Bristol West
2015 Result:
Conservative: 9752 (15.2%)
Labour: 22900 (35.7%)
Lib Dem: 12103 (18.8%)
Green: 17227 (26.8%)
UKIP: 1940 (3%)
Others: 296 (0.5%)
MAJORITY: 5673 (8.8%)
Category: Marginal Labour seat
Geography: South West, Avon. Part of the Bristol council area.
Main population centres: Bristol, Clifton.
Profile: Bristol West is focused upon the centre of Bristol, covering the city centre itself, the suburb of Clifton to the west and some of the inner city areas to the east of the city centre. It includes what were traditionally some of the more elegant and middle class areas of Bristol, with the large Victorian and Edwardian terraces of Clifton (now largely been broken up into flats), affluent leafy suburbs like Cotham, and some more deprived inner city areas like Easton and St Pauls which have suffered from drug and gang violence. It is very much the student seat in Bristol with around a quarter of the working-age population in full-time education. It is also the most ethnically diverse of the Bristol seats with a significant Afro-carribean community in the inner city wards.
Politics: Traditionally this was the Conservative seat in Bristol, containing its most middle-class areas. It was held by the party continuously for a century and was represented by a series of Conservative cabinet ministers including Michael Hicks-Beach, Oliver Stanley, Walter Monckton and William Waldegrave. A combination of boundary changes, a growing student population and the Tories woes in the 1990s (which saw them lose the previously safe seat to Labour) have seen the Conservatives replaced and eclipsed by the Liberal Democrats, who held the seat between 2005 and 2010. Following the Liberal Democrats own collapse, the seat has become a target for the Green party.
| Con: | 10169 (18%) |
| Lab: | 15227 (28%) |
| LDem: | 26593 (48%) |
| GRN: | 2090 (4%) |
| Oth: | 1268 (2%) |
| MAJ: | 11366 (21%) |
| Con: | 15429 (27%) |
| Lab: | 16859 (29%) |
| LDem: | 21987 (38%) |
| GRN: | 2163 (4%) |
| Oth: | 958 (2%) |
| MAJ: | 5128 (9%) |
| Con: | 16040 (29%) |
| Lab: | 20505 (37%) |
| LDem: | 16079 (29%) |
| GRN: | 1961 (4%) |
| Oth: | 1080 (2%) |
| MAJ: | 4426 (8%) |
| Con: | 20575 (33%) |
| Lab: | 22068 (35%) |
| LDem: | 17551 (28%) |
| Oth: | 1143 (2%) |
| MAJ: | 1493 (2%) |
*There were boundary changes after 2005
Thangham needs a shadow cabinet position, what a immense performance.
Thangam Debbonaire very nearly got the highest vote of any candidate in the country – remarkable in a seat which was considered by some to be vulnerable, and where labour had not achieved more than 37% of the vote until 2 years ago.
Her 47,213 votes was very narrowly exceeded by the 47,351 for George Howarth in Knowsley.
Out of well over 400 candidates, the Greens saved 8 deposits in England and Wales. Down from around 120 in 2015.
The Greens came 3rd in both Sheffield Central and here.
Debbonaire’s result was the third largest vote ever cast for a single parliamentary candidate – beaten only by Howarth and John Major in 1992 (48,662).
Howarth’s majority of 42,214 is the largest majority ever.
I do feel a little bit sorry for the Greens but at the end of the day it was pretty much inevitable they’d go backwards given the direction Lab has taken and the return of two party politics.
They can’t be too upset though, Caroline Lucas had a great result in Pavilion near doubling her already chunky majority. Unlikely to happen but given how pleased many of the Green candidates clearly where at Lab victories and the Greens obvious support for a progressive alliance I honestly don’t see why the Greens don’t form some kind of formal alliance with Lab where Lucas stands as a joint Lab/Green candidate and joins the shadow cabinet.
”I honestly don’t see why the Greens don’t form some kind of formal alliance with Lab where Lucas stands as a joint Lab/Green candidate and joins the shadow cabinet.”
Probably because it would have to involve Labour standing down for the Greens in some places even though Labour got more votes than the Greens everywhere bar Pavilion. Plus Lucas standing as a Lab/Green is starting to sound like effectively a merger of the two parties and I doubt most Green members want this.
Pepps
“Plus Lucas standing as a Lab/Green is starting to sound like effectively a merger of the two parties”
That’s is basically what I’m suggesting. Given that there are very few policy differences between the two parties and what differences there are (hard-line environmentalism, hard-line animal rights and a commitment to staying in the EU) are actually held beliefs by many in the Lab party including many in the PLP I really don’t see what’s separating us now other than tribalism.
The Greens might be suspicious that Labour won’t always have this political direction.
What might happen is what has happened in Scotland, where the Greens have unofficially become closely allied with the SNP, following the SNP line on the constitutional question, and barely even contested any seats on Thursday.