Dewsbury
2010 Results:
Conservative: 18898 (34.99%)
Labour: 17372 (32.17%)
Liberal Democrat: 9150 (16.94%)
BNP: 3265 (6.05%)
Green: 849 (1.57%)
English Democrat: 661 (1.22%)
Independent: 3813 (7.06%)
Majority: 1526 (2.82%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 19202 (42.1%)
Conservative: 14279 (31.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 6104 (13.4%)
Other: 6060 (13.3%)
Majority: 4924 (10.8%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 11192 (29%)
Labour: 15807 (41%)
Liberal Democrat: 5624 (14.6%)
BNP: 5066 (13.1%)
Green: 593 (1.5%)
Other: 313 (0.8%)
Majority: 4615 (12%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 11075 (30.2%)
Labour: 18524 (50.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 4382 (12%)
UKIP: 478 (1.3%)
Green: 560 (1.5%)
BNP: 1632 (4.5%)
Majority: 7449 (20.3%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 12963 (30.1%)
Labour: 21286 (49.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 4422 (10.3%)
Referendum: 1019 (2.4%)
Other: 3385 (7.9%)
Majority: 8323 (19.3%)
Boundary changes: Major. The old Dewsbury constituency was relatively tightly drawn around Dewsbury and was almost entirely urban. The new seat loses the town of Heckmondwike to Batley and Spen, while gaining the large rural wards of Kirkburton and Denby Dale to the South from Wakefield.
Profile: Dewsbury is an industrial former textile town in West Yorkshire. It has a significant Asian population which is largely concentrated in the old textile areas like Savile Town which is overwhelmingly Muslim and home to the Markazi Mosque, run by Tablighi Jamaat and one of the largest in Europe. The Asian community in Dewsbury has historically been largely Pakistani and Indian, but there have in recent years been some strife between the existing Pakistani community and the rising Kurdish population. Other areas, like the Chickenley council estate to the east, are largely white and have been fertile ground for the BNP, who secured one of their highest shares of the vote here at the 2005 general election and presently have 1 councillor in Dewsbury East, though they lose their strongest area to Batley and Spen on the new boundaries.
The seat has been Labour since the 1920s, with the exception of the Conservative landslide of 1983. However, Malik`s predecessor Ann Taylor won by only small majorities in 1987 and 1992 and this is not the short of industrial stronghold that would vote Labour regardless. The boundary changes, most notably the addition of the villages in Kirkburton and Denby Dale wards, make the seat slightly more winnable for the Conservatives.
Current MP: Simon Reevell (Conservative) Born Yorkshire. Barrister, specialising in criminal law. First elected as MP for Dewsbury in 2010.
Simon Reevell (Conservative) Born Yorkshire. Barrister, specialising in criminal law. 
Shahid Malik(Labour) born 1967, Burnley. Educated at London South Bank University. Former chief exectuive of Haringey Regeneration Agency. First elected as MP for Dewsbury in 2005, then one of only two British-born Muslims to be elected to Parliament. Parliamentary Under-secretary of State in the Department of International Development since 2007 (more information at They work for you)
Andrew Hutcheson (Liberal Democrat)
Adrian Cruden (Green) Personnel manager. Contested Bury South 1992.Roger Roberts (BNP) Michael Felse (English Democrat)
Khizar Iqbal (Independent) Formerly ran a dairy business. Kirklees councillor, originally elected as a Conservative in 1998.2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 102510
Male: 48.7%
Female: 51.3%
Under 18: 25.5%
Over 60: 18.3%
Born outside UK: 7.5%
White: 85.3%
Black: 0.3%
Asian: 13.3%
Mixed: 0.9%
Other: 0.2%
Christian: 67.6%
Muslim: 12.1%
Full time students: 4.8%
Graduates 16-74: 16.2%
No Qualifications 16-74: 34.3%
Owner-Occupied: 70.9%
Social Housing: 18.5% (Council: 16.3%, Housing Ass.: 2.1%)
Privately Rented: 6.5%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 23.1%
…in fact, as far as I can see, the 2004 Boundary change between Kirkburton and Denby Dale involved the loss of Shepley (a village area) to Kirkburton.
If anything I imagine this should have actually served to weaken the Conservatives in DD ward post 2004 (I assume Denby Dale itself and Clayton West are the best bits of DD ward for Labour), and if so would underline the trend I alluded to above.
…meant Shelley!!
“Whether you like Malik or not I can guarantee you this is bollocks. Those riots were stoked up by the BNP and NF.”
Were you a member of the BNP/NF in Burnley in those days?
If not then how do you know?
“The defeat of Shahid Malik was one of the highlights of the election for me.”
Like HH I found this result particularly satisfying.
That Malik took defeat so badly was the icing on the cake.
