Post by John Chanin on Nov 16, 2021 12:25:24 GMT
Market Harborough as its name suggests is an old market town rather different from the industrial towns of the Midlands to the south and west. It sits alongside the river Welland and the Grand Union Canal, and has a population of 25,000 and accounts for a quarter of the seat named after it, and is the administrative centre for Harborough District which covers the south-east of Leicestershire. Those with managerial jobs are twice those with routine jobs, it is over 95% white, and local politics consists of close contests between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
The majority of the seat however is very different. It consists of the Leicester suburbs of Oadby and Wigston, which form their own pocket borough, with a population of around 55,000. The two suburbs are separated by the Wash Brook, a tributary of the Soar, and both have substantial suburban shopping centres. Both are predominantly post-war, building on some inter-war expansion, and blend indistinguishably into Leicester to the north. Oadby, bisected by the A6, is slightly smaller and more middle-class, with 45% in managerial jobs. In the north is leafy Victoria Park surrounded by the student village of Leicester University - the Grange ward is more than a third students. Its most distinctive characteristic though is that it is over a third south asian. Wigston is decidedly more down market, with as many routine as managerial workers, particularly in the slightly detached South Wigston area. It is also predominantly white, with just a small south asian population in the north adjoining the south Leicester district of Knighton. Politically at a local level the borough council is overwhelmingly Liberal Democrat - Oadby is competitive, but only in Grange do the Conservatives have councillors. In Wigston the Liberal Democrats are so dominant that other parties don’t even bother to put up a complete slate of candidates. However there must be Labour voters here at parliamentary elections.
The remaining quarter of the seat is rural. Between Oadby & Wigston and Market Harborough are the three large villages of Great Glen, Fleckney, and Kibworth on the A6 - the latter in more hilly country as the land rises up towards the northern extension of the Jurassic Northamptonshire highlands, but most of this hill country, although in Harborough District is included in the Rutland & Melton constituency. Like most rural areas this is middle class and very Conservative. The land between Market Harborough and Lutterworth is flatter and very sparsely populated, with no large villages.
Harborough constituency has been largely unchanged since Blaby was hived off in 1974, and has one of the highest proportions of owner-occupation in the country. Overall the constituency is safely Conservative, despite the predominance of the Liberal Democrats at local level. They did however come much closer to winning the seat in earlier years, reducing the Conservative majority to less than 10% in 2005. However there has been little recovery since the post-coalition crash, and Labour retained a comfortable second place in 2019. The MP here is Neil O’Brien, a SPAD from Yorkshire originally, first elected in 2017.
Leicestershire gains half a seat at the boundary review currently in progress, and major changes were originally proposed for this part of the county. Harborough was to be severed from Oadby & Wigston, and to form a seat coterminous with the District Council, gaining Lutterworth from South Leicestershire, and the Leicester suburb of Thurnby, plus the rural north-east, from Rutland & Melton. Meanwhile Oadby & Wigston were to be linked with the Blaby/Whetstone/ Countesthorpe exurb, which would have made a lot of sense as uniting a semi-urban sprawl looking to Leicester, very similar to Mid Leicestershire on the other side of the city. Unfortunately this sensible plan has been abandoned following consultation in favour of much more limited change. The oversized Harborough seat is simply to lose the rural Fleckney ward to South Leicestershire, along with realignment to new ward boundaries. This will reduce marginally the Conservative lead.
Census data: owner-occupied 80% (24/573 in England & Wales), private rented 11% (474th), social rented 8% (551st).
