Post by Pete Whitehead on Nov 28, 2023 10:31:53 GMT
The boundary review was awkward in Buckinghamshire due to the requirement to use the ‘new’, large wards of the Buckinghamshire Unitary authority (actually the inherited county council divisions).
Buckinghamshire gained a new, eighth seat though this was mainly due to the huge, continued growth of Milton Keynes in the North of the county – the population and electorate in the Southern half of the county was far more stable.
Nevertheless, the Beaconsfield constituency in the far south was over quota by around 1500 votes and therefore needed to lose territory. Ideally Marlow (only added in 2010) could have been removed, but removing the Marlow ward itself would have split the town between constituencies while removing the whole town would have left the seat under-quota. In the initial proposals the Beaconsfield ward itself was proposed to be moved to Chesham & Amersham. This was sub-optimal as not only did it necessitate a clumsy renaming of the seat (to Marlow & South Buckinghamshire) but part of Beaconsfield itself is in the Gerrards Cross ward.
The newfound willingness of the Boundary Commission to split wards saved the day here. In the revised review, Gerrards Cross ward rather than Beaconsfield was donated to Chesham & Amersham, but not the whole ward – the parts covering part of Beaconsfield and the separate parish of Hedgerley were to remain in this seat. The wards in Buckinghamshire are a mess though and a small part of Gerrards Cross is itself in the Denham ward meaning that that community would be divided. In the final recommendations the problem was solved with a second ward split, detaching the Gerrards Cross element from Denham ward and adding the whole parish, undivided and undiluted to Chesham & Amersham. Gerrards Cross is an immensely wealthy and Conservative area even by the standards of South Buckinghamshire, but the Conservatives can spare it from this seat while it may come in handy in helping to regain Chesham & Amersham.
Beaconsfield was created in 1974 when it was carved out of the South Buckinghamshire constituency. Initially it included areas which had already by then been added to Berkshire – Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury, near the river Thames and south of Slough, and Britwell and Wexham Court – peripheral council estates on the Northern edge of that town. The bulk and core of the seat though was the South Buckinghamshire district, comprising the town of Beaconsfield and the greater part of the old Eton Rural District. A couple of wards from the then Wycombe district made up the numbers.
Even while including Labour voting areas of Slough, this was an ultra-safe Conservative seat, illustrated by the fact that in a 1982 by-election the Labour candidate, one Anthony Blair, lost his deposit. He was up against two former MPs – Paul Tyler who had briefly been MP for Bodmin in the 1970s (and would, much later, become MP for Cornwall North) and Tim Smith who had gained Ashfield in a spectacular by-election in 1977. The vote took place at the height of the Falkands War and Smith won easily, taking over 60% of the vote as he did in all his subsequent re-elections.
The boundary changes ahead of the 1983 election removed the ‘Berkshire’ elements including the Slough estates and added a few more areas close to High Wycombe. There were only very minor changes in 1997 but one of them involved the removal of Colnbrook which had recently been moved to Slough borough. Colnbrook was one of the only remaining Labour inclined wards in the seat. That year Tim Smith was replaced by Dominic Grieve.
Benjamin Disraeli, who had been MP for the whole of Buckinghamshire, took the title Earl of Beaconsfield when he was ennobled, and was the founder of what has been known as ‘One Nation Conservatism’. Dominic Grieve might be seen to have represented a continuation of this tradition (although the ‘One Nation’ he was affiliated with was the European Union). Grieve adopted increasingly extreme positions during the 2017-19 Parliament and lost the whip leading to him standing as an Independent here in 2019. He was endorsed by the Liberal Democrats and appears to have also won over a substantial part of the Labour vote, while the decline in the Conservative vote was not much higher than in other Home Counties seats of similar demographics. American-born Joy Morrisey, a Boris Johnson loyalist retook the seat, outpolling Grieve by two to one.
This should never be other than a very safe Conservative seat, consisting, as it does, of small wealthy towns and expanded commuterised villages, conveniently situated directly to the West of London with good road links afforded by the M40 and M25.
The largest town here is actually Marlow in the far West of the seat, only added in 2010, an attractive and affluent town on the Thames which was probably responsible for keeping Wycombe in the Tory column in 1997. There has been some historical Lib Dem strength in Marlow in local elections, but they have not won a seat here for the last twenty years.