I don’t remember seeing his reaction. Will have to look out for it on Andy’s Youtube
His longwinded speech wasn’t shown on the BBC election programme. It is available elsewhere online but I can’t immediately locate it.
The unfortunate thing was that the audience in Dewsbury were willing to allow Malik to talk for quite a time because he’d only just lost his seat but he managed to whine on for so long that eventually people lost patience and started barracking him.
Here’s the video:
h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyNgwAAxdYc&
he was saying a spoiler candidate was put up against him
and that’s why he lost,
and something about this was a victory and not a defeat or something or other,
yes,
It’s on a separate video, not the main program.
The self satisfied journalists would have been far too busy pontificating about what would happen after the election and about PR etc to notice any detail like that.
“The self satisfied journalists would have been far too busy pontificating about what would happen after the election and about PR etc to notice any detail like that.”
Quite. And what a contrast between the way so much detail was overlooked in 2010 and the way almost every single result was examined in the February 1974 by David Butler and Alistair Burnet.
Exactly – a shame we can’t get people like that back again to do the job properly.
I agree.
For example Solihull was one of the most looked-forward to results this year for anyone interested in British elections, but Nick Robinson’s response to the result in the studio was to say something like: “most people watching probably aren’t interested in these late results”.
There was quite a good bit on the Midlands today program which was on the Friday daytime bit, which your U -tube switched to (perhaps because you’re in the Midlands?) and it showed quite a lot of anxious faces with blue and yellow rosettes all mixed up, watching the Solihull recount.
The people who did that bit of the program did some quite good analysis, if not the Butler/Burnet/Mackenzie standard.
I have to say that, since this was only the second time since WWII that Labour had lost Dewsbury, it can only be seen as a defeat, irrespective of boundary changes, spoiler candidates etc. (In 1983 the sitting MP stood for the SDP helping let Conservative John Whitfield in.) Mailk should have cut the excuses in his speech.
Malik has only himself to blame by behaving as the sterotypical sleezy Asian politician.
It’s revealing that highly regarded Labour MPs in Halifax and Batley did well and that there was a big swing in Keighley when the highly regarded Ann Cryer stood down.
The Labour vote here has fallen from 50% in pre-Malik 2001 to 32% after Malik had worked his magic.
Somewhat unfortunate tone in that, to say the least. There are plenty of sleazy politicians of all races in this country, and plenty of unsleazy Asian politicians too. What is interesting is that the members you mention above are or were all left-wing rebels.
“Somewhat unfortunate tone in that, to say the least.”
Why?
“There are plenty of sleazy politicians of all races in this country, and plenty of unsleazy Asian politicians too.”
True and true and when did I say different?
But that doesn’t alter the impression of Malik being sleezy and willing to be divisive if it suited his own ends and of wanting to concentrate only on his own supporters.
“What is interesting is that the members you mention above are or were all left-wing rebels.”
Perhaps because voters prefer politicians who appear more ‘real world’ and/or willing to stand up for their own beliefs.
Wonder if there was any truth in Malik’s allegations about the independent.
I didn’t quite hear what he was saying because he’s pretty illegible,
and people were shouting by that stage.
If ones does want to put up a spoiler candidate against someone, and does it successsfully, then presumably the full details are kept secret.
Not that I would recommend doing this of course,
and not that I know whether this happened or not.
Not really about Dewsbury (at least the declaration was shown) but I totally agree with the above comments about how poor the coverage was with the stupid celebs’ boat etc. compared with the detailed analysis in the old broadcasts. It seems from about 1983 onwards they stopped commenting on individual results.
It was crap.
After about 5 hours of chit chat I just put the computer on and started looking up the results.
Actually Sky was better for interviews,
but the BBC better for raw information when they could be bothered.
The BBC in particular need to look at the quality of their coverage,
and how they’ve let it deteriorate in 2005 and 2010.
because for a key election where the government changed or was at stake, that was very poor coverage indeed.
They did analyse the seats quite well in 1992.
In 2010 they seemed to make the classic political gossipers mistake thinking that people up at that time of the night want speculation about how the parties will react to the result,
and not raw facts and anecdotes from counts etc which is the job of an election night.
The BBC even ditched the classic theme tune which had introduced every election night programme since Noah were a lad.
The only remaining good thing about BBC election night coverage is David Dimbleby. When he’s gone it will be completely crap. As Joe says, the rot really set in in 2001-5, especially when they replaced the marvellous Peter Snow with the vacuous Jeremy Vine.
I like Jeremy Vine in other programmes but he has been a disaster on election nights even if he did tone down a bit on the cowboy outfits and break-=dancing Ming Campbells. The worst of it was undoubtedly the entirely pointless party with Andrew Neil sucking up to a bunch of irrelevant ‘celebs’. I think he should have just f***d of to Annabelle’s with them and left the rest of us out of it
Today’s powers-that-be in the BBC need to watch Andy’s YouTube videos (and “themanknownas”) and see how the job was done in the days of David Butler and Robert MacKenzie.
