Kingston and Surbiton
2010 Results:
Conservative: 20868 (36.54%)
Labour: 5337 (9.34%)
Liberal Democrat: 28428 (49.78%)
UKIP: 1450 (2.54%)
Green: 555 (0.97%)
Monster Raving Loony: 247 (0.43%)
Others: 226 (0.4%)
Majority: 7560 (13.24%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Liberal Democrat: 25607 (51.1%)
Conservative: 16559 (33%)
Labour: 6593 (13.1%)
Other: 1387 (2.8%)
Majority: 9048 (18%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 16431 (33%)
Labour: 6553 (13.2%)
Liberal Democrat: 25397 (51%)
UKIP: 657 (1.3%)
Other: 712 (1.4%)
Majority: 8966 (18%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 13866 (28.2%)
Labour: 4302 (8.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 29542 (60.2%)
UKIP: 438 (0.9%)
Green: 572 (1.2%)
Other: 373 (0.8%)
Majority: 15676 (31.9%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 20355 (36.6%)
Labour: 12811 (23%)
Liberal Democrat: 20411 (36.7%)
Referendum: 1470 (2.6%)
Other: 618 (1.1%)
Majority: 56 (0.1%)
Boundary changes: Minor. The seat gains around 600 voters in Beverley ward from Richmond Park.
Profile: Affluent residential South-West London seat, which includes the southern part of Kingston, Surbiton, New Malden, Berrylands, Chessington (along with its well known zoo and theme part), Norbiton and Tolworth. The area is deepest suburbia (stereotypically so even – the BBC sitcom the Good Life was set in Surbiton, and the Rise and Fall of Reginal Perrin in a fictionalised south London suburb that was actually Norbiton).
The seat was created in 1997 from the amalgamation of the Kingston and Surbition seats – Kingston had been represented by the former Chancellor of the Exechequer Norman Lamont, who was forced to (eventually unsuccessfully) seek election in the alternative seat of Harrogate and Knaresborough. The seat was one of the most marginal in the country in 1997, but Ed Davey has subsequently built up a robust majority, defeating the right wing former Conservative MP David Shaw by a 5 figure majority in 2001 and retaining a 8,966 majority in 2005.
Current MP: Ed Davey(Liberal Democrat) born 1965, Mansfield. Educated at Nottingham High School and Oxford University. Former economics researcher for the Liberal Democrats and management consultant. First elected as MP for Kingston and Surbiton in 1997. Liberal Democrat shadow chief seccretary from 2001-2002, shadowed the Deputy Prime Minister`s office from 2002-5, Lib Dem Education spokesman from 2005-6, briefly Lib Dem DTI spokesman 2006, Chief of Staff to Sir Menzies Campbell 2006-2007, Lib Dem shadow foreign secretary since 2007. Married to Emily Gasson, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Dorset North (more information at They work for you)
Helen Whately (Conservative) educated at Micklefield School and Oxford University. Formerly worked for PWC and AOL, now an advisor to shadow culture media and sport team.
Max Freedman (Labour) Ed Davey(Liberal Democrat) born 1965, Mansfield. Educated at Nottingham High School and Oxford University. Former economics researcher for the Liberal Democrats and management consultant. First elected as MP for Kingston and Surbiton in 1997. Liberal Democrat shadow chief seccretary from 2001-2002, shadowed the Deputy Prime Minister`s office from 2002-5, Lib Dem Education spokesman from 2005-6, briefly Lib Dem DTI spokesman 2006, Chief of Staff to Sir Menzies Campbell 2006-2007, Lib Dem shadow foreign secretary since 2007. Married to Emily Gasson, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Dorset North (more information at They work for you)
Chris Walker (Green) Born 1968, Ashford Middlesex. Educated at Hampton School and Manchester University. Company Director.
Jonathan Paxton (UKIP) Monkey The Drummer (Official Monster Raving Loony) 
Anthony May (CPA) NHS manager. Contested South East region 2009 European elections.2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 109677
Male: 49.2%
Female: 50.8%
Under 18: 20.5%
Over 60: 17.5%
Born outside UK: 18%
White: 85.1%
Black: 1.6%
Asian: 7.6%
Mixed: 2.1%
Other: 3.7%
Christian: 65.2%
Hindu: 3.7%
Muslim: 3.4%
Sikh: 0.6%
Full time students: 7.8%
Graduates 16-74: 31.7%
No Qualifications 16-74: 18.4%
Owner-Occupied: 71.1%
Social Housing: 11.8% (Council: 8.7%, Housing Ass.: 3.1%)
Privately Rented: 14.3%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 8.6%
Mount is mostly now the affluent northern part of Coombe Vale (and a small part of it became part of Coombe in 1978 and then Coombe Hill in 2002).