The next largest town, with a population just over 10,000 is Beaconsfield itself – an extremely pleasant town which is separated from most of its constituency by the M40. The main opposition to the Conservatives in Beaconsfield locally has come from various forms of Independents and Residents and in the most recent local elections the Beaconsfield ward split its representation between two Conservatives and an Independent – there are currently no Labour or Lib Dem councillors anywhere in the constituency.
South of Beaconsfield are a series of parishes which are more or less in the orbit of Slough and which have partial namesakes in that town – Burnham, Farnham Royal, Stoke Poges and Wexham. For the most part these are very wealthy and desirable areas too although the Southern end of Burnham blends into Slough and is quite grotty in parts, especially Lent Rise – probably the most downmarket area of the current seat.
In the East of the constituency, hard on the border with Greater London are the two large parishes of Denham and Iver, both of which are conglomerates of a number of diffuse elements.
The original Denham village is a picture postcard village and is wealthy and exclusive. New Denham the other side of the M40 is less desirable and is more or less a suburb of Uxbridge. In the opposite direction, Denham Green which is home to a film studios is much more downmarket with a fair element of council housing. Nevertheless, Labour were never really competitive even in the old Denham North ward – again Independents have provided the main competition for the Conservatives in this area.
Iver is similarly dispersed between the original core village itself, Iver Heath to the North (home to another film studios – the renowned Pinewood studios) and Richings Park. Iver as a whole is a bit more ordinary than much of the seat although the Richings Park estate is very exclusive, despite a not obviously desirable setting crammed between the Great Western Railway, the M40 and the M25. Iver Heath and Iver Village (but not Richings Park) were areas of long-term Lib Dem strength, but they didn’t even contest the ward at the most recent local elections and an Independent topped the poll.
The final element of the seat is a cluster of villages to the south of High Wycombe, part of the old Wycombe district – Flackwell Heath, Wooburn and Bourne End. Flackwell Heath is upmarket and strongly Conservative, the other areas a bit more ordinary and had some Lib Dem strength especially in Bourne End.
The Wooburns, Bourne End and Hedsor ward was the only one in this seat to return a full slate of non-Conservatives in the 2021 local elections – Independents again. In total 22 Conservatives were returned against 5 Independents in the wards making up this constituency.
The next election is unlikely to see a similar Conservative vs Independent contest as it did at the last one. The reality is that as in all previous elections here, however badly the Conservatives may be doing nationally, there is not likely to be any real contest here at all.
Buckinghamshire gained a new, eighth seat though this was mainly due to the huge, continued growth of Milton Keynes in the North of the county – the population and electorate in the Southern half of the county was far more stable.
Nevertheless, the Beaconsfield constituency in the far south was over quota by around 1500 votes and therefore needed to lose territory. Ideally Marlow (only added in 2010) could have been removed, but removing the Marlow ward itself would have split the town between constituencies while removing the whole town would have left the seat under-quota. In the initial proposals the Beaconsfield ward itself was proposed to be moved to Chesham & Amersham. This was sub-optimal as not only did it necessitate a clumsy renaming of the seat (to Marlow & South Buckinghamshire) but part of Beaconsfield itself is in the Gerrards Cross ward.
The newfound willingness of the Boundary Commission to split wards saved the day here. In the revised review, Gerrards Cross ward rather than Beaconsfield was donated to Chesham & Amersham, but not the whole ward – the parts covering part of Beaconsfield and the separate parish of Hedgerley were to remain in this seat. The wards in Buckinghamshire are a mess though and a small part of Gerrards Cross is itself in the Denham ward meaning that that community would be divided. In the final recommendations the problem was solved with a second ward split, detaching the Gerrards Cross element from Denham ward and adding the whole parish, undivided and undiluted to Chesham & Amersham. Gerrards Cross is an immensely wealthy and Conservative area even by the standards of South Buckinghamshire, but the Conservatives can spare it from this seat while it may come in handy in helping to regain Chesham & Amersham.
Beaconsfield was created in 1974 when it was carved out of the South Buckinghamshire constituency. Initially it included areas which had already by then been added to Berkshire – Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury, near the river Thames and south of Slough, and Britwell and Wexham Court – peripheral council estates on the Northern edge of that town. The bulk and core of the seat though was the South Buckinghamshire district, comprising the town of Beaconsfield and the greater part of the old Eton Rural District. A couple of wards from the then Wycombe district made up the numbers.
