Hastings and Rye
2010 Results:
Conservative: 20468 (41.09%)
Labour: 18475 (37.09%)
Liberal Democrat: 7825 (15.71%)
BNP: 1310 (2.63%)
UKIP: 1397 (2.8%)
English Democrat: 339 (0.68%)
Majority: 1993 (4%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 18528 (40.7%)
Conservative: 17323 (38.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 7229 (15.9%)
Other: 2418 (5.3%)
Majority: 1205 (2.6%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 16081 (37.4%)
Labour: 18107 (42.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 6479 (15.1%)
Green: 1032 (2.4%)
UKIP: 1098 (2.6%)
Other: 207 (0.5%)
Majority: 2026 (4.7%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 15094 (36.6%)
Labour: 19402 (47.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 4266 (10.3%)
UKIP: 911 (2.2%)
Green: 721 (1.7%)
Other: 824 (2%)
Majority: 4308 (10.5%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 14307 (29.2%)
Labour: 16867 (34.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 13717 (28%)
Referendum: 2511 (5.1%)
Other: 1667 (3.4%)
Majority: 2560 (5.2%)
Boundary changes: Loses a small part of Rother Levels ward (the villages of Rye Foreign and Bowler`s Town) but gains the Brede Valley from Bexhill and Battle.
Profile: A seat on the south-east coast at the eastern end of Sussex. Hastings, Rye and small town of Winchelsea are all historic cinque ports. Hastings is naturally best known for the 1066 Battle of Hastings, though the site of the battle is actually in the neighbouring constituency of Bexhill & Battle. It was once an important fishing port (a fishing industry remains, but much reduced) but thrived as a victorian seaside resort. It met with the decline common to most such seaside resorts with the growth of foreign package holidays, falling into deprivation and decline, run down hotels becoming bedsits and accomodation for asylum seekers. More recently Hastings has begun to recover though regeneration and redevelopment projects.
Rye is another historic town and tourist centre, though more genteel with cobbled streets and medieval buildings. To it`s south east is the village of Camber and the brash holiday parks of Camber Sands.
This was an unusual Labour gain in 1997. The Liberal Democrats had been in second place in 1992 and it would have seemed more natural for them to benefit from the anti-Conservative tide. In the event it was the Labour party, possibly as a result of an opinion poll published in the Observer shortly before polling day showing the Labour party best placed to defeat the Conservatives in the seat.
Current MP: Amber Rudd (Conservative) Managing director of a recruitment and consultancy firm. Contested Liverpool Garston 2005.
Amber Rudd (Conservative) Managing director of a recruitment and consultancy firm. Contested Liverpool Garston 2005. 
Michael Jabez Foster(Labour) born 1946, Hastings. Educated at Hastings Grammar School and Leicester University. Solicitor, specialisting in employment law. Hastings councillor 1970-1977 and 1981-1985. East Sussex County councillor 1974-1997. Contested Hastings February 1974, October 1974, 1979. First elected as MP for Hastings and Rye 1997. PPS to the Attorney General 1999-2005. His unusual middle name is normally included to distinguish him from the other Michael Foster, the anti-fox hunting MP for Worcester who is disambiguated in his own way by being referred to as “Michael Foster Worcester” (more information at They work for you)
Nick Perry (Liberal Democrat) born 1976, St Helens. Educated at Cambridge University. Social worker.
Tony Smith (UKIP)Nick Prince (BNP)Rod Bridger (English Democrat)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 102075
Male: 47.8%
Female: 52.2%
Under 18: 22.8%
Over 60: 24.4%
Born outside UK: 5.3%
White: 97.3%
Black: 0.4%
Asian: 0.7%
Mixed: 1.2%
Other: 0.4%
Christian: 68.9%
Muslim: 0.7%
Full time students: 2.1%
Graduates 16-74: 14.6%
No Qualifications 16-74: 31.7%
Owner-Occupied: 65.8%
Social Housing: 15.1% (Council: 2.1%, Housing Ass.: 13.1%)
Privately Rented: 15.8%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 10.8%
‘I’m sure the old parliamentary constituency would have covered a much larger area surrounding the small town of Rye’
I think you’re right
From the map it looks as if the old Rye constituency covers much of what is Bexhill & Battle today – which has always been one of the Tories strongest seats in the UK – or at least it was until Greg Barker became its MP
Prior to 1983, Hastings of course had a seat of its own and a sign of its decline is that the seat always used to be safely Tory since the first world war
1966 result:
Con 40.3%
Lab 34.1%
Lib 25.6%
When the constituency included the town of Hastings only.
The 2009 local elections are also revealing when the two rural wards are omitted;
Con 8377
Lab 7241
LibD 4117
BNP 2149
Oth 1007
That’s a high BNP vote.
