Post by nyx on Jul 4, 2023 23:43:51 GMT
Updating the description from the other subforum to reflect the new boundaries as well as events in the last year:
The new constituency of Redcar is formed from 100% of the 2010-24 constituency of Redcar, along with 6.7% of the 2010-24 constituency of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland.
Redcar is a parliamentary constituency in the North East of England. Historically part of Yorkshire, the town of Redcar was moved into the County Borough of Teesside in 1968, the county of Cleveland in 1974, and finally the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in 1996. It's still linked to the rest of the Teesside area in terms of economy, the shared Tees Valley Mayor, and accent similarity (the accent only really changes to the more typical "Yorkshire" one if you go out into the countryside towards Loftus), but still retains some of the Yorkshire self-identity- for example, Redcar itself has a pub called the Yorkshire Coble. It remains in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.
Despite the name, the Redcar constituency consists of several surrounding settlements too. To the immediate east of the town of Redcar is the town of Marske-by-the-Sea (commonly known as Marske, pronounced "mask"), which has existed as a fishing village since the time of the Domesday Book. Wikipedia still labels it as a village but it feels like a town to me. Just south of that is New Marske, which was originally just one old terrace of mining cottages but had a new town built around it in the 1960s-70s. East of Marske lies Saltburn-by-the-Sea, or Saltburn, a small Victorian seaside resort town which had been within the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency until the 2023 boundary review- this town being moved to the Redcar was the sole change to this constituency in the 2023 boundary review.
And to the west of Redcar, once you've gone past several miles of industry, is an area sometimes collectively known as Greater Eston, which consists of the six settlements of Eston, Grangetown, Teesville, South Bank, Normanby, and Ormesby. One would have thought that the whole area would have become considered part of Middlesbrough by now, given that it's part of the continuous urban area with Middlesbrough and only a couple of miles from the centre of Middlesbrough- but in fact it's still part of the Redcar and Cleveland council and the Redcar parliamentary constituency, and places in those six settlements are generally referred to by their names rather than "Greater Eston" or "Middlesbrough".
Other than that you've got a couple of very small villages, and that pretty much makes up all of the Redcar constituency. Population-wise, Redcar itself has around 28000 electors, the Greater Eston area as a whole has around 28000 electors too, and the two Marskes combined have around 9000 electors. As a result, initially the 2023 boundary review had proposed that the constituency be renamed "Redcar and Eston", while also recommending removing the two Marskes, and adding some suburbs of Middlesbrough to bring up the population. By the time the final proposals came out in the 2023 review, however, the existing constituency name of "Redcar" was retained, and the final boundary changes, as mentioned, consist solely of the constituency gaining Saltburn.
In terms of economy, the Greater Eston area sprang up in the mid 19th century with iron and steel works, with ironstone being mined from the Eston Hills and the finished products being shipped off from the nearby ports in the River Tees. The only bit of it which really existed prior to then was Ormesby, which is also a village mentioned in the Domesday Book; interestingly, that divide still seems visible today as Ormesby tends to reliably vote Lib Dem in local elections whereas all of Normanby, Eston, Teesville, South Bank, and Grangetown are safely Labour voting (albeit bizarrely, the 2023 local elections saw this trend being bucked as the Conservatives gained seats in Normanby and Eston, despite Labour doing well in the election as a whole; I don't understand why this was but there must be some local factor).
One may notice that the "-by" suffix of Normanby's name is a suffix generally of Viking and therefore much older origin, but even if it has older origins the settlement very much primarily originated from the steelworks- its population had increased from 195 people in 1851 to 2204 people in 1861. In addition to the steelworks (which now largely no longer exist), the ICI chemical plant, which is now Wilson International, situated between Redcar and Greater Eston, is also a significant employer to this day. Many of the people who came to work in the steelworks in the 19th century were immigrants- a large number of Irish people came over, as well as Welsh people and from elsewhere. There's still a large number of people in the area descended from those Irish immigrants.
In local elections, the voting habits of Redcar itself also clearly vary depending on history- the suburb of Dormanstown was built in 1917-20 to house workers of the Dorman Long steelworks, and even now is still more Labour-voting in local elections. The rest of Redcar as well as Marske, New Marske, and Saltburn are all very much swingy in local elections, with all of Labour, the Lib Dems, the Conservatives, and independent candidates having success, as well as the odd UKIP candidate for a few years.
