Cannock Chase
2015 Result:
Conservative: 20811 (44.2%)
Labour: 15888 (33.7%)
Lib Dem: 1270 (2.7%)
Green: 906 (1.9%)
UKIP: 8224 (17.5%)
MAJORITY: 4923 (10.5%)
Category: Semi-marginal Conservative seat
Geography: West Midlands, Staffordshire. Consists of the Cannock Chase council area.
Main population centres: Cannock, Rugeley.
Profile: Cannock Chase itself is an area of woodland and heathland, the smallest designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in mainland Britain. The constituency consists of the two towns either side of the Chase - Cannock to the south and Rugeley to the north. Cannock was a coal mining town in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, but the industry is now long gone and Cannock has become an increasingly affluent commuter area for the Metropolitian West Midlands area to the south. Rugeley too is a former mining town, with Lea Hall Colliery closing in 1990..
Politics: Cannock Chase was a surprise gain for the Conservatives in 2010. Previously it had been a relatively safe Labour seat with a majority in excess of 20% in the 1997, 2001 and 2005 elections, but Aiden Burley won the seat with a swing of 14%, one of the largest from Labour to the Conservatives in any contest in 2010. Burley had only a short Parliamentary career, standing down in 2015 following criticism for attending a stag party where guests dressed in Nazi uniform, but the Conservatives managed to hold onto the seat without him in 2015.
| Con: | 18271 (40%) |
| Lab: | 15076 (33%) |
| LDem: | 7732 (17%) |
| BNP: | 2168 (5%) |
| Oth: | 2312 (5%) |
| MAJ: | 3195 (7%) |
| Con: | 12912 (30%) |
| Lab: | 22139 (51%) |
| LDem: | 5934 (14%) |
| UKIP: | 2170 (5%) |
| MAJ: | 9227 (21%) |
| Con: | 12345 (30%) |
| Lab: | 23049 (56%) |
| LDem: | 5670 (14%) |
| MAJ: | 10704 (26%) |
| Con: | 14227 (27%) |
| Lab: | 28705 (55%) |
| LDem: | 4537 (9%) |
| Oth: | 3234 (6%) |
| MAJ: | 14478 (28%) |
*There were boundary changes after 2005
Just to say I’m not the Matt who predicted a Labour hold in 2010
Are you old enough to have been making predictions for 2010, Matt?
I wonder if the Tory majority increase in CC since 2010 has been improved anywhere else? It was 7% in 2010, and it’s now 42.9% – an increase of 35.9%, remarkably. Some of the seats Labour was targeting in 2015 (like this one) now look impossibly out of reach.
Lol in 2010 I was 17 campaigning for my mum in St Albans, I was sadly resigned to defeat
Roma Mills?
the very same
I assume she was and is married to your father, Mr Wilson? Interesting that some married women retain their maiden name (or maybe she had remarried) – our two female prime ministers obviously didn’t.
she was married but she never married my father. They might well have but he passed away 20 years ago now
Ah, I see. I wonder if Kerry Pollard approved!
I’ve no idea. I understand they used to go drinking together though I’ve been told he wanted someone else to stand in council elections for his seat rather than my father but i think that was just politics. But he was happy for his family to babysit when dad passed and mum was at meetings, and endorsed my campaign for youth rep so perhaps I wasn’t devil incarnate lol
The sins of the father and all that… or am I getting my religions mixed up? Lol.