Henley
2010 Results:
Conservative: 30054 (56.15%)
Labour: 5835 (10.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 13466 (25.16%)
BNP: 1020 (1.91%)
UKIP: 1817 (3.39%)
Green: 1328 (2.48%)
Majority: 16588 (30.99%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Conservative: 26326 (53.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 12667 (25.6%)
Labour: 7536 (15.3%)
Other: 2878 (5.8%)
Majority: 13659 (27.6%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 24894 (53.5%)
Labour: 6862 (14.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 12101 (26%)
Green: 1518 (3.3%)
UKIP: 1162 (2.5%)
Majority: 12793 (27.5%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 20466 (46.1%)
Labour: 9367 (21.1%)
Liberal Democrat: 12008 (27%)
UKIP: 1413 (3.2%)
Green: 1147 (2.6%)
Majority: 8458 (19%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 23908 (46.4%)
Labour: 11700 (22.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 12741 (24.7%)
Referendum: 2299 (4.5%)
Other: 895 (1.7%)
Majority: 11167 (21.7%)
Boundary changes: minor. Gains the ward of Kirtlington which was previously split between
Profile: A largely rural seat in south-east Oxfordshire, stretching from the hinterland of Reading in the south, to skirt around the eastern outskirts of Oxford. Henley-on-Thames itself is best known for the Henley Royal Regatta, the prestigious annual rowing event. The constituency also covers Thame, Goring, Sonning, Wheatley, Watlington and many other small villages dotted through the Oxfordshire countryside. Like the other rural seats in Oxfordshire, such as Wantage and Witney, it is a wealthy, affluent middle class area and strongly Conservative, although at a local level the Liberal Democrats have some support, particularly as you move away from the solidly Tory south of the seat and closer to Oxford itself.
Between 2001 and 2008 the seat has been represented by Boris Johnson, the somewhat eccentric and gaffe-prone journalist and television presenter. He suceeded the similarly high profile Michael Heseltine, the former Deputy Prime Minister and 1990 leadership challenger.
Current MP: John Howell(Conservative) Former partner at Ernst & Young and BBC World presenter. Oxfordshire county councillor. First elected as MP for Henley in the 2008 by-election. Awarded the OBE in 2000 for services to export in central and eastern Europe. (more information at They work for you)
John Howell(Conservative) Former partner at Ernst & Young and BBC World presenter. Oxfordshire county councillor. First elected as MP for Henley in the 2008 by-election. Awarded the OBE in 2000 for services to export in central and eastern Europe. (more information at They work for you)
Richard McKenzie (Labour) born London. Educated at Reading University. Marketing manager. Former Reading councillor. Contested Henley by-election 2008.
Andy Crick (Liberal Democrat)
Mark Stevenson (Green) Educated at Oxford University. Former maths teacher, now runs an organic market garden. Contested Witney 2001, Henley 2005, 2008 by-election.Laurence Hughes (UKIP)John Bews (BNP) 2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 94369
Male: 49.4%
Female: 50.6%
Under 18: 22.2%
Over 60: 21.6%
Born outside UK: 7.8%
White: 98%
Black: 0.4%
Asian: 0.6%
Mixed: 0.7%
Other: 0.4%
Christian: 75.9%
Full time students: 2.7%
Graduates 16-74: 30.1%
No Qualifications 16-74: 19.7%
Owner-Occupied: 76.4%
Social Housing: 10.4% (Council: 1.6%, Housing Ass.: 8.8%)
Privately Rented: 8.2%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 4.9%
2008 By-election
Boris Johnson resigned on the 4th June 2008 after being elected mayor of London. The date of the by-election is the 26th June.
Official statement of persons nominated
By-election result
John Howell (Conservative) 19796 (56.9%) +3.4%
Stephen Kearney (Liberal Democrat) 9680 (27.8%) +1.8%
Mark Stevenson (Green) 1321 (3.8%) +0.5%
Tim Rait (BNP) 1243 (3.6%)
Richard McKenzie (Labour) 1066 (3.1%) -11.5%
Chris Adams (UKIP) 843 (2.4%) -0.1%
Peter Thomas Bananaman (Loony) 242 (0.7%)
Derek Allpass (English Democrat) 157 (0.5%)
Amanda Harrington (Independent) 128 (0.4%)
Dick Rodgers (Common Good) 121 (0.3%)
Louise Cole (Independent) 91 (0.3%)
Harry Bear (Fur Party) 73 (0.2%)
Majority: 10116 (29.1%)
By-election Candidates:John Howell (Conservative) Former partner at Ernst & Young and BBC World presenter. Now working in visual communications. Oxfordshire county councillor. Awarded the OBE in 2000 for services to export in central and eastern Europe.
