Post by YL on Jul 8, 2023 10:57:01 GMT
Doncaster is an industrial city (granted this status in 2022) surrounded by the South Yorkshire coalfield, and has a particular history with the railway industry; it's where the famous locomotives Flying Scotsman and Mallard were built. This constituency contains most of the main built up area of the city, south of the River Don. It also extends eastwards to include the areas of Edenthorpe, Kirk Sandall and Armthorpe, birthplace of Kevin Keegan, and southwards to include the small town of Tickhill and the villages of Wadworth, Loversall, Stainton and Braithwell; these eastern and southern areas were outside the pre-1974 County Borough of Doncaster and have their own parish councils.
Overall, this is a working class constituency with high deprivation levels. The main exceptions are in Tickhill, suburban Bessacarr in the south of the constituency, and to some extent in the eastern parishes, especially Barnby Dun and Kirk Sandall, where most census areas are less deprived than the English median. However, much of the area around the city centre is in the most deprived 10% in England, as are some areas further east and the tower blocks on Cleveland Street, visible from trains approaching the station from the south or west, are in a census area which is the most deprived in South Yorkshire and the 55th most deprived in England.
Similar patterns appear in the census returns. The constituency has well below average proportions of graduates and professional and managerial occupations, and higher proportions of those in working class occupations and with no qualifications or low level ones only. The main exceptions again, with a more middle class profile, are Kirk Sandall, Tickhill and Bessacarr; some areas east of the city centre, around Town Fields and Wheatley Hills, also show a middle class element in the population. Unlike the older age profile of some surrounding areas, the age profile of this constituency is fairly average.
The constituency is essentially a continuation of the constituency which existed until 1983 and which was simply named "Doncaster", especially the post-1950 version which did not include the areas north of the Don now in Doncaster North and did include Bessacarr. However that version did not include the eastern parishes nor Tickhill. Armthorpe and Edenthorpe were added in 1983, when the name was also changed to Doncaster Central, and Kirk Sandall and Barnby Dun in 2010. Tickhill and the villages which share its ward, previously in the dismembered Don Valley constituency, are added in the latest boundary changes, which also remove Barnby Dun again.
Doncaster first voted Labour in 1922, and then became fairly safe Labour, except in 1931, until the 1950 boundary changes, which turned it marginal, and it voted Conservative three times in the 1950s. Renamed Doncaster Central and extended to the east, it was fairly close in 1983, but swung sharply to Labour in 1987 and then looked safe. Since 1997 the MP has been Rosie Winterton; as with some other South Yorkshire constituencies there was a dramatic fall in her share of the vote in 2010, when it fell below 40%, followed by a recovery in 2015 and 2017, making the seat look fairly safe again, and then another big fall in 2019, reducing the majority over the Conservatives to only just over 2,000. Both the Tickhill area and Barnby Dun are relatively Conservative areas, but the former is bigger, so the latest boundary changes moved it slightly towards the Conservatives, but probably not by enough that they would have actually won it on these boundaries in 2019. In 2024 Labour's new candidate Sally Jameson won the seat comfortably with the Conservatives only just holding onto second place ahead of Reform UK.
Local elections in Doncaster borough have had some unusual moments, especially the election of an executive Mayor from the English Democrats in 2009. In recent years, however, most of the wards in this constituency have elected Labour councillors; at present the two councillors representing Tickhill & Wadworth and two of the three representing Bessacarr are Conservatives, but all other councillors in the constituency are Labour. Former Liberal Democrat strength in Bessacarr, last won in 2012, disappeared when two of the councillors left the party; before the Coalition years they had some strength in other parts of the constituency as well. UKIP won a single seat here in 2014, in the then Edenthorpe, Kirk Sandall & Barnby Dun ward in the east, and won another in a by-election there, but did not hold them in the 2015 all up elections.
