Post by YL on May 30, 2020 13:58:40 GMT
Chesterfield is a large town in north-eastern Derbyshire, probably most widely known for the "crooked spire" of St Mary and All Saints in the town centre, which gives the local football team their nickname of the "Spireites" and inspires the shape of the logo of the local borough council. The council area extends eastwards from the main part of Chesterfield to include areas such as Brimington, Staveley and Old and New Whittington which are somewhat detached from the town; the constituency covers all of the borough except for New Whittington, Barrow Hill and eastern Staveley, which are in the North East Derbyshire constituency.
There are fairly strong links to Sheffield in this part of Derbyshire, and the council at one point tried to become a full member of the Sheffield City Region, but this was resisted by other Derbyshire councils; it remains an associate member.
Like the city of Sheffield over the Yorkshire border to the north, Chesterfield is situated between the Peak District hills to the west and a large coalfield, and has a history of manufacturing and engineering. The constituency has a fairly working class demographic, with numbers in professional and managerial jobs somewhat below average and those in elementary occupations somewhat above average; similarly those with degree level qualifications are somewhat below average and those with no qualifications somewhat above.
There is a reasonable middle class element here, and it is predictably concentrated in the west of the town, especially in the wards of Walton, West and Linacre, and in Brockwell to the north-west of the town centre; education levels in these areas are above average, although not generally at the levels found in much of west Sheffield. On the other hand, the area immediately south-west of the town centre, around Boythorpe, and much of the north of the town are deprived working class areas. The east of the constituency, which has a mining history, generally has low education levels and deprivation is fairly high, especially in the part of Staveley in the constituency.
The constituency has an interesting history. For many years it was a safe Labour seat, with Labour winning it as early as 1910 and holding the seat continuously from 1935 until 2001. Eric Varley held the seat from 1964, but following his appointment as chairman of Coalite plc after the 1983 general election, he resigned his seat, triggering a 1984 by-election. This came at a convenient time for Tony Benn, who had been defeated in Bristol East in 1983, and he was selected as the Labour candidate. The by-election became something of a circus, with 16 other candidates, including one who wished to reclassify The Sun as a comic, and one who wished to promote his furniture shop in Thame, Oxfordshire, where presumably Chesterfields were available. Benn won, but with a somewhat underwhelming performance and a strong second place by the Alliance.
By-election surges often fade away, but the Alliance and later the Liberal Democrats would maintain their second place, and Labour must have been alarmed when in their 1997 landslide there was actually a small swing to the Lib Dems. In 2001 Benn retired, and his Labour successor Reg Race was defeated by the Lib Dems' Paul Holmes. Holmes won again in 2005, but was defeated by Labour's Toby Perkins in 2010, thus never becoming a government MP. In 2015 the Lib Dem vote collapsed, sinking to fourth place behind the Conservatives and UKIP, and the Conservative vote has risen since to become the main threat to Perkins. Perkins's vote fell sharply in 2019, but he narrowly held on, leaving this the only Labour seat in Derbyshire other than Derby South; this contrasts with 2001 and 2005, when it was the only non-Labour seat in the county other than West Derbyshire.
At local level, the Liberal Democrats remain the main opposition to Labour, and in fact there are still no Conservatives on the council. The Lib Dems' strongest areas are predictably the middle class areas in the west of the town such as Walton, West and Linacre wards, with Labour dominating most of the rest of the borough.
There are fairly strong links to Sheffield in this part of Derbyshire, and the council at one point tried to become a full member of the Sheffield City Region, but this was resisted by other Derbyshire councils; it remains an associate member.
Like the city of Sheffield over the Yorkshire border to the north, Chesterfield is situated between the Peak District hills to the west and a large coalfield, and has a history of manufacturing and engineering. The constituency has a fairly working class demographic, with numbers in professional and managerial jobs somewhat below average and those in elementary occupations somewhat above average; similarly those with degree level qualifications are somewhat below average and those with no qualifications somewhat above.
There is a reasonable middle class element here, and it is predictably concentrated in the west of the town, especially in the wards of Walton, West and Linacre, and in Brockwell to the north-west of the town centre; education levels in these areas are above average, although not generally at the levels found in much of west Sheffield. On the other hand, the area immediately south-west of the town centre, around Boythorpe, and much of the north of the town are deprived working class areas. The east of the constituency, which has a mining history, generally has low education levels and deprivation is fairly high, especially in the part of Staveley in the constituency.
The constituency has an interesting history. For many years it was a safe Labour seat, with Labour winning it as early as 1910 and holding the seat continuously from 1935 until 2001. Eric Varley held the seat from 1964, but following his appointment as chairman of Coalite plc after the 1983 general election, he resigned his seat, triggering a 1984 by-election. This came at a convenient time for Tony Benn, who had been defeated in Bristol East in 1983, and he was selected as the Labour candidate. The by-election became something of a circus, with 16 other candidates, including one who wished to reclassify The Sun as a comic, and one who wished to promote his furniture shop in Thame, Oxfordshire, where presumably Chesterfields were available. Benn won, but with a somewhat underwhelming performance and a strong second place by the Alliance.
By-election surges often fade away, but the Alliance and later the Liberal Democrats would maintain their second place, and Labour must have been alarmed when in their 1997 landslide there was actually a small swing to the Lib Dems. In 2001 Benn retired, and his Labour successor Reg Race was defeated by the Lib Dems' Paul Holmes. Holmes won again in 2005, but was defeated by Labour's Toby Perkins in 2010, thus never becoming a government MP. In 2015 the Lib Dem vote collapsed, sinking to fourth place behind the Conservatives and UKIP, and the Conservative vote has risen since to become the main threat to Perkins. Perkins's vote fell sharply in 2019, but he narrowly held on, leaving this the only Labour seat in Derbyshire other than Derby South; this contrasts with 2001 and 2005, when it was the only non-Labour seat in the county other than West Derbyshire.
At local level, the Liberal Democrats remain the main opposition to Labour, and in fact there are still no Conservatives on the council. The Lib Dems' strongest areas are predictably the middle class areas in the west of the town such as Walton, West and Linacre wards, with Labour dominating most of the rest of the borough.