It was generally bound by -
Coombe Lane West / Traps Lane (North)
Kingston to Waterloo Line (West)
Clarence Avenue (South)
Borough Boundary (East)
The denser Groves of New Malden remained Cambridge in 1978 and are now the Southern part of Coombe Vale.
David Shaw (MP for Dover 1983 – 1997 and candidate for Kingston & Surbiton in 2001) lived in and was a councillor in Mount in the 1970′s.
Do you have a map of these old boundaries?
The Knights Park Library at Kington University had a large collection of maps A0 size is a special binder of Greater London. There were 40 or so maps based on pre-1978 council wards.
They showed every ward in Greater London and I think it went as far out as all the satalite towns (Chelmsford, Reading, Aldershot but not the whole of the SE) showing all the pre-1978 ward boundaries, each map coloured to represent different social economic data. Each ward is not named but the ward boundary was clear.
I took a tracing of RBK (which I could e.mail to you) and have a copy of the 1974 local election results in RBK and put the two together may years ago, but Knights Park Library is worth a visit. I think you can go in as a non-student.
The only councillor left is on RBK from 1974 is David Edwards (who represented Norbiton Park, he was off the council for 3 years and returned in a by election in Hill Ward and now represents Coombe Hill). Steve Mama represented Park Ward and then Canbury in 1978 when Park was abolished (in reality it the old Canbury was divided between Tudor and Park and Park renamed Canbury). I believe he lost his seat to the Liberals in 1982 and returned in 1986 in Norbition following studying at Cambridge or Oxford. He lost in 2010 largely because his former ward colleague and Labour candidate for K & S in 1997 stood against him as an independent and split the Labour vote.
Thanks very much – I will take a trip down to Kingston soon. Be very grateful if you could email me your copy of Kingston in the mean time. I think you may have my address?
Pete,
Could you remind me of your e.mail and I can e.mail you the map.
[email protected]
Many thanks
The new ‘Kingston & Surbiton’ loses the Malden and Coombe wards of Old Malden, St James and Beverley and gains Canbury and Tudor.
Currently Richmond Park includes more of Kingston than Kingston & Surbition (because Canbury and Tudor are entirely Kingston whereas Grove ward is not).
That change helps the Conservatives in Kingston & Surbiton, but maybe not enough to win them the seat.
Their removal makes the Richmond & Twickenham successor to Richmond Park narrowly Lib Dem.
That’s right, HH. Pete has posted notionals for all London seats in another place and this seat would have had a LD majority of just under 7,000 under the new proposals so not much difference from last year’s result.
On a straight assessement of local election voting I would agree but in the three New Malden wards removed there are many who vote for Ed Davey but Tory in locals. He would not recover this from Canbury and Tudor.
The loss of Ed Daveys personal vote could see his actual majority fall to 4000 – 5000 on the new boundaries.
Is the LD vote quite stacked up in Stenchampstead in General Elections though?
How on earth did the Lib Dems managed to hold last nights by election in Surbiton Hill?
Because the local council is reasonably popular, I’d guess. As you must know the LDs are pretty good in some areas at delineating between local & national issues, but the result doesn’t by any means end Tory hopes of winning the parliamentary seat.
The Labour vote only rose slightly from 10% in 2010 to 14% when the polls would have predicted a larger increase. Tactical voting is probably still taking place here.
“the LDs are pretty good in some areas at delineating between local & national issues”
This is very true Barnaby. In Waltham Forest the reverse happened. The Lib Dems crumbled on a local level and lost council seats that they had held for 20 years to Labour in 2010 although nationally they seemed to be riding high in the polls after the TV debates. Clearly they are better organised here than in North East London.
A by-election has been called for Coombe Vale ward after one of the councillors. It seems that it will probably take place on 8th December. The Tories won this ward easily last year although the LDs had 2 of the 3 seats back in 2002. Even so, I suspect the Tories will hold this seat fairly easily.
We in the Labour Party had heard that a by-election was possible here but it’s come sooner than we expected, and others which we have been expecting haven’t eventuated yet.
Incidentally AKMD I’m sure you know that Coombe Vale ward is currently in the Richmond Park constituency.
I think it’s on the 15th Dec actually.
Yes that’s what we were told by the Electoral Services man.
Resignation of Robert-John Tasker
Coombe Vale ward 2010
HOLDER Adrian Conservative 2306 E
TASKER Robert-John Conservative 2084 E
WHITE James Conservative 2074 E
Highest vote method
Con 2306 43.0%
LD 1995 37.2%
Lab 531 9.9%
Green 391 7.3%
CPA 145 2.7%
So swing required 2.9% Con to LD
The Coombe Vale election is now a double by-election as another councillor from the ward has resigned.