So overall, the constituency pretty much consists of a more strongly Labour historically-industrial west (Greater Eston) and a more swingy fishing village/seaside resort east (Marske and Saltburn), with the town of Redcar itself having both the seaside resort and the industry. It voted by a margin of 67.5%-32.5% to leave the EU, so as one can imagine, it counts as a "red wall" seat.
Prior to 1974, the area now in the Redcar constituency was part of a larger Cleveland constituency which had been something of a swing seat ever since its creation in 1885. But since 1974, as most of the rural areas were cut out and the constituency was left with a more solidly left-wing core, it was a safe Labour seat for all the time from 1974 til 2010. From 1987 to 2001 it was the constituency of Labour MP Mo Mowlam, who was instrumental in the creation of the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, and who has a park in Redcar named after her. In 2010, the Lib Dems' Ian Swales gained the seat on a massive swing (they had been 31 percentage points behind Labour in 2005, but leapfrogged them to gain a 12-point lead) thanks to their support for reopening the steelworks which had been mothballed in 2009, and Labour being perceived as responsible for its closure. The steelworks did indeed reopen in 2011, but closed again four years later, with only a fraction of the former jobs remaining.
Labour's Anna Turley regained the seat in 2015 with a convincing majority and kept it in 2017, but in 2019 the seat was won by the young Conservative candidate Jacob Young with a 9-point majority. This was almost certainly thanks to Brexit (I've spoken to many lifelong Labour voters in the constituency who voted Conservative in 2019 solely thanks to Brexit), and barring anything very unexpected, Labour would be favoured here at the next general election. This being said, the region voted for the Conservative Ben Houchen for Tees Valley Mayor in 2021 in a landslide, including the usually-Labour areas, so between that and the election of Ian Swales to parliament in 2010, it is clear that voters in this constituency are, while overall Labour-leaning, willing to vote for other parties when there's a reason to do so.
At the time he was elected 2019, Young was actually living in Saltburn (not part of the constituency at the time), having moved there recently from Middlesbrough. I can't find any information suggesting he's moved since the 2019 election, so he's quite fortunate that the boundary review moves his current hometown into his constituency. The new boundaries will probably help him slightly, but barring a significant recovery in Conservative fortunes on the national level, one would still expect this seat to be a Labour gain at the next election.
The new constituency of Redcar is formed from 100% of the 2010-24 constituency of Redcar, along with 6.7% of the 2010-24 constituency of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland.
Redcar is a parliamentary constituency in the North East of England. Historically part of Yorkshire, the town of Redcar was moved into the County Borough of Teesside in 1968, the county of Cleveland in 1974, and finally the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in 1996. It's still linked to the rest of the Teesside area in terms of economy, the shared Tees Valley Mayor, and accent similarity (the accent only really changes to the more typical "Yorkshire" one if you go out into the countryside towards Loftus), but still retains some of the Yorkshire self-identity- for example, Redcar itself has a pub called the Yorkshire Coble. It remains in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.
Despite the name, the Redcar constituency consists of several surrounding settlements too. To the immediate east of the town of Redcar is the town of Marske-by-the-Sea (commonly known as Marske, pronounced "mask"), which has existed as a fishing village since the time of the Domesday Book. Wikipedia still labels it as a village but it feels like a town to me. Just south of that is New Marske, which was originally just one old terrace of mining cottages but had a new town built around it in the 1960s-70s. East of Marske lies Saltburn-by-the-Sea, or Saltburn, a small Victorian seaside resort town which had been within the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency until the 2023 boundary review- this town being moved to the Redcar was the sole change to this constituency in the 2023 boundary review.
And to the west of Redcar, once you've gone past several miles of industry, is an area sometimes collectively known as Greater Eston, which consists of the six settlements of Eston, Grangetown, Teesville, South Bank, Normanby, and Ormesby. One would have thought that the whole area would have become considered part of Middlesbrough by now, given that it's part of the continuous urban area with Middlesbrough and only a couple of miles from the centre of Middlesbrough- but in fact it's still part of the Redcar and Cleveland council and the Redcar parliamentary constituency, and places in those six settlements are generally referred to by their names rather than "Greater Eston" or "Middlesbrough".
