territory and elects Labour or Independent councillors.

Overall this is a slightly older constituency than the national average with 21% of people being over 65 and 19.4% of people being retired. It is overwhelmingly white ( 97.9%) and owner occupied ( 77.4%). 

In its current form since 1983, Gower can be best described as a usually marginal Labour seat. It had a peak Labour majority of 13000 in the 1997 landslide when new MP Martin Caton took over. By 2010 in Caton’s last election his majority had reduced to 2,683 and upon his retirement in 2015, former policeman and Welsh Assembly member Byron Davies edged home by just 27 votes to become the first ever Conservative MP for Gower. It was a short lived tenure and former Welsh International Rugby player Tonia Antoniazzi gained the seat back for Labour by 3269 in 2017. In 2019, Antoniazzi held on by 1837 in one of Labour’s better holds in Wales. It may well be that the 2 distinct halves of this constituency lead to lower than national swings here, but it is now well established as a marginal seat.

[Robert Waller]

2011 Census

Owner-occupied 77.4% 34/650
Private rented 9.8% 588/650
Social rented 10.9% 542/650
White 97.9% 129/650
Black 0.2% 558/650
Asian 0.9% 537/650
Managerial & professional 35.4%
Routine & Semi-routine 23.4%
Degree level 31.7% 145/650
No qualifications 20.3% 446/650
Students 6.7% 345/650
Age 65+ 21.0% 91/650

2021 Census

Owner occupied 75.8% 44/573
Private rented 12.9% 532/573
Social rented 11.4% 455/573
White 96.8%
Black 0.3%
Asian 1.4%
Managerial & professional 37.0% 166/573
Routine & Semi-routine 21.2% 385/573
Degree level 37.7% 138/573
No qualifications 15.5% 407/573





General Election 2019: Gower

Party Candidate Votes % ±%

Labour Tonia Antoniazzi 20,208 45.4 -4.5
Conservative Francesca O'Brien 18,371 41.3 -1.4
Plaid Cymru John Davies 2,288 5.1 +1.4
Liberal Democrats Sam Bennett 2,236 5.0 +3.0
Brexit Party Rob Ross 1,379 3.1

Lab Majority 1,837 4.1 -3.1

Turnout 44,482 72.0 -1.5

Registered electors 61,762

Labour hold

Swing 1.5 Lab to C