2019 notional result (Rallings & Thrasher):
Lab 18124 (39.4%)
Con 16853 (36.6%)
Brexit Party 7173 (15.6%)
Lib Dem 1884 (4.1%)
Green 1038 (2.3%)
Other 971 (2.1%)
Lab majority 1271 (2.8%)
2024 result:
Sally Jameson (Lab) 17515 (46.2%)
Nick Allen (Con) 7964 (21.0%)
Surjit Durhe (Reform UK) 7886 (20.8%)
Jennifer Rozenfelds (Green) 1880 (5.0%)
Greg Ruback (Lib Dem) 1199 (3.2%)
Tosh McDonald (Workers Party) 758 (2.0%)
Andrew Walmsley (Yorkshire Party) 742 (2.0%)
Overall, this is a working class constituency with high deprivation levels. The main exceptions are in Tickhill, suburban Bessacarr in the south of the constituency, and to some extent in the eastern parishes, especially Barnby Dun and Kirk Sandall, where most census areas are less deprived than the English median. However, much of the area around the city centre is in the most deprived 10% in England, as are some areas further east and the tower blocks on Cleveland Street, visible from trains approaching the station from the south or west, are in a census area which is the most deprived in South Yorkshire and the 55th most deprived in England.
Similar patterns appear in the census returns. The constituency has well below average proportions of graduates and professional and managerial occupations, and higher proportions of those in working class occupations and with no qualifications or low level ones only. The main exceptions again, with a more middle class profile, are Kirk Sandall, Tickhill and Bessacarr; some areas east of the city centre, around Town Fields and Wheatley Hills, also show a middle class element in the population. Unlike the older age profile of some surrounding areas, the age profile of this constituency is fairly average.
The constituency is essentially a continuation of the constituency which existed until 1983 and which was simply named "Doncaster", especially the post-1950 version which did not include the areas north of the Don now in Doncaster North and did include Bessacarr. However that version did not include the eastern parishes nor Tickhill. Armthorpe and Edenthorpe were added in 1983, when the name was also changed to Doncaster Central, and Kirk Sandall and Barnby Dun in 2010. Tickhill and the villages which share its ward, previously in the dismembered Don Valley constituency, are added in the latest boundary changes, which also remove Barnby Dun again.
Doncaster first voted Labour in 1922, and then became fairly safe Labour, except in 1931, until the 1950 boundary changes, which turned it marginal, and it voted Conservative three times in the 1950s. Renamed Doncaster Central and extended to the east, it was fairly close in 1983, but swung sharply to Labour in 1987 and then looked safe. Since 1997 the MP has been Rosie Winterton; as with some other South Yorkshire constituencies there was a dramatic fall in her share of the vote in 2010, when it fell below 40%, followed by a recovery in 2015 and 2017, making the seat look fairly safe again, and then another big fall in 2019, reducing the majority over the Conservatives to only just over 2,000. Both the Tickhill area and Barnby Dun are relatively Conservative areas, but the former is bigger, so the latest boundary changes moved it slightly towards the Conservatives, but probably not by enough that they would have actually won it on these boundaries in 2019. In 2024 Labour's new candidate Sally Jameson won the seat comfortably with the Conservatives only just holding onto second place ahead of Reform UK.
Local elections in Doncaster borough have had some unusual moments, especially the election of an executive Mayor from the English Democrats in 2009. In recent years, however, most of the wards in this constituency have elected Labour councillors; at present the two councillors representing Tickhill & Wadworth and two of the three representing Bessacarr are Conservatives, but all other councillors in the constituency are Labour. Former Liberal Democrat strength in Bessacarr, last won in 2012, disappeared when two of the councillors left the party; before the Coalition years they had some strength in other parts of the constituency as well. UKIP won a single seat here in 2014, in the then Edenthorpe, Kirk Sandall & Barnby Dun ward in the east, and won another in a by-election there, but did not hold them in the 2015 all up elections.
2019 notional result (Rallings & Thrasher):
Lab 18124 (39.4%)
Con 16853 (36.6%)
Brexit Party 7173 (15.6%)
Lib Dem 1884 (4.1%)
Green 1038 (2.3%)
Other 971 (2.1%)
Lab majority 1271 (2.8%)
2024 result:
Sally Jameson (Lab) 17515 (46.2%)
Nick Allen (Con) 7964 (21.0%)
Surjit Durhe (Reform UK) 7886 (20.8%)
Jennifer Rozenfelds (Green) 1880 (5.0%)
Greg Ruback (Lib Dem) 1199 (3.2%)
Tosh McDonald (Workers Party) 758 (2.0%)
Andrew Walmsley (Yorkshire Party) 742 (2.0%)