Other than that you've got a couple of very small villages, and that pretty much makes up all of the Redcar constituency. Population-wise, Redcar itself has around 28000 electors, the Greater Eston area as a whole has around 28000 electors too, and the two Marskes combined have around 9000 electors. As a result, initially the 2023 boundary review had proposed that the constituency be renamed "Redcar and Eston", while also recommending removing the two Marskes, and adding some suburbs of Middlesbrough to bring up the population. By the time the final proposals came out in the 2023 review, however, the existing constituency name of "Redcar" was retained, and the final boundary changes, as mentioned, consist solely of the constituency gaining Saltburn.
In terms of economy, the Greater Eston area sprang up in the mid 19th century with iron and steel works, with ironstone being mined from the Eston Hills and the finished products being shipped off from the nearby ports in the River Tees. The only bit of it which really existed prior to then was Ormesby, which is also a village mentioned in the Domesday Book; interestingly, that divide still seems visible today as Ormesby tends to reliably vote Lib Dem in local elections whereas all of Normanby, Eston, Teesville, South Bank, and Grangetown are safely Labour voting (albeit bizarrely, the 2023 local elections saw this trend being bucked as the Conservatives gained seats in Normanby and Eston, despite Labour doing well in the election as a whole; I don't understand why this was but there must be some local factor).
One may notice that the "-by" suffix of Normanby's name is a suffix generally of Viking and therefore much older origin, but even if it has older origins the settlement very much primarily originated from the steelworks- its population had increased from 195 people in 1851 to 2204 people in 1861. In addition to the steelworks (which now largely no longer exist), the ICI chemical plant, which is now Wilson International, situated between Redcar and Greater Eston, is also a significant employer to this day. Many of the people who came to work in the steelworks in the 19th century were immigrants- a large number of Irish people came over, as well as Welsh people and from elsewhere. There's still a large number of people in the area descended from those Irish immigrants.
In local elections, the voting habits of Redcar itself also clearly vary depending on history- the suburb of Dormanstown was built in 1917-20 to house workers of the Dorman Long steelworks, and even now is still more Labour-voting in local elections. The rest of Redcar as well as Marske, New Marske, and Saltburn are all very much swingy in local elections, with all of Labour, the Lib Dems, the Conservatives, and independent candidates having success, as well as the odd UKIP candidate for a few years.
So overall, the constituency pretty much consists of a more strongly Labour historically-industrial west (Greater Eston) and a more swingy fishing village/seaside resort east (Marske and Saltburn), with the town of Redcar itself having both the seaside resort and the industry. It voted by a margin of 67.5%-32.5% to leave the EU, so as one can imagine, it counts as a "red wall" seat.
Prior to 1974, the area now in the Redcar constituency was part of a larger Cleveland constituency which had been something of a swing seat ever since its creation in 1885. But since 1974, as most of the rural areas were cut out and the constituency was left with a more solidly left-wing core, it was a safe Labour seat for all the time from 1974 til 2010. From 1987 to 2001 it was the constituency of Labour MP Mo Mowlam, who was instrumental in the creation of the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, and who has a park in Redcar named after her. In 2010, the Lib Dems' Ian Swales gained the seat on a massive swing (they had been 31 percentage points behind Labour in 2005, but leapfrogged them to gain a 12-point lead) thanks to their support for reopening the steelworks which had been mothballed in 2009, and Labour being perceived as responsible for its closure. The steelworks did indeed reopen in 2011, but closed again four years later, with only a fraction of the former jobs remaining.
Labour's Anna Turley regained the seat in 2015 with a convincing majority and kept it in 2017, but in 2019 the seat was won by the young Conservative candidate Jacob Young with a 9-point majority. This was almost certainly thanks to Brexit (I've spoken to many lifelong Labour voters in the constituency who voted Conservative in 2019 solely thanks to Brexit), and barring anything very unexpected, Labour would be favoured here at the next general election. This being said, the region voted for the Conservative Ben Houchen for Tees Valley Mayor in 2021 in a landslide, including the usually-Labour areas, so between that and the election of Ian Swales to parliament in 2010, it is clear that voters in this constituency are, while overall Labour-leaning, willing to vote for other parties when there's a reason to do so.
At the time he was elected 2019, Young was actually living in Saltburn (not part of the constituency at the time), having moved there recently from Middlesbrough. I can't find any information suggesting he's moved since the 2019 election, so he's quite fortunate that the boundary review moves his current hometown into his constituency. The new boundaries will probably help him slightly, but barring a significant recovery in Conservative fortunes on the national level, one would still expect this seat to be a Labour gain at the next election.
