Post by andrewp on Oct 16, 2023 14:18:01 GMT
Anyone who finds themselves in the fortunate position of visiting the Gower peninsula in South Wales, sandwiched between Swansea Bay and the salt flats of the Loughor estuary, would probably be surprised to be told that they are in a parliamentary seat that has been held by the Labour party for 112 out of the last 114 years. The Gower was designated as Britain’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956 and contains some lovely sandy beaches at Rhosilli and Oxwich, and is a popular walking destination.
Gower is an admirably concise name for this constituency but is slightly misleading as to its politics. The Gower peninsular itself is actually a Conservative place, but the constituency is far more than the eponymous peninsula. If the Scottish Boundary Commission got their hands on this one it might be called Gower and Swansea Outer or Gower, Gorseinon and Pontarddulais..
The admirably concise name survives the review of parliamentary constituency boundaries that reported to parliament in 2023 but the constituency is expanded. Wales as a whole has been relatively over represented in parliament and that Boundary review allocated 32 constituencies to the principality, a reduction of 8 from the current 40. All of the seats in the Swansea area, including Gower, are undersized and the net result of the review in this area is that the 4 current constituencies of Neath, Swansea East, Swansea West and Gower are effectively reconfigured into 3. The changes to the Gower seat are less radical than some of the others that are in the middle of the group. Of the current 62000 electors in the current Gower constituency about 5500 in Clydach in the Swansea valley in the far North East of the constituency and to the north of Swansea move into the reconfigured Neath and Swansea East constituency. In come about 20,000 voters from the western edges of Swansea, which in total currently make up about one third of the current Swansea West constituency. 3 areas make up the territory moving into this constituency which are, moving clockwise around the edges of Swansea, Mayals, Dunvant & Killay and Crockett & Waunarlywydd.
There are no big towns in this constituency. The boundaries of the Gower seat had, until 2024, been unchanged since the 1983 redistribution when the Upper Swansea valley around Ystradlyfera was removed from this seat and replaced by the middle class seaside area of the Mumbles, which came in from Swansea West. This significantly altered the politics of this seat. When a young Michael Heseltine had made his first attempt to enter Parliament here in 1959, he was beaten by nearly 18000 votes. In the first contest on the new boundaries in the Conservative landslide year of 1983, the Labour majority here was 1200 but the transfer of the Mumbles area into this seat cost the Conservatives a gain in Swansea West in that year. Ultimately the swap has made this Gower constituency much more competitive between Labour and the Conservatives.
The seat now can be described as a seat of two parts About a third of the constituency - around 25000 voters - comes from the eponymous Gower peninsula and the middle class commuter areas around the Mumbles including Bishopston, Newton and Oystermouth. In a 2018 Sunday times report the community of the Mumbles, named after 2 distinctive Islands jutting out into Swansea Bay with a lighthouse on the outer island, was named as the best place to live in Wales. These 2 areas elect a majority of Conservative councillors and in the close parliamentary contests since 2015, the Conservatives will have been comfortably ahead in this part of the constituency. In the 2022 local elections the Conservatives won the wards of Mumbles, Bishopston, Fairwood and Gower itself, most of them fairly comfortably, and by over 2:1 in the Gower ward itself.
Moving around Swansea clockwise, Dunvant and Killay ward on the Western edge of the city, and which comes into the constituency, consists of 2 semi detached areas of Swansea, Dunvant is reasonably solidly Labour voting area and Killay is a pleasant semi detached suburb that has a history of voting Liberal Democrat
The constituency then sweeps further around the West and North of Swansea to a rather different area, which can outvote the Gower and the Mumbles, and it is this area where much of the increased electorate arrives into the Gower constituency. To the West of Swansea, just outside of the city is the Gowerton and Gorseinon area, communities that were built around Coal mining at the Mountain Colliery, which closed in the 1960’s. Finally the seat still sweeps around the North of Swansea on the other ( North) side of the M4 to the rather separate communities of Pontarddulais and Fairdre. This is all usually Labour territory and elects Labour or Independent councillors. This section is increased by the arrival of Cockett and Waunarlwydd, heavily working class Labour wards on the road from Swansea to Gowerton. These 2 wards themselves probably add 2500 to the notional labour majority.
Overall this is an older constituency than the national average with 25% of people being over 65, putting this in the top 100 constituencies for that measure. It is overwhelmingly white ( 95.7%) and owner occupied ( 76%)
In its current form since 1983, Gower can be best described as a usually marginal Labour seat. It had a peak Labour majority of 13000 in the 1997 landslide when new MP Martin Caton took over. By 2010 in Caton’s last election his majority had reduced to 2,683 and upon his retirement in 2015, former policeman and Welsh Assembly member Byron Davies edged home by just 27 votes to become the first ever Conservative MP for Gower. It was a short lived tenure and former Welsh International Rugby player Tonia Antoniazzi gained the seat back for Labour by 3269 in 2017. In 2019, Antoniazzi held on by 1837 in one of Labour’s better holds in Wales. It may well be that the 2 distinct sections of this constituency lead to lower than national swings here, but it is now established as a marginal seat. Particularly the Cockett and Waunarlywydd areas coming into the seat are strong Labour areas and will contribute to at least doubling the notional Labour majority in this newly configured Gower, a small compensation for the effective loss of 1 Labour seat in the Swansea area.