:White 83%, Black 1%, South Asian 12%, Mixed 2%, Other 3%
: Managerial & professional 39% (177th), Routine & Semi-routine 26% (389th)
: Degree level 28%(226th), No qualifications 34%(348th)
: Students 6% (145th), Over 65- 19% (169th)
The majority of the seat however is very different. It consists of the Leicester suburbs of Oadby and Wigston, which form their own pocket borough, with a population of around 55,000. The two suburbs are separated by the Wash Brook, a tributary of the Soar, and both have substantial suburban shopping centres. Both are predominantly post-war, building on some inter-war expansion, and blend indistinguishably into Leicester to the north. Oadby, bisected by the A6, is slightly smaller and more middle-class, with 45% in managerial jobs. In the north is leafy Victoria Park surrounded by the student village of Leicester University - the Grange ward is more than a third students. Its most distinctive characteristic though is that it is over a third south asian. Wigston is decidedly more down market, with as many routine as managerial workers, particularly in the slightly detached South Wigston area. It is also predominantly white, with just a small south asian population in the north adjoining the south Leicester district of Knighton. Politically at a local level the borough council is overwhelmingly Liberal Democrat - Oadby is competitive, but only in Grange do the Conservatives have councillors. In Wigston the Liberal Democrats are so dominant that other parties don’t even bother to put up a complete slate of candidates. However there must be Labour voters here at parliamentary elections.
The remaining quarter of the seat is rural. Between Oadby & Wigston and Market Harborough are the three large villages of Great Glen, Fleckney, and Kibworth on the A6 - the latter in more hilly country as the land rises up towards the northern extension of the Jurassic Northamptonshire highlands, but most of this hill country, although in Harborough District is included in the Rutland & Melton constituency. Like most rural areas this is middle class and very Conservative. The land between Market Harborough and Lutterworth is flatter and very sparsely populated, with no large villages.
Harborough constituency has been largely unchanged since Blaby was hived off in 1974, and has one of the highest proportions of owner-occupation in the country. Overall the constituency is safely Conservative, despite the predominance of the Liberal Democrats at local level. They did however come much closer to winning the seat in earlier years, reducing the Conservative majority to less than 10% in 2005. However there has been little recovery since the post-coalition crash, and Labour retained a comfortable second place in 2019. The MP here is Neil O’Brien, a SPAD from Yorkshire originally, first elected in 2017.
Leicestershire gains half a seat at the boundary review currently in progress, and major changes were originally proposed for this part of the county. Harborough was to be severed from Oadby & Wigston, and to form a seat coterminous with the District Council, gaining Lutterworth from South Leicestershire, and the Leicester suburb of Thurnby, plus the rural north-east, from Rutland & Melton. Meanwhile Oadby & Wigston were to be linked with the Blaby/Whetstone/ Countesthorpe exurb, which would have made a lot of sense as uniting a semi-urban sprawl looking to Leicester, very similar to Mid Leicestershire on the other side of the city. Unfortunately this sensible plan has been abandoned following consultation in favour of much more limited change. The oversized Harborough seat is simply to lose the rural Fleckney ward to South Leicestershire, along with realignment to new ward boundaries. This will reduce marginally the Conservative lead.
Census data: owner-occupied 80% (24/573 in England & Wales), private rented 11% (474th), social rented 8% (551st).
:White 83%, Black 1%, South Asian 12%, Mixed 2%, Other 3%
: Managerial & professional 39% (177th), Routine & Semi-routine 26% (389th)
: Degree level 28%(226th), No qualifications 34%(348th)
: Students 6% (145th), Over 65- 19% (169th)
2010 | % | 2015 | % | 2017 | % | 2019 | % | |
Conservative | 26,894 | 49.0% | 27,675 | 52.7% | 30,135 | 52.3% | 31,698 | 55.3% |
Labour | 6,981 | 12.7% | 8,043 | 15.3% | 17,706 | 30.7% | 14,420 | 25.2% |
Liberal Democrat | 17,017 | 31.0% | 7,037 | 13.4% | 7,286 | 12.6% | 9,103 | 15.9% |
UKIP | 1,462 | 2.7% | 7,539 | 14.4% | 1,361 | 2.4% | ||
Green | 2,177 | 4.1% | 1,110 | 1.9% | 1,709 | 3.0% | ||
Others | 2,511 | 4.6% | 389 | 0.7% | ||||
Majority | 9,877 | 18.0% | 19,632 | 37.4% | 12,429 | 21.6% | 17,278 | 30.1% |