Stephen Kearney (Liberal Democrat) Chief executive of Action to Re:Generate Trust, a community development charity he co-founded with his partner in 1989.Richard McKenzie (Labour) born London. Educated at Reading University. Marketing manager. Former Reading councillor.Mark Stevenson (Green) Educated at Oxford University. Former maths teacher, now runs an organic market garden. Contested Witney 2001, Henley 2005.
Chris Adams (UKIP) born 1963. Contested Aylesbury 2005.
Tim Rait (BNP) Contested South East in 2004 European elections, Maidenhead in 2005, Lothians Region in 2007 Scottish election.
Peter Thomas Bananaman (Official Monster Raving Loony) Real name Peter Owen. Contested Wokingham 1992, 1997, 2001, 2005, under various permentations of “Top Cat Owen” or “Bananaman”. Party chairman 1999-2007, Deputy leader of the OMRLP since 2007.
Amanda Harrington (Independent) Model and former Miss Liverpool. Standing for the unregistered Miss Great Britain Party. 
Louise Cole (Independent) Educated at Loughborough University. Model and TV presenter. Also standing for the unregistered Miss Great Britain Party. 
Dick Rodgers (Common Good) born 1946. Former Orthopaedic surgeon and clergyman. Contested Dunfermline and West Fife by-election 2006, Birmingham Northfield 2005, Hartlepool by-election 2004. Contested West Midlands Region in 2004 European elections.
Harry Bear (Fur Play) Fictional creation of Richard Heller, speechwriter, former civil servant, advisor to Denis Healey and Gerald Kaufman and columnist on the Mail on Sunday.
Derek Allpass (English Democrat) Retired businessman and organic farmer.
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Benjamin thanks for confirming my long-held suspicions that Labour and LibDem supporters are one and the same! I will not comment on your assertions re the ‘average Tory activist’ as we’re not supossed to be partisan but see earlier on this thread (re ‘wasn’t going to happen’) the comments by some of your colleagues!!!
I’m not sure where you get that from what I typed but do as you please.
There are surely lots of people who vote Lib Dem because they don’t want the Tories and Labour are nowhere – likewise there are those who don’t like Labour and the Tories are nowhere. There are, shock horror, those who vote Lib Dem because they are liberals.
The left has often held the same aims Liberalism has held since before Marx was born – beliefs about equality and access to education and all the causes that fit roughly under the “progressive” umbrella. As a party whose very choice of name implies a desire for things not to change from the status quo, the Conservatives do not naturally share much of this agenda.
Liberalism, however, also stresses a desire for individual liberty, for wealth creation, limited taxation and government interference which are anathema to Socialism.
Labour has – in the view of many liberals, before I fall foul of the site’s neutrality rules – not only betrayed those areas where Liberals and the left have usually been in agreement, such as improving education or cutting poverty; Labour has also let liberals down with its authoritarian policies or simple inertia on immigration and asylum, political protest, ID cards, freedom of speech, Iraq and the so-called “ethical” foreign policy.
I’m not likely to convert you, Mr Milne and I appreciate that, like many supporters of the 2 old parties you must find the prospect of a strong third party deeply threatening – the reliable pendulum swing of 2 party politics suits both sides in equal measure, after all. All I ask is that you at least get it into YOUR mind that “Lib Dem=Labour” might look good on a Tory leaflet but it is in fact cobblers.
Theres nothing threatening about the Lib Dems. The future of the country is secure for at least another generation until the next Lib Dem ‘advance’.
More importantly, I see Boris Johnson has today endorsed the Obama campaign in the US Presidential election. Needless to say, I’m deeply dissapointed by Johnson’s short-sightedness on that. He seems to be arguing that voters should elect him ‘because he’s black’. He says that John McCain has many fantastic qualities, but a win for Obama would boost the confidence of black people. In other words, it doesn’t matter whether he’s the best candidate for the job, vote for him to support the black community! Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t see that his colour should come into it, and he CERTAINLY shouldn’t win so that he can become a totem for the left!
Usually, I would have said that any Tory politician that backs Obama should be viewed with great suspicion indeed. I would have cause to question their values, and their suitability to represent the party. Unfortunately, this now seems to apply to a large section of the party leadership.
All these British politicians leaping onto Obama’s bandwagon will look a bit silly if McCain ends up winning the election.
“I would have cause to question their values, and their suitability to represent the party”
Well then, perhaps I should resign my membership and stop donating. I support Obama because I think he’ll be good for America, and good for the world as a whole.
As an Atlanticist I like the idea of Obama as President becauase I think he has the best chance of rehabilitating America’s reputation in the world/relations with other countries.
I have great respect for McCain, but quite frankly I do think he’s too old (no matter how many examples of equally old British PMs there are, I think 71/72 is too old).
