Castle Point
2010 Results:
Conservative: 19806 (43.99%)
Labour: 6609 (14.68%)
Liberal Democrat: 4232 (9.4%)
BNP: 2205 (4.9%)
Others: 12174 (27.04%)
Majority: 7632 (29.31%)
2005 Results:
Conservative: 22118 (48.3%)
Labour: 13917 (30.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 4719 (10.3%)
Other: 5048 (11%)
Majority: 8201 (17.9%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 17738 (44.6%)
Labour: 16753 (42.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 3116 (7.8%)
UKIP: 1273 (3.2%)
Other: 883 (2.2%)
Majority: 985 (2.5%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 19489 (40.1%)
Labour: 20605 (42.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 4477 (9.2%)
Referendum: 2700 (5.6%)
Other: 1301 (2.7%)
Majority: 1116 (2.3%)
No Boundary Changes:
Profile: Castle Point is a South Essex seat on the Thames estuary, consisting of Canvey Island and the nearby towns of South Benfleet, Thundersley amd Hadleigh. The area expanded rapidly after the second world war as people moved out of London and it is a solid slice of owner-occupied, middle class commuterland (it has the highest rate of owner-occupation of any seat in the country). Canvey Island is a seaside resort, attached to the mainland by bridge. To the west of the island there are oil and gas terminals, but this too is now largely residential.
The seat is normally rock solid Conservative and the Tories enjoyed a majority of over 30% in 1992. It fell to Labour in 1997 on a massive swing but they held it for only a single Parliament, with Bob Spink managing to retake it in 2001, one of very few Tory MPs defeated in the 1997 landslide who managed to regain the seat they lost.
Current MP: Rebecca Harris (Conservative) Former special advisor to Tim Yeo.
Rebecca Harris (Conservative) Former special advisor to Tim Yeo.
Julian Ware-Lane (Labour) IT consultant and former civil servant. Local football referee. Contested Rayleigh 2005.
Brendan D`Cruz (Liberal Democrat) Educated at Plymouth University. Head of business and computing department at the University of Wales.
Philip Howell (BNP) Butcher.
Bob Spink (Independent Save our Green Belt) born 1948, Worth valley. Educated at Holycroft Secondary Modern and the University of Manchester, with a doctorate from Cranfield University. Former engineer, management consultant and director of Bournemouth airport. Essex county councillor 1985-1992 for the Conservative party. Conservative MP for Castle Point 1992-1997 and from 2001. Spink has a reputuation as a plain spoken, Yorkshireman who had taken a consistently right wing, and often controversial line. He is a supporter of the death penalty and opposed to Britain`s membership of the European Union. In 2005 he was criticised by political opponents for publishing an advert on immigration in his local party saying “What bit of `send them back` don`t you understand Mr Blair?”. Spink faced discord with his own local party, surviving a deselection attempt in 2005, accussing a local councillor of being a conduit for an illegal donation in 2007 and clashing with the local Tory council in 2008, finally leading to his departure from the Conservative party in March 2008. For a period he was described as a UKIP MP, though it is unclear whether he ever formally joined the party.2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 86608
Male: 48.9%
Female: 51.1%
Under 18: 21.9%
Over 60: 22.9%
Born outside UK: 2.8%
White: 98.2%
Black: 0.2%
Asian: 0.7%
Mixed: 0.6%
Other: 0.3%
Christian: 75.7%
Full time students: 1.6%
Graduates 16-74: 8.9%
No Qualifications 16-74: 33.2%
Owner-Occupied: 88.5%
Social Housing: 5.6% (Council: 4.3%, Housing Ass.: 1.3%)
Privately Rented: 4.4%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 3.4%
Bob Spink is standing under the party name of “Green Belt”.
CON HOLD (notionally – effective regain)
I wasn’t that far out with my prediction!
Bob Spink deserves real credit for getting 27% of the vote here. This is way better than most sacked/rebel MPs manage, at this or any other election. I’d guess this is the Canvey independents. Must be very frustrating to win all the seats on Canvey and know it makes no difference because the Tories win all the seats in Benfleet & Hadleigh and rule with no concern for Canvey. Perhaps Canvey should secede and join Kent!?
Ord perhaps canvey should elect Tories and realise that the Indepednents are useless if they can’t stand up for their community!
I agree that it was amazing Bob Spink polled so well. He should be pleased.
Nevertheless, he was never going to win, and he didn’t.
Very creditable result for Bob Spink polling 27%.
It looks like most of Mr Spink’s vote was ex-Labour – possibly tactical in the hope that the Tory vote would be more split than turned out to be the case?
Paul D – I disagree. Labour have been losing 3,000 votes here at the last 3 GEs. Spink obviously picked up a lot of Tory ie ‘his’ votes with some Labour voters switching to the Cameron Tory.