Bassetlaw
2010 Results:
Conservative: 16803 (33.89%)
Labour: 25018 (50.46%)
Liberal Democrat: 5570 (11.24%)
UKIP: 1779 (3.59%)
Independent: 407 (0.82%)
Majority: 8215 (16.57%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 25057 (51%)
Conservative: 16932 (34.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 6828 (13.9%)
Other: 304 (0.6%)
Majority: 8126 (16.5%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 12010 (29.8%)
Labour: 22847 (56.6%)
Liberal Democrat: 5485 (13.6%)
Majority: 10837 (26.9%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 11758 (30.2%)
Labour: 21506 (55.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 4942 (12.7%)
Other: 689 (1.8%)
Majority: 9748 (25.1%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 11838 (24.7%)
Labour: 29298 (61.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 4950 (10.3%)
Referendum: 1838 (3.8%)
Majority: 17460 (36.4%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Current MP: John Mann(Labour) Born 1960, Leeds. Educated at Bradford Grammar School and Manchester University. Former trade union officer. Former Lambeth councillor. MP for Bassetlaw since 2001 (more information at They work for you)
Keith Girling (Conservative) Born 1959, Nottingham. Educated at Manvers Pierrepont Comprehensive. Former non-commissioned officer in the Grenadier Guards. Nottinghamshire county councillor.John Mann(Labour) Born 1960, Leeds. Educated at Bradford Grammar School and Manchester University. Former trade union officer. Former Lambeth councillor. MP for Bassetlaw since 2001 (more information at They work for you)
David Dobbie (Liberal Democrat) Supply teacher. Contested Bassetlaw 2005.
Andrea Hamilton (UKIP) Grahame Whitehurst (Independent)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 98891
Male: 49.2%
Female: 50.8%
Under 18: 22.7%
Over 60: 21.6%
Born outside UK: 2.5%
White: 98.7%
Black: 0.2%
Asian: 0.4%
Mixed: 0.5%
Other: 0.2%
Christian: 81.7%
Full time students: 2.2%
Graduates 16-74: 13.6%
No Qualifications 16-74: 35.4%
Owner-Occupied: 70.7%
Social Housing: 20.3% (Council: 18.3%, Housing Ass.: 1.9%)
Privately Rented: 6.2%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 4.5%
I think you would also need Evrton ward from that year:
Con 484
BNP 177
Lab 154
Thanks Pete (I knew you’d have the info somewhere).
I was curious as to how strong an area Langold was for Labour. I’ve never heard it described as industrial area and it’s the sort of place in Bassetlaw (or just to the west in Rother Valley) which has swung strongly Conservative recently.
It is a large majority for such a small place, perhaps the Labour councillor had a significant personal vote. I’ll have to drive through Langold when I’m next in the area.
Can you tell me if the Notts county council wards match exactly to Bassetlaw constituency? I noticed there was a Tuxford ward – hopefully this will include all the parts not in the constituency.
Interestingly in 2005 Labour won 7 out of the 9 Bassetlaw wards. I wonder what the odds would be for a Conservative clean sweep next year?
I think probalbly not a clean sweep but Consertiave gains in Retord E, Retford W, Worksop NW and Worksop W, contributing the tally that will deliver Nottinghamshire county council frome labour to Conservative control
The Tuxford county dvision inclueds all those parts of Bassetlaw distrcit which are not in this constiuency with the eexception of Sturton ward which is.
So we’ll still not be able to get a definitive constituency total!
Blyth and Harworth ward only had a Labour majority of 270 in 2005. I found this surprisingly low. Does this division include other Bassetlaw wards such as Beckingham and Ranskill?
It contains the Blyth, Harwothy and Langold wards. It was marginal in2005 against an Independdent candidate but surely a Consevative could not in in thatr particfular Ed
Tories will take contorl of Nottinghamire next tyear wiyhthout a doubt
As dURHAM had unitary eelctin sthis nyear there is not a sinlge sdhire countyu that Labour will hold next year. sTAFFS and notts and Lancs wil go straigjt to Topry control, Dderbyshire will go NOC.
The last time I checked, Staffordshire county council had a Labour majority of 1 seat which is dependent on a 90 vote majority in Lichfield City North. I don’t expect them to hold that seat next time.
I wouldn’t rule out Conservatives gains in the other Bassetlaw wards if the BNP stand. They could really cut into parts of the Labour vote that the Conservatives can’t get as they have done in Maltby to the west.
The family of Clifford Entwistle, a Labour councillor for Worksop East ward, have been prominent in the news recently.
I keep going through Retford. But have never got out.
I think the Tories might be able to win here now actually, but it’s only looked credible relatively recently.
It does amaze me how far north it is – technically Midlands because it’s Notts.
JJB
For a while I thought you had never managed to leave Retford and were continually driving around having some Kafkaesque experience
Bassetlaw does feel very northern and probably has more in common with South Yorkshire (from where many of it’s newer inhabitants originate) than with the rest of Nottinghamshire (Newark excepted). It is the same NHS trust as Doncaster and also shares a radio station with Doncaster. I think the NCB adminsitered the Bassetlaw mines as part of Yorkshire area as well. The road and rail links head north to Doncaster and south to London but miss Nottingham.
It was once suggested that Bassetlaw, Doncaster, Goole and the Epworth area (effectively the area between the Don and the Trent) should become an administrative area.
That’s a useful description….It looks rather gaunt from the railway, but I believe it’s fairly attractive (found some photos). It does feel like it rolls into Doncaster somewhat, as a kind of gateway to the north.
There is a very mysterious small line which starts at Doncaster and goes to Hull (away from the mainline via Selby) and seems to go through this deserted flat area before arriving at Goole.
I guess the suggested local authority Richard mentioned was a unitary idea?
A brief excursion into history: Retford, under its historic name of East Reford, caused a historic rupture in the Duke of Wellington’s government in 1828. The winning candidates in the 1826 GE were unseated the following year after an extensive inquiry revealed that the election had been marked by bribery and corruption on a considerable scale; the members for Penryn in Cornwall were disbarred for similar reason. Under pressure from the Canningite Tories and Whigs in the government, who were pro-reform, the government decided to not just unseat the members, but to reform the seats entirely. The reformers wanted the seats to be given to unrepresented towns; but, because the House of Lords was opposed to anything that smacked of electoral reform, a compromise was arranged which would see Penryn merged with the unrepresented Falmouth, and its extra seat given to Manchester; while East Retford would be enlarged to include the whole wapentake of Bassetlaw, rather than Birmingham, as the reformers wanted.
However, the Lords decided to reject Penryn’s disenfranchisment. William Husskunson (the then leader of the Canningite Tories, who famously became the first person to die in a railway accident two years later), voted against the government’s proposal for East Retford and offered his resignation to Wellington, who accepted it; the leading pro-reformers resigned too, including two future PMs in Palmerston and the soon-to-be Lord Melbourne.
As a result, a temporary split in Tory ranks became permanent; it became certain that any future Whig-dominated government would attempt to carry a radical Reform Bill, whatever the Lords thought; and a ministerial by-election in Clare involving a newly promoted replacement, Vesey Fitzgerald, led to Fitzgerald’s defeat by Daniel O’Connell, and Wellington and Peel’s decision to concede Catholic Emancipation, which split the Tories into three bitterly opposed groups incapable of forming a united government.
Apart from these historic events, the East Retford compromise solution went through, ensuring this constituency, in essentials, has kept broadly the shape it has held ever since, even after being renamed Bassetlaw in 1885.