I also like Cliff Michelmore in 1970 – he put humour and enthusiasm into his role as presenter. He’s still around today, in his nineties now.
Yes I was pleased to see he’s still alive – I Googled him after the 1970 program as you probably did the same.
Angela Rippon and Sue Lawley did a good job in 1979 aswell.
All the presenters then did offer a little bit of political speculation aswell – but they knew how to limit it given the main job at hand, which is reporting results.
Also, when they did offer an opinion, it was somehow more interesting aswell.
Cliff Michelmore also presented the 1966 broadcast.
Being able to see the shows on YouTube means people can easily compare the different programmes and see how things have either improved or – more often – gone downhill over the years.
{For those who are interested, someone has sent me a message on YouTube offering to send me the October 1974 show soon}.
I think also we’ve lost Robin Day.
He used to do the political implications in his own style, and
the others would be more to do with results.
Obviously, sadly some of these people are no longer alive, and that is not the fault of the people there now,
but they do need to look at how it was better done by others.
Yes, Sir Robin passed away in 2000. Peter Sissons took over his role in 1992.
Both rather less confrontational than Jeremy Paxman.
The Ind PPC & Cllr here has rejoined the Tories.
“The Ind PPC & Cllr here has rejoined the Tories.”
No surprise there.
It always looked like a tactic to damage Malik.
He took his decapitation with good grace.
The effect of this Independent isn’t totally obvious to me on the outside.
If it was, lets face it, a successful Tory attempt to take votes from Malik it could be many of those would otherwise have gone to him.
However, the Labour vote, though down 9.9%, it’s not actually a catastrophic performance.
And if this Independent was actually known for being a right winger, could it actually have taken some Tory votes aswell?
Demographics Joe, demographics.
Who do you think voted for Dewsbury South councillor Khizar Iqbal?
And who do you think these people might have voted for otherwise?
That Conservative councillor was elected in 2008.
Given there was a huge swing from Labour to Conservative in this ward from 2010 to 2011 (against the national trend) it would suggest there’s a block vote in at least part of the Asian community.
I’m a bit baffled with what you say about demographics, Richard, although I would guess that otherwise, this is the kind of area which would show a WWC swing.
sorry Richard, I’m missing something vital.
This Tory councillor was the Independent Candidate in 2010 GE.
Well, obviously that may have looked very blatant but couldn’t it actually therefore have taken some of the Tory vote as I said?
Joe
Certainly some of Khizar Iqbal’s 2010 vote would have come from people who would have otherwise have voted Conservative.
I suspect though that they were outnumbered by Asian voters who preferred the more respectable and local of the two Asian candidates.
Now who would they have voted for if there had been only a single Asian candidate?
I’m really not sure – but this is an interesting test.
You don’t still think they would have voted for Malik, if they had felt that off put by him do you?
Anne Taylor was quite a right wing Labour MP.
At the time of Taylor’s retirement, the NEC took an exception to its usual practice and gave Dewsbury CLP an open shortlist.
Malik himself didn’t have a chance in Burnley (where he’s from) because an AWS was imposed but things didn’t turn out well for Labour even there (and Malik could have lost that one too in 2010)
He might, but had he been selected there, he wouldn’t have been involved in the expenses scandal as Kitty Ussher was, and as an incumbent without such baggage he would have had a very good chance of holding on.
Why would he not have had that baggage if he had become MP for Burnley rather than Dewsbury? Was his expenses fiddling purely a result of the seat he represented?
Dewsbury & Wakefield West (Dewsbury E & S, Ossett, Horbury & Ossett S, Wakefield N & W) should be a decent Tory seat – though it may go Labour if they win a healthy overall majority
Actually, looks like D&WW would be a Labour notional maj. Mirfield would perhaps be more promising for the blues
Well of the two Dewsbury wards, o0ne is Labour and one Tory. The two Ossett wards are marginal (Ossett itself Lab/Con marginal with Horbury & Ossett S going that way after the Tories ousted the Lid Bems during the last cycle). Wakefield West has been Tory for ages, though it was very close last year, and Wakefield North is Labour but the Tories were improving steadily there before the last election. Probably something of a bellweather
2010 locals aggregated result for D&WW wards have Labour around 3,300 voters ahead (7% lead) while Conservatives were leading in Mirfield (I checked it last night and I didn’t save the figures but it was somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000)
What’s the story behind Dewsbury South local results?
It looks unusual – Labour won one of the DS seats in 2006 and held it in 2010, but the Tories hold the other two and won a pretty decent majority (almost 700) in May
Asian personality politics. This is the ward of Khizar Iqbal is it not
UKPR notional result for the proposed Mirfield constituency:
Con: 19,493
Lab: 18,718
LD: 8,235
BNP: 3,436
Con maj: 774 (1.5%)