To be honest I have reservations about aspects of the Republican Party which are enough to push me towards supporting the Democrats anyway, regardless of candidates (although I don’t know if I could have supported Hillary), such as gun control issues and the role religion plays. I understand these issues are present in the Democrats as well, but I think to a lesser extent.
Anyway, I was astonished by the 10,000 Tory majority in by-election, and the LD to Tory swing… truely impressive.
Ridiculous really. I think its generally wrong for UK politicians to get involved in party politics in other countries. As far as someone in Boris Johnson’s position he should, like his leader, leave him himself in in a position to be able to deal with whoever becomes President. There are reasons why some Conservatives might prefere a Democrat candidate – even a left wing like Obama, but the reasons Johnson gives are pathetic. Doubtless this is just an attempt to try and curry favour with a section of the London electorate which has not hitherto supported him. I expect his remarks will be seen as patronising. There are rather more important matters at stake in a US presidential election than whether or not the confidence of black people is boosted.
The Guardian famously interfered in the US election in 2004, accosting voters in Ohio and asking them why they weren’t going to vote for Kerry. It backfired spectacularly.
“It backfired spectacularly”
Bit of a myth. They ran their campaign in one county in Ohio – Clark County. The Bush margin was 1,046 (2.1%) in 2004 compared with a deficit of 324 (0.6%) in 2000. This was a shade worse for Kerry than Ohio as a whole, but better than immediately neighbouring counties like Champaign, Madison and Miami. Kerry’s stronger results were in larger, more strongly Democrat urban areas where he improved on Gore’s vote by boosting turnout. It certainly didn’t affect the result.
Conclusion – the Guardian campaign didn’t work but nor did it “backfire spectacularly”.
My prediction for thi seat;
Cons 30000
Lib Dem 12000
Labour 4500
Others 2500
Jake, thanks for that information about Ohio. I was just going by the impression I’d got from the media but obviously they didn’t convey the truth very well. I would have checked the figures myself if I’d known which county was involved.
Having said that, I notice that Bush’s margin of victory in Ohio was 2.1%, and the difference in Clark County between 2000 and 2004 was 2.7%, so the change in Clark County reflected throughout the state would have accounted for Bush becoming president.
Does anyone know if the LibDem candidate for the by-election is still living in the constituency or has he headed back to Plymouth?
In this week’s issue of the can’t-put-downable Liberal Democrat News, there is an advert for PPC in Henley, so if our candidate wishes to reapply, it’s open for him to do so.
You make it sound an enthralling read doktorb!
Before these things became available online, the Lib Dem news was an invaulable resucrce for finding out about forthcoming local government by-elections, and the results of those that had occurred
And every week there is always a stern telling off whenever there’s a result sent back showing no LibDem candidate =O
Is carpetbagger still a term of political abuse?
Baz, sorry to be dim, but who’s a carpetbagger here? Who are you referring to?
“Carpetbagger is used to describe a politician who runs for office in a place to which he previously had no connection. “
LibDem candidate been re-selected yet?
Baz, sorry for late pick up on your reply. I didn’t ask what a carpet bagger is / was, just who you were referring to!
The Lib Dem candidate has been selected, he is Andy Crick.
http://www.andycrick.org.uk/
The UKIP candidate is now Laurence Hughes:
http://candidates.ukip.org/index.php?pg=show&eid=381
Could you please update your information. Thanks.
So what happened to Stephen Kearney? Or to the woman who had been selected to fight the seat before the by-election was called?
Cons Hold= 15,000 maj
Amanda Harrington is looking good in this constituency…but then again she’d look good in any constituency!!!!
John Bews is standing for BNP here
Con Hold
Maj 16400
Con maj 17,500
CON HOLD
There was a district council by-election last Thursday in Crowmarsh, South Oxfordshire. The Lib Dems gained the seat from the conservatives.
Henley Ind Cons have been registered with the ElComm. Have the Tory group split?
Its probably a minority of disafectees from within the party.
But I thought the purpose of registration was to prevent groups from doing this?
Why do we never hear of any Independent Lib Dems on the ballot paper or Independent Labour?
I think the ElComm allows it where a group splits as its not for them to judge who is the true or biggest Party. eg Wigan Ind Cons used wigancons website too as I assume one of their cllrs regd the domain name. Lpool Labour exist in Lpool. But you’re right, there does appear to be 8 Ind Cons Parties but no Ind LD. Maybe they join the Liberal Party?
Actually, 9 as Aberdeen has 2 rival Tory Parties.
Shaun – I’ve just double checked and these Henley Ind Cons are actually based in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Henley in Arden, presumably, not Henley on Thames, then.