Amber Valley
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 20153 (47.7%)
Conservative: 14086 (33.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 5068 (12%)
Other: 2963 (7%)
Majority: 6068 (14.4%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 16318 (34.4%)
Labour: 21593 (45.6%)
Liberal Democrat: 6225 (13.1%)
BNP: 1243 (2.6%)
UKIP: 788 (1.7%)
Other: 1224 (2.6%)
Majority: 5275 (11.1%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 15874 (35.7%)
Labour: 23101 (51.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 5538 (12.4%)
Majority: 7227 (16.2%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 18330 (33.5%)
Labour: 29943 (54.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 4219 (7.7%)
Referendum: 2283 (4.2%)
Majority: 11613 (21.2%)
Boundary changes: the original boundary commission proposals had abolished the Amber Valley seat, moving Heanor to a new North Derby seat with Belper forming a new Belper and Ripley constituency. At review stage the Labour party`s alternative proposals which kept Amber Valley were accepted and the new Amber Valley seat loses Crich ward to Derbyshire Dales and two Erewash wards to the new Mid Derbyshire seat.
Profile: The Amber Valley constituency covers the towns of Alfreton, Ripley and Heanor and the surrounding countryside. All three towns are former coal mining areas and tend to vote Labour, but the more Conservative rural sections of the seat balance this out to an extent, making the seat a marginal.
Current MP: Judy Mallaber (Labour) born 1951. Educated at St Anne`s College Oxford. Worked as research officer for NUPE and at the local government information unit (more information at They work for you)
Candidates: 
Nigel Mills (Conservative) Works for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Amber Valley councillor. He was the partner of Gillian Shaw, the Conservative candidate in 2001 and 2005 who died in 2006.
Tom Snowdon (Liberal Democrat) Born Hartlepool. Educated at Brinkburn Grammer School and Wolverhampton University. Chartered engineer. Contested Derbyshire North East 2005.
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 84080
Male: 48.8%
Female: 51.2%
Under 18: 21.9%
Over 60: 21.6%
Born outside UK: 1.7%
White: 99.2%
Asian: 0.3%
Mixed: 0.4%
Christian: 75%
Full time students: 1.8%
Graduates 16-74: 11.7%
No Qualifications 16-74: 37.3%
Owner-Occupied: 75.8%
Social Housing: 15.5% (Council: 12.6%, Housing Ass.: 2.9%)
Privately Rented: 5.3%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 6.8%
The House of Representatives seems to be more focused on party voting whereas the Senate is more of a personal vote. For example the Republicans have just lost all their seats in the 6 New England states, but Maine continued to elect a Republican senator.
“The House of Representatives seems to be more focused on party voting whereas the Senate is more of a personal vote”
Not necessarily, for example the representatives from both North and South Dakota are Democrats despite both states being quite Republican in presidential elections.
Normally, both representatives and senators from parties that are not the dominating party in a state get elected by repudiating their party’s national platform - ie. the Republican senators in Maine run as moderates, while Democratic senator Nelson from Nebraska is more conservative than many Republicans.
Small states, especially in the mountain west, have a tradition of electing representatives and senators from both parties to have influence within both party delegations.
Just had a look at the Euro election results for Amber Valley. The conservative eurosceptic parties got 50.4% of the vote. The socialist parties got 33.2% and LibDems/Greens/Jury Team got 16.3 %. There’s no way the conservatives would get 50.4% at a GE but them seem to have a very real chance of winning.
In the Euros quite a lot of the UKIP support around here came from traditional Labour voters like my grandmother.
The Tories won’t win 50% here but it’s looking likely they will win the seat.
81% for the main parties here, even in 2005.
A sensible lot.
I used to ignorantly think Ilkeston was in this seat - until around the time Angela Knight was MP for Erewash.
I think it’s because I knew someone from the area, and he would describe Ilkeston and Amber Valley a lot in the same sentence.
Amber Valley was the successor seat to the old Ilkeston and took the majority of its electorate - basically all of it bar Ilkeston itself. Actually on the new boundaries it is even more similar as some areas that were added on in 1983 from the old Belper and Derbyshire SE seats are now removed to Derbyshire Mid, but ofcourse it still doesnt include Ilkeston
Am I right in thinking that the 1983 changes basically took the Belper, SE Derbyshire and Ilkeston seats and rotated their boundaries round anti-clockwise so that they metamorphosed into South Derbyshire, Erewash and Amber Valley respectively, except that Belper was moved into West Derbyshire? I realize, obviously, that one reason for this would have been to align the seats with new-ish district council boundaries.