Even while including Labour voting areas of Slough, this was an ultra-safe Conservative seat, illustrated by the fact that in a 1982 by-election the Labour candidate, one Anthony Blair, lost his deposit. He was up against two former MPs – Paul Tyler who had briefly been MP for Bodmin in the 1970s (and would, much later, become MP for Cornwall North) and Tim Smith who had gained Ashfield in a spectacular by-election in 1977. The vote took place at the height of the Falkands War and Smith won easily, taking over 60% of the vote as he did in all his subsequent re-elections.
The boundary changes ahead of the 1983 election removed the ‘Berkshire’ elements including the Slough estates and added a few more areas close to High Wycombe. There were only very minor changes in 1997 but one of them involved the removal of Colnbrook which had recently been moved to Slough borough. Colnbrook was one of the only remaining Labour inclined wards in the seat. That year Tim Smith was replaced by Dominic Grieve.
Benjamin Disraeli, who had been MP for the whole of Buckinghamshire, took the title Earl of Beaconsfield when he was ennobled, and was the founder of what has been known as ‘One Nation Conservatism’. Dominic Grieve might be seen to have represented a continuation of this tradition (although the ‘One Nation’ he was affiliated with was the European Union). Grieve adopted increasingly extreme positions during the 2017-19 Parliament and lost the whip leading to him standing as an Independent here in 2019. He was endorsed by the Liberal Democrats and appears to have also won over a substantial part of the Labour vote, while the decline in the Conservative vote was not much higher than in other Home Counties seats of similar demographics. American-born Joy Morrisey, a Boris Johnson loyalist retook the seat, outpolling Grieve by two to one.
This should never be other than a very safe Conservative seat, consisting, as it does, of small wealthy towns and expanded commuterised villages, conveniently situated directly to the West of London with good road links afforded by the M40 and M25.
The largest town here is actually Marlow in the far West of the seat, only added in 2010, an attractive and affluent town on the Thames which was probably responsible for keeping Wycombe in the Tory column in 1997. There has been some historical Lib Dem strength in Marlow in local elections, but they have not won a seat here for the last twenty years.
The next largest town, with a population just over 10,000 is Beaconsfield itself – an extremely pleasant town which is separated from most of its constituency by the M40. The main opposition to the Conservatives in Beaconsfield locally has come from various forms of Independents and Residents and in the most recent local elections the Beaconsfield ward split its representation between two Conservatives and an Independent – there are currently no Labour or Lib Dem councillors anywhere in the constituency.
South of Beaconsfield are a series of parishes which are more or less in the orbit of Slough and which have partial namesakes in that town – Burnham, Farnham Royal, Stoke Poges and Wexham. For the most part these are very wealthy and desirable areas too although the Southern end of Burnham blends into Slough and is quite grotty in parts, especially Lent Rise – probably the most downmarket area of the current seat.
In the East of the constituency, hard on the border with Greater London are the two large parishes of Denham and Iver, both of which are conglomerates of a number of diffuse elements.
The original Denham village is a picture postcard village and is wealthy and exclusive. New Denham the other side of the M40 is less desirable and is more or less a suburb of Uxbridge. In the opposite direction, Denham Green which is home to a film studios is much more downmarket with a fair element of council housing. Nevertheless, Labour were never really competitive even in the old Denham North ward – again Independents have provided the main competition for the Conservatives in this area.
Iver is similarly dispersed between the original core village itself, Iver Heath to the North (home to another film studios – the renowned Pinewood studios) and Richings Park. Iver as a whole is a bit more ordinary than much of the seat although the Richings Park estate is very exclusive, despite a not obviously desirable setting crammed between the Great Western Railway, the M40 and the M25. Iver Heath and Iver Village (but not Richings Park) were areas of long-term Lib Dem strength, but they didn’t even contest the ward at the most recent local elections and an Independent topped the poll.
The final element of the seat is a cluster of villages to the south of High Wycombe, part of the old Wycombe district – Flackwell Heath, Wooburn and Bourne End. Flackwell Heath is upmarket and strongly Conservative, the other areas a bit more ordinary and had some Lib Dem strength especially in Bourne End.
The Wooburns, Bourne End and Hedsor ward was the only one in this seat to return a full slate of non-Conservatives in the 2021 local elections – Independents again. In total 22 Conservatives were returned against 5 Independents in the wards making up this constituency.
The next election is unlikely to see a similar Conservative vs Independent contest as it did at the last one. The reality is that as in all previous elections here, however badly the Conservatives may be doing nationally, there is not likely to be any real contest here at all.
