Grantham and Stamford
Notional 2005 Results:
Conservative: 20823 (46.1%)
Labour: 14187 (31.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 7643 (16.9%)
Other: 2472 (5.5%)
Majority: 6636 (14.7%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 22109 (46.9%)
Labour: 14664 (31.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 7838 (16.6%)
UKIP: 1498 (3.2%)
Other: 1038 (2.2%)
Majority: 7445 (15.8%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 21329 (46.1%)
Labour: 16811 (36.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 6665 (14.4%)
UKIP: 1484 (3.2%)
Majority: 4518 (9.8%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 22672 (42.8%)
Labour: 19980 (37.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 6612 (12.5%)
Referendum: 2721 (5.1%)
Other: 985 (1.9%)
Majority: 2692 (5.1%)
Boundary changes:
Profile: A large rural seat in southern Lincolnshire. Grantham and Stamford are at the extreme north and south of the seat, with a large swathe of agricultural countryside between them, dotted with small rural villages. The only other large settlement in the seat is the rapidly growing town of Bourne, situated at the west of the Lincolnshire Fens.
Politically Grantham is probably most widely associated with its most famous daughter, Margaret Thatcher, who grew up in the town and whose father Alfred owned a grocer`s shop in the town and served as mayor in 1945/6. However, Grantham itself is probably the most Labour part of the seat. The rural part of the seat and the historical town of Stamford though outweigh any Labour votes in Grantham and it is normally a safely Conservative seat. In 2007 the sitting Conservative MP Quentin Davies defected to the Labour party.
Current MP: Quentin Davies(Lab) born 1944, Oxford. Educated at Leighton Park School and Cambridge University. Former diplomat and director of Morgan Grenfell. Contested Birmingham Ladywood by-election for the Conservative party in 1977. First elected as Conservative MP for Stamford and Spalding in 1987. Served as a PPS to Angela Rumbold in the 1980s. In opposition he served as a Conservative spokesman on social security, treasury and defence prior to being appointed as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary in 2001. He returned to the backbenches in 2003. A noted pro-European, he supported Kenneth Clarke in the Conservative leadership elections of 2001 and 2005. In June 2007 he crossed the floor to join the Labour party, citing unhappiness with David Cameron`s leadership of the party. He has said he will not contest Grantham and Stamford at the next election (more information at They work for you)
Candidates: 
Nick Boles (Conservative) Educated at Winchester and Oxford University. Founder and chairman of a decorating supplies company, former director of Policy Exchange. Westminster councillor 1998-2002. Contested Hove 2005. Announced his intention to seek the Conservative nomination for London mayor in 2007, but later stepped down from the contest having been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Mark Bartlett (Labour) Grantham branch president of the GMB.
Harrish Bisnauthsing (Liberal Democrat) born Mauritius. Former engineer in the RAF. Computer hardware consultant. South Kesteven district councillor. 
Christopher Robinson (BNP) Born Ingoldsby. Educated at the Kings school. Former Director of a shipping company.
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 94002
Male: 48.9%
Female: 51.1%
Under 18: 23.4%
Over 60: 21.7%
Born outside UK: 4.6%
White: 98.4%
Black: 0.2%
Asian: 0.5%
Mixed: 0.5%
Other: 0.4%
Christian: 81.5%
Full time students: 2%
Graduates 16-74: 16.6%
No Qualifications 16-74: 28.2%
Owner-Occupied: 72.8%
Social Housing: 15.8% (Council: 14.1%, Housing Ass.: 1.7%)
Privately Rented: 7.7%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 5%
Not sour grapes at all Barnaby. I remember Quentin Davies as Shadow Treasury Minister launching some highly personal attacks on Gordon Borwn’s ability to run the economy, yet now it seems he thinks the exact opposite.
He is a hypocrite and a liar-and worse than that he has poor judgement and must be secretly kicking himself to have joined the Labour Party at the exact moment the party dissapears down the plug hole.
He doesn’t even have the guts to face his own electorate of over 20 years standing, and trust them to make the right decision on polling day.
Labour are very welcome to him.
But my comment was perfectly valid in fact Barnaby. I want to know his chances of Labour getting him a safe seat, or failing that the chances of his nomination for a peerage being blockedby Cameron.
If you don’t like the tone of my comments, and if you really only want to read things that say how wonderful Labour is, perhaps you should not read them and then YOU may become a more interesting contributor to the site!
In fact though, it is something of a problem for the site in general isn’t it. We are expected to discuss elections in which party politics is the key in a way that is as apolitical as possible. Furthermore, for the VERY long period inbetween elections in which there is nothing of interest going on in most constituencies, we seem to spend much of our time consumed with trivia-whether such and such a constituencies boundary was 5 metres further to the left in 1885.
Personally, I welcome some colour and controversy-to a point.