I think the Tories might have been reading this seat all wrong.
I suspect,
The way to recover here is to target the areas south of the A3, which may appear to be the LD strongholds but I suspect underneath are not.
These are lower middle class and working class estates, although usually private, of varying condition.
In other seats they may well be Con-Lab.
Instead they seem to have been trying mainly to win seats in Surbiton itself which seem to have more of the liberals of the type who’ve been priced out of Richmond.
Those are still vital,
but they are not the best places to hoover up lots of votes.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Libs have got very arrogant aswell
neglecting areas that they think they own.
Surbiton actually doesn’t seem like a very nice place. It must have come down a lot since the 1970s when it was chosen to represent the image of upper middle class suburbia in shows like The Good Life. As well as having a lot of the wooly liberal types Joe mentions, it also feels quite chavvy and run down.
Parts of Kingston are also like that, but there are also areas which are extremely nice.
The wooly Liberals would probably be more in Surbiton itself though,
which is not bad an area.
The chavvy areas would be more away from Surbiton itself (but generally not the section in Richmond Park).
The Tory results south of the A3 look needlessly bad too me – the rot set in there really about 1990, and eventually caught up in General Elections.
Sometimes it’s possible to read these things completely wrong – one or two recent LD gains [possibly] should be let go (unless they swing back on their own)
whereas I think the Tories have missed a trick in the chavvier areas where the LD majorities look somewhat artificial.
There was a terrible result in Chessington North in 1990 – I can’t quite remember whether the ward was gained by the Alliance in 1986 or just held by the Conservatives,
probably the former,
but even so, an enormous swing to the LDs in 1990 when they were on just 6 or 7% in the opinion polls was an indicator of things going against the Tories here.
It was a 2 seater ward then.
Now, the Tories do have one seat in Chessington North and Hook, and they need to build on that.
I’d say Surbiton is a decent area or at least it was 5 years ago when I was last there. It has an attractive art deco railway station with fast services into London, a decent high street and pleasant older housing stock. It never looked particularly run down to me. There is some social housing but certainly no vast estates or tower blocks.
As Joe says, the more drab areas are further south in Tolworth, Hook and Chessington with the latter being the location of the famous World of Adventures theme park. The really nice bits of Kingston are in the north of the borough bordering Richmond Park which are currently in that seat but some of it will move here under the current proposals for the next election. This will help the Tories’ chances of gaining the seat and there will surely be some tactical unwind (not least in former Labour strongholds such as Norbiton) but I think the Lib Dems will still hang on by a few thousand.
Yes, this seat will stay Lib Dem, even if they’re struggling to get into double figures in the polls,
unless a lot of work is done.
It could be changed with a fresh approach though.
The demographics of course have changed, but I suspect not quite as much as people seem to think.
It seems to be the legacy of shell shock on the part of the Tories (1997 and 2001) aswell
plus heavy tactical voting from Labour (who would normally be present in Tolworth).
In fact the best areas of North Kingston – really Coombe & Kingston Vale – are mooted to go in with Wimbledon in what would be a very safe Tory seat indeed (probably the Tories would have scraped home even in 1997 & 2001). Tudor & Canbury which are proposed to join this seat are more competitive though their arrival would help the Tories somewhat as AKMD suggests.
I think Joe is quite right that the Tories have the best potential to (re)gain support south of the A3 in what he describes as the chavier areas. These areas did used to be strong for Labour – indeed Labour even managed to get a councillro elected in Tolworth in 1968. But whereas Chessington North was for long not only the strongest LD ward in the borough but one of their strongest in London, this area has swung heavily to the Tories in 2006 and 2010. On the other hand Surbiton Hill and nice areas like bERRLANDS appear to have recnded the ppooesite waty. The result odf tje surbiton HIll by-electyion suggests a worrying lack of tactical unwind, which is crucial to the Tories recovering this seat
Apologies for the appaliing typos. I’ve been ouit drinking in Ware (while we’re on the3 subject of chavvy p[laces)
If the Conservatives start winning in Hook and Tolworth and Chessington, Tim Jones woujld have a field day
I suppose congratulations are in order for Mr Davey, having succeeded Mr Huhne at DECC. I suspect Cabinet meetings may be somewhat calmer now.
So Nottingham High School have yet another old boy who’s made it to the Cabinet …someone from each of the three main parties as well. There aren’t too many schools who can boast that.
Indeed – the nearest my old school has is the current MP for Aldridge-Brownhills. Even that was when it was Isleworth Grammar, by the time I attended the school had merged with the local Secondary Modern.
Norwich School can claim a half-share in Ed Balls.