Thanet South is probably the seat in Kent nearest to Hastings in terms of demographic terms, and it exhibited a much larger swing to the Tories.
Dover is rather a one off seat, an ex-coal mining seat in the South East. Chatham probably groups with seats in places like Portsmouth and Southampton, although the naval dockyard closed too long ago to have much remaining political significance, particularly as other industry and commerce has to some extent come into Chatham.
With regard to Dover and Chatham, I agree it would have been a very uphill task for Labour to save them. But there were seats with smaller majorities which Labour did save. Despite having held marginal seats in Kent all the way between 1997 and 2010, Labour seemed to have little idea about developing policies for ordinary people there, and this was probably true in the South generally. In the South and East generally, I fear that too many people in the Labour Party seemed to think that the whole of the South East is stinking rich – which is certainly not true of Hastings.
Labour is in effect down to its 1980s levels in the South and East, outside London: the Conservatives do not have a majority because they have become unable to win sufficient seats in the North, Scotland and Wales.
The Conservative failure came in the cities and Scotland.
In particular middle class urban areas.
richard and frederic are both right
one look at the electoral map will show how dominant the tories are in england – especially the south and east (outside london of course) with labour going back to their 1980s levels of support
the lib dems are much more prominent – especially in the south west – but in general the tory performance in the shires wasn’t far off their general election winning campaigns of the thatcher and major governments
the tories massively underperformed in london, are still practically non-existant in scotland and despite their strong showing in recent local and european elections, they were unable to match their 1980s levels of support in Wales
but thet still could hasve won
their undoing was their poor showing in urban largely middle class areas away from the south east – seats they held (and usually quite comfortably) in the 1980s – cambridge, leeds north west, leeds north east, sheffield hallam, birmingham edgbaston, solihull, cheadle, york, exeter, hazel grove, tynemouth, nottingham south etc
had the tories won these seats they’d now be in downing street without the lib dems
The Tories main handicap apart from electoral bribery ? Gross over representation of Scotland Wales and urban areas.Labour bias 30+ seats
From the comments have any of you actually been to Hastings or are you just giving credence to Daily Mail style commentary?
What is clear is that H & R is a constituency of polarised parts, Hastings (which forms over 70% of the constituency and returned a Labour council and Labour won a by-election in June at the expense of the Tories, a seat Labour lost won in 2002 has tough social challenges, the in year budget cuts will not be well received in Hastings.
Rye, it self has a very strong Labour following; however the villages and the area surrounding Winchlesea are notably Conservative.
The BAG syndrome done for Foster in Hastings, BOUNDARY CHANGES, ASHCROFT (the level of funding was in evidence), GORDON
Speaking to Labour activists recently there tell me that since the removal of Brown as Labour, voters were flocking back as was evident in the swing of over 10% in the Ore by-election.
The Lib Dems are in serious difficulty locally, only one Councillor left and he only won on the toss of a coin in 2008. The Lib Dems polled 22% at the last election however it seems from speaking to many voters locally the Lib Dem is ebbing away.
I would anticipate that Labour will make further gains over the next couple of years and it would not surprise me if Labour takes the seat from the Conservatives at the next election, unless Amber Rudd pulls a few rabbits out of the bag!
Yes, 1066 Observer, I have been to Hastings – it is not that far away from me – but not often.
Your points are very interesting. They help explain what some other comments are missing – that whilst Labour lost the seat they actually had a good result in terms of swing. Particularly by comparison with other ex-Labour seats in the South East. Given Ashcroft money, this performance is the more impressive.
From Labour’s point of view, the question is what did they do here that they didn’t do in, say, Thanet South, as a result of which this seat remains a credible target, which, again for the sake of example, Thanet South is not. Labour cannot effectively exercise power with little support in the South and East.
The South Coast is not natural LibDem country. It is more surprising that they do well in Eastbourne than they do badly in Hastings.
P.S. Shawn Carter, my recollection, without looking up the figures, is that York was very marginal in the 1980s. It was held by the Tories between 1983 and 1992.
Yes, it was one of the closest results in 1987, when it was narrowly held by Conal Gregory for the Tories. However Hugh Bayley gained it by over 6,000 in 1992.
Conal Gregory actually held his vote at about 25,000 in 1992 but the LD vote declining and a higher turnout gave the seat to Labour quite easily.
The Wikipedia entry for Hugh Bayley, York’s MP from 1992, says that in 1987 he lost by 147 votes.
There was no sign of a Labour improvement in 1983, 1987 or 1992 in Hastings & Rye, probably because there was tactical voting – especially in 1987 – by Labour voters for the Liberal Alliance / LDs:
1983: 15.2%
1987: 13.1%
1992: 15.7%