“Of course he’s a “pillock” because he defected from the Tories. Sour grapes leave a nasty taste don’t they”
I dont know. I would not say Shaun Woodward was a pillock. He was certainly a cynical opportunist and strikes me as a pretty unpleasant man all round. Alan Howarth on the other hand, though I would stop short of describing his actions as honourable, appeared to have undergone a genuine political conversion over time. He was not a pillock.
Quentin Davies does though cut a singularly ridiculous figure with both the manner and timing of his defection. Watching him deliver a speech to the Labour party conference about the minimum wage, it was apparent from the smirks on the faces of many of the delegates listening that they thought likewise
I did hear he might have got Wolverhampton NE.
How about parachuting him in as a last-minute replacement for Hazel in Salford and Eccles?
But seriously, I think he is exactly the sort of mid-term defector who the Labour Party will have been glsd to have at the time but they will be eqiuallypleased to see the back of him after the next election. Don’t know whether huge efforts will be made to find him an ultra-safe seat
Shaun its worth remembering that both the named towns of this constituency were two member borough divisions until 1868 when Stamford was reduced to a single member. There was also a county division of Lincolnshire South covering the hinterland (as well as other areas in Holland) which also returned two members.
After 1885 Stamford lost its borough constituency and instead gave it’s name to a county division of Lincolnshire which covers all of this constituency outside of Grantham. Grantham remained a borough constituency returning a single member until 1918. Grantham retruned a LIberal more often than not between 1885 and 1910 while Stamford remained Unionist thoughout the period – even in 1906.
In 1918 the same fate befell Grantham borough as it was merged with the old Sleaford county division to form a new Grantham county division.
I defy you to tell me it is trivial that this area returned 6 members of Parliament only 150 years ago
I enjoyed that Pete.
I reiterate that whether Cameron does or doesn’t block Quentin Davies from getting a peerage isn’t really what this site is supposed to be about. I certainly don’t want the whole site to be taken up with posts saying how wonderful Labour are! That is a ludicrous caricature of what I think. There are all sorts of views represented here, and that’s the way it should be. Whether or not we regard a particular candidate as loathsome, fantastic, or a pillock only matters insofar as it has a bearing on the election. I find that there are a number of contributors here supporting parties other than my own, such as Pete, Joe James B, Andy Stidwell, Tim13 and plenty of others whose contributions are enlightening and of genuine interest. Even some of yours are from time to time, when you avoid personal attacks which are pointless and don’t help to add to our understanding of elections either nationwide or in a particular constituency. I happen to share much of your analysis Pete about Shaun Woodward, Quentin Davies and Alan Howarth, though it is clear that Woodward did start to have severe doubts about some aspects of Tory doctrine. Nevertheless what you say has much merit.
I was listening to him on BBC Breakfast this morning. It suddenly dawned on me that this politically right of centre, middle-class, well-spoken man is in the same belongs to the same political party as Dennis Skinner and John Prescott. : – )
I still remember when I heard he had dfected to Labour because I nearly fell off my chair because I’ve always thought of Davies as a staunch Tory. Never in a million years could I ahve imagined he’d join Labour.
Someone on here was suggesting that Sir Stuart Bell might be standing down soon and the party would then parachute Davies into his vacant seat of Middlesborough. Not sure how true this is though.
“we seem to spend much of our time consumed with trivia-whether such and such a constituencies boundary was 5 metres further to the left in 1885.
Personally, I welcome some colour and controversy-to a point.”
I have similar views to Shaun in this discussion. I’m not personally very interested in boundaries back in the nineteenth century (sorry Pete). Of course, that’s not say I don’t recognise that some people are interested in those things.
I’m just concerned with the boundary changes for the next election.
As for Quentin Davies… I have no problem with defectors per se, but his defection is an example of the worst type.
There are no apparent, genuine, firmly held values which have lead him to believe that he can no longer serve in a particular party… He appears simply to have thought himself worthy of more than ‘humble’ backbench MP status. Seeing as he wasn’t getting anywhere in his own party he had a very public hissy fit, declared himself enamoured with Brown, derided the party he had been an MP for for 20 years, and turned his back on those in the local association.
Can you really blame Shaun for calling him a ‘pillock’?
Christian. Intersting rumour re: Sir Stuart, though I’d be a little surprised if he did reitre. I thought he always seemed quite content with being an MP. Of course, he is getting on a bit.
If Labour Party HQ try to foist Quentin Davies onto a safe seat, with his image and Tory background they are going to encounter considerable local hostility. It would have to be somewhere VERY safe. Electoral Calculus is currently predicting that Labour are 28% ahead in Middlesborough, so that would just about do. Davies might well reduce the seat to a marginal, though.
After Alan Howarth and Shaun Woodward, one wonders whether working class voters will ever learn not to vote for turncoat Tories. As an ex-Labour Party member I despair. Is there nobody left who even remembers 1931 as history?
The Labour vote in St Helens South in 2001 fell from 30,367 to 16,799, or in percentages from 68.6% to 49.7%. That was at a time when the Labour party were winning an overall majority of 167 of course. The collapse would probably be far worse than that now if Davies is parachuted in somewhere.