North West Leicestershire
Oct 12, 2023 21:14:07 GMT
Robert Waller, John Chanin, and 2 more like this
Post by matureleft on Oct 12, 2023 21:14:07 GMT
First established in 1983, the south-western end formed from part of the former Bosworth seat once held by Woodrow Wyatt when he was a Labour MP. it initially included not just the District of the same name but the two Shepshed wards in Charnwood District. From 1997 it shed these and, until the 2023 review,, remained coterminous with the District Council area.
David Ashby represented the seat from 1983 to 1997. His unremarkable tenure was enlivened near its end, during John Major's “Back to Basics” period, with a press piece on his sharing a bed with a then unnamed man because no twin-bedded rooms were available in the French hotel in which he stayed. He had narrowly held off Labour in 1992 and a replacement Conservative, Robert Goodwill (who finally reached Parliament in the seat of Scarborough and Whitby in 2005, via a period in the European Parliament), unsurprisingly, lost by a 25 per cent margin to the Labour loser in 1992, local accountant, magistrate and committed Christian David Taylor, in 1997.
Taylor was a Campaign Group supporter and frequent rebel through the Blair years, was nominated for the Backbencher of the Year award in 2005 and won it in 2007. Taylor held the seat with declining, but even in 2005 fairly comfortable, majorities almost precisely mirroring the results in neighbouring South Derbyshire. He died in December 2009. Labour, understandably, delayed the by-election with the seat being filled in the 2010 General Election. The winner, the Conservative Andrew Bridgen, was a successful local businessman, originally from South Derbyshire but moving his premises over the border as it grew. He took the seat on a 6 per cent swing.
Bridgen has held the seat, with increasing majorities, at every election since then with a majority of 37 per cent in 2019. He is a noisy, partisan backbencher, strongly Leave-inclined and loudly critical of any Conservative deviation from that path. He has a range of opinions that he shares freely and attracts plenty of media interest. He was suspended from the House of Commons for lobbying on behalf of a business from which he received donations and then compounded this by implying doubts about the integrity of the investigating Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Eventually he suffered the penalty of not merely losing the whip but also being expelled from the Conservative Party over his repeated claims about how the COVID outbreak was handled. These included suggestions that the British Heart Foundation had covered up the effects of vaccines, and then repeating another person's claim that the vaccines were “the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust”. He had made few friends within successive Conservative leaderships with vocal criticism and public submissions of letters of no confidence. He briefly joined Reclaim but then left over unspecified differences of direction.
In many ways this constituency is similar to its neighbour, South Derbyshire. The former coalfield straddles the county boundary, The town of Coalville contained pits (the Snibston colliery is preserved as a museum) with seams stretching toward Moira, where the last local mine shut in 1990. Albert Village, notorious for opencast mining with a lunar landscape around the village, was the butt of many cruel local jokes. As in South Derbyshire the departure of deep mining (some opencast mining continues near Measham) has prompted the arrival of new residents. While growing much less rapidly than South Derbyshire the electorate reached 79,000 in 2019 and some reduction in area was necessary at the next review.
At the north-eastern end of the constituency is Castle Donington, adjacent to both East Midlands Airport and the Donington Park Circuit, used for major motorsport events. The town has been fairly balanced between Labour and Conservative with some extremely tight results. These include the County Council result in the 1990s where the result was overturned under challenge when a ballot favouring the Conservative with a smiley was allowed! The other substantial towns are Ashby de la Zouch (the setting of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe), and Coalville and its adjacent, former mining villages such as Hugglescote and Ibstock. Ashby has tended to lean toward the Conservatives but with Labour victories in good years. Both the Liberal Democrats and Greens have had some district council success there too. Liberal Democrats have successfully targeted some formerly Labour areas in Coalville, for example in Greenhill. The town used to be heavily Labour and Measham, adjacent to the A42, leaned Labour. The intervening rural areas are generally strongly Conservative. The south-western end of the constituency around the former coalfield is spotted with smaller former mining villages like Moira, Donisthorpe and Albert Village and used to provide a strong Labour vote. While Labour still can carry much of that area the margins are tighter.
The constituency voted 60 per cent in favour of Leave with reputedly heavy support in some of the traditionally Labour areas. This has affected sympathies, particularly around Coalville and adjacent areas and these are not the Labour bastions they once were.
There are two political differences from its South Derbyshire neighbour. First there has been substantial local activity from both the Liberal Democrats and Greens (compared to their almost complete absence over the border). The District Council elections are entirely fought in single-seat wards and produced a narrow Conservative majority in 2019 – 20 Conservative, 10 Labour, 4 Liberal Democrats, 3 Independents and 1 Green with several close results, and Labour polling well above their subsequent General Election result and the Conservatives well below. Secondly, there is no major city sprawl nor is there the ethnic diversity that the Derby suburbs have brought in the neighbouring seat.
The Boundary Commission needed to reduce the size of this constituency. The most logical solution and the one they have adopted removes the two district wards at the southern end of the constituency – Appleby, and Oakthorpe and Donisthorpe. While Donisthorpe has some Labour votes, even in 2023, a good year for Labour and a very poor one for the Conservatives, there was a comfortable Conservative win. Appleby is the safest Conservative ward in the district.
Of the wards within the new boundaries Labour carried 17, the Conservatives 10, the Liberal Democrats 5 and Independents 4 in 2023. The District Council now operates with a coalition between Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and some Independents, Labour having attempted unsuccessfully to form a minority administration.
The seat's environment and economy has altered substantially since 1990. The National Forest, launched in 1995, stretches across the seat (and into South Derbyshire and Burton). It had the goal of increasing tree cover in an area denuded by extractive industry, both coal and clay (Ibstock Brick is based here). This has been largely successful, introducing attractive woodland and providing contexts to new and old attractions. Road communications also improved with the A42/M42 linking the area to the West Midlands. The M1 passes the eastern edge of the seat. The development of East Midlands Airport, adjacent business parks and associated distribution businesses – the airport is a major freight hub – has provided substantial and varied employment. If the eastern section of HS2 is ever built the suggested route runs through this constituency (and through Andrew Bridgen's house which was purchased to make way for it) to East Midlands Parkway, just over the border in Nottinghamshire.
If there is a way back for Labour here, it's tough, although local election results suggest that there's potential support well above the miserable 25 per cent they managed in the 2019 General Election. An election less coloured by Brexit would help and the small boundary changes this time certainly favour them. As in South Derbyshire this is not a wealthy place beyond pockets in some of the rural areas. Its current sympathies aren't “baked in”.
Bridgen's intentions are unknown. A lengthy and costly dispute with his former family business has occupied him and he has been quieter of late, but he has produced a website focused on his concerns with a fundraising element. That suggests that he will stand. The Conservatives have chosen a district councillor and local businessman, Craig Smith as their standard bearer. Labour has selected Amanda Hack, a Leicestershire County Councillor from the Blaby area. The Greens are putting forward Carl Benfield, an Ashby town councillor.
