Taunton Deane (UK Parliament constituency)
Taunton Deane | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
![]() Boundary of Taunton Deane in Somerset | |
![]() Location of Somerset within England | |
County | Somerset |
Electorate | 82,882 (December 2010)[1] |
Major settlements | Taunton, Wellington |
Current constituency | |
Created | 2010 |
Member of Parliament | Rebecca Pow (Conservative Party) |
Number of members | One |
Created from | Taunton |
Taunton Deane is a constituency[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Rebecca Pow of the Conservative Party.[n 2]
History[]
Parliament accepted the Boundary Commission's Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which created this constituency for the General Election 2010 as a reduced form of the Taunton seat. The western wards, transferred to the new seat of Bridgwater and West Somerset for 2010, were all close to or in Exmoor, which were five in number:
- Aville Vale, Brompton Ralph and Haddon, Dulverton and Brushford, Exmoor and, Qualme.[2]
- Political history
The predecessor seat, while approximately 7% larger in electorate (and thus due to population and settlements' growth, oversized), had been held by a Liberal Democrat, Jeremy Browne, since 2005, who won Taunton Deane as its main successor with a relatively marginal majority. In the two previous elections, the seat had seen alternation between Conservative and a Liberal Democrat control. The Taunton Deane seat was won by the Conservatives in the 2015 general election with a large majority.
The last general election in which either party polled less than 38% of the vote, thus allowing a larger majority, was in 1987, taking into account only one of their notionally equivalent predecessors, the Social Democratic Party - their candidate participated in the SDP–Liberal Alliance.
- Prominent members
Between 2010 and 2015, the seat was represented by Jeremy Browne, who served in the Coalition government as a Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office.[3]
Boundaries[]
The seat has electoral wards:
- Bishop's Hull, Bishops Lydeard, Blackdown, Bradford on Tone, Comeytrowe, Milverton and North Deane, Monument, Neroche, North Curry, Norton Fitzwarren, Ruishton and Creech, Staplegrove, Stoke St Gregory, Taunton: Blackbrook and Holway, Eastgate, Fairwater, Halcon, Killams and Mountfield, Lyngford, Manor and Wilton, Pyrland and Rowbarton wards, Trull, Wellington: East, North, Rockwell Green and West wards, West Monkton, Wiveliscombe and West Deane forming the Borough of Taunton Deane[2][4]
This borough centres on the town of Taunton while extending to include Wellington within an approximate rhombus-shaped swathe of land forming the south-western portion of Somerset. The constituency covers a large part of the Devon—Somerset border.
History[]
In the 2005 general election, the victorious Liberal Democrats' candidate in Taunton required the smallest percentage swing from the Conservative MP for them to take the seat. In the 2010 general election, the seat was identified as a target for the Conservative Party, ranking 29th on their target list.[5] The incumbent, Jeremy Browne had a notional 3.3% lead from the 2005 election. Browne held the seat in 2010, increasing his majority to 6.9%, a 1.8% swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats.[6]
Constituency profile[]
The seat is a mixture of partially agricultural commuter villages and a spacious urban town, which has business parks in a similar way to Wells, connected by road and rail to the major conurbations, north and south, Bristol and Exeter. The majority of the eastern half of the ridge-like Blackdown Hills is in the Blackdown electoral ward. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 2.6% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.[7]
Members of Parliament[]
2010–present[]
Election | Member[8] | Party | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Jeremy Browne | Liberal Democrats | Previously MP for Taunton from 2005. Stood down 2015 | |
2015 | Rebecca Pow | Conservative | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Opportunities (2019–Present) |
Elections[]
Elections in the 2010s[]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Rebecca Pow | 34,164 | 53.6 | +0.7 | |
Liberal Democrats | Gideon Amos | 22,464 | 35.2 | +7.5 | |
Labour | Liam Canham | 4,715 | 7.4 | -8.0 | |
Independent | John Hunt | 2,390 | 3.8 | New | |
Majority | 11,700 | 18.4 | -6.8 | ||
Turnout | 63,733 | 71.9 | -1.9 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | -3.5 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Rebecca Pow | 33,334 | 52.9 | +4.8 | |
Liberal Democrats | Gideon Amos | 17,446 | 27.7 | +6.4 | |
Labour | Martin Jevon | 9,689 | 15.4 | +6.2 | |
UKIP | Alan Dimmick | 1,434 | 2.3 | -9.7 | |
Green | Clive Martin | 1,151 | 1.8 | -2.7 | |
Majority | 15,887 | 25.2 | -1.6 | ||
Turnout | 63,053 | 73.8 | +3.1 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | -0.7 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Rebecca Pow | 27,849 | 48.1 | +5.9 | |
Liberal Democrats | Rachel Gilmour | 12,358 | 21.3 | -27.8 | |
UKIP | Laura Bailhache | 6,921 | 12.0 | +8.4 | |
Labour | Neil Guild | 5,347 | 9.2 | +4.1 | |
Green | Clive Martin | 2,630 | 4.5 | New | |
Independent | Mike Rigby | 2,568 | 4.4 | New | |
TUSC | Stephen German | 118 | 0.2 | New | |
Independent | Bruce Gauld | 96 | 0.2 | New | |
Majority | 15,491 | 26.8 | NA | ||
Turnout | 57,887 | 70.7 | +0.2 | ||
Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats | Swing | +16.8 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Jeremy Browne | 28,531 | 49.1 | +4.7 | |
Conservative | Mark Formosa | 24,538 | 42.2 | +0.8 | |
Labour | Martin Jevon | 2,967 | 5.1 | -6.8 | |
UKIP | Tony McIntyre | 2,114 | 3.6 | +1.2 | |
Majority | 3,993 | 6.9 | +3.9 | ||
Turnout | 58,150 | 70.5 | +1.2 | ||
Liberal Democrats hold | Swing | +1.8 |
See also[]
Notes and references[]
- Notes
- ^ A county constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
- ^ As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
- References
- ^ "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
- ^ a b 2010 post-revision map non-metropolitan areas and unitary authorities of England
- ^ "Lib Dem MP Browne to stand down". October 15, 2014 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ "New Parliamentary Constituencies for England SN/PC/04297" (PDF). House of Commons Library. 5 November 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
- ^ "Election 2010: Conservative target seats". BBC News. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ "Election 2010: UK, England, South West, Taunton Deane". BBC News. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ Unemployment claimants by constituency The Guardian
- ^ "Taunton Deane". Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
- ^ "Statement of Persons Nominated" (PDF).
- ^ BBC Election Results 2019 GE https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000988
- ^ "General Election 2017: these are the Taunton Deane candidates". somersetlive.co.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
- ^ "Taunton Deane". BBC. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
- ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ^ "Taunton Deane Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
- ^ James, P (20 April 2010). "Statement of Persons Nominated & Notice of Poll" (PDF). Acting Returning Officer, Taunton Deane Borough Council. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
Sources[]
- Parliamentary constituencies in Somerset
- Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 2010
- Taunton Deane
- Taunton