Gower is an admirably concise name for this constituency but is slightly misleading as to its politics. The Gower peninsular itself is actually a Conservative place, but the constituency is far more than the eponymous peninsula. If the Scottish Boundary Commission got their hands on this one it might be called Gower and Swansea Outer or Gower, Gorseinon and Pontarddulais..
The admirably concise name survives the review of parliamentary constituency boundaries that reported to parliament in 2023 but the constituency is expanded. Wales as a whole has been relatively over represented in parliament and that Boundary review allocated 32 constituencies to the principality, a reduction of 8 from the current 40. All of the seats in the Swansea area, including Gower, are undersized and the net result of the review in this area is that the 4 current constituencies of Neath, Swansea East, Swansea West and Gower are effectively reconfigured into 3. The changes to the Gower seat are less radical than some of the others that are in the middle of the group. Of the current 62000 electors in the current Gower constituency about 5500 in Clydach in the Swansea valley in the far North East of the constituency and to the north of Swansea move into the reconfigured Neath and Swansea East constituency. In come about 20,000 voters from the western edges of Swansea, which in total currently make up about one third of the current Swansea West constituency. 3 areas make up the territory moving into this constituency which are, moving clockwise around the edges of Swansea, Mayals, Dunvant & Killay and Crockett & Waunarlywydd.
There are no big towns in this constituency. The boundaries of the Gower seat had, until 2024, been unchanged since the 1983 redistribution when the Upper Swansea valley around Ystradlyfera was removed from this seat and replaced by the middle class seaside area of the Mumbles, which came in from Swansea West. This significantly altered the politics of this seat. When a young Michael Heseltine had made his first attempt to enter Parliament here in 1959, he was beaten by nearly 18000 votes. In the first contest on the new boundaries in the Conservative landslide year of 1983, the Labour majority here was 1200 but the transfer of the Mumbles area into this seat cost the Conservatives a gain in Swansea West in that year. Ultimately the swap has made this Gower constituency much more competitive between Labour and the Conservatives.
The seat now can be described as a seat of two parts About a third of the constituency - around 25000 voters - comes from the eponymous Gower peninsula and the middle class commuter areas around the Mumbles including Bishopston, Newton and Oystermouth. In a 2018 Sunday times report the community of the Mumbles, named after 2 distinctive Islands jutting out into Swansea Bay with a lighthouse on the outer island, was named as the best place to live in Wales. These 2 areas elect a majority of Conservative councillors and in the close parliamentary contests since 2015, the Conservatives will have been comfortably ahead in this part of the constituency. In the 2022 local elections the Conservatives won the wards of Mumbles, Bishopston, Fairwood and Gower itself, most of them fairly comfortably, and by over 2:1 in the Gower ward itself.
Moving around Swansea clockwise, Dunvant and Killay ward on the Western edge of the city, and which comes into the constituency, consists of 2 semi detached areas of Swansea, Dunvant is reasonably solidly Labour voting area and Killay is a pleasant semi detached suburb that has a history of voting Liberal Democrat
The constituency then sweeps further around the West and North of Swansea to a rather different area, which can outvote the Gower and the Mumbles, and it is this area where much of the increased electorate arrives into the Gower constituency. To the West of Swansea, just outside of the city is the Gowerton and Gorseinon area, communities that were built around Coal mining at the Mountain Colliery, which closed in the 1960’s. Finally the seat still sweeps around the North of Swansea on the other ( North) side of the M4 to the rather separate communities of Pontarddulais and Fairdre. This is all usually Labour territory and elects Labour or Independent councillors. This section is increased by the arrival of Cockett and Waunarlwydd, heavily working class Labour wards on the road from Swansea to Gowerton. These 2 wards themselves probably add 2500 to the notional labour majority.
Overall this is an older constituency than the national average with 25% of people being over 65, putting this in the top 100 constituencies for that measure. It is overwhelmingly white ( 95.7%) and owner occupied ( 76%)
In its current form since 1983, Gower can be best described as a usually marginal Labour seat. It had a peak Labour majority of 13000 in the 1997 landslide when new MP Martin Caton took over. By 2010 in Caton’s last election his majority had reduced to 2,683 and upon his retirement in 2015, former policeman and Welsh Assembly member Byron Davies edged home by just 27 votes to become the first ever Conservative MP for Gower. It was a short lived tenure and former Welsh International Rugby player Tonia Antoniazzi gained the seat back for Labour by 3269 in 2017. In 2019, Antoniazzi held on by 1837 in one of Labour’s better holds in Wales. It may well be that the 2 distinct sections of this constituency lead to lower than national swings here, but it is now established as a marginal seat. Particularly the Cockett and Waunarlywydd areas coming into the seat are strong Labour areas and will contribute to at least doubling the notional Labour majority in this newly configured Gower, a small compensation for the effective loss of 1 Labour seat in the Swansea area.
