Morecambe and Lunesdale
2010 Results:
Conservative: 18035 (41.35%)
Labour: 17169 (39.36%)
Liberal Democrat: 5971 (13.69%)
UKIP: 1843 (4.23%)
Green: 598 (1.37%)
Majority: 866 (1.99%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 20278 (49.2%)
Conservative: 15343 (37.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 5556 (13.5%)
Other: 0 (0%)
Majority: 4935 (12%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 15563 (37.4%)
Labour: 20331 (48.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 5741 (13.8%)
Majority: 4768 (11.5%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 15554 (37.3%)
Labour: 20646 (49.6%)
Liberal Democrat: 3817 (9.2%)
UKIP: 935 (2.2%)
Green: 703 (1.7%)
Majority: 5092 (12.2%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 18096 (36.7%)
Labour: 24061 (48.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 5614 (11.4%)
Referendum: 1313 (2.7%)
Other: 165 (0.3%)
Majority: 5965 (12.1%)
Boundary changes: minor changes. Morecambe & Lunesdale loses part of the split Lower Lune Valley ward to Lancaster and Fleetwood. This a large geographical area, but is mostly unpopulated and contains under 1,000 voters.
Profile: The urban south-western part of the constituency includes the industrial ferry port of Heysham, along with its nuclear power station, and the holiday resort of Morecambe. In past decades Morecambe has been in steep decline – both its piers are gone, the Frontierland themepark closed in 1999 and a Crinkly Bottom theme park closed only a few months in 1994.
North of Morecambe the constituency includes much of Morecambe bay (including Warton Bank, the site of the 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster where 21 chinese cockle pickers were cut off and drowned by advancing tides), Carnforth and the villages of Bolton-le-Sands and Silverdale. To the East the constituency stretches to to the pennines taking in the small rural villages of northern Lancash/p>
Current MP: David Morris (Conservative) Company director. Contested Blackpool South 2001, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire 2005
David Morris (Conservative) Company director. Contested Blackpool South 2001, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire 2005
Geraldine Smith(Labour) Educated at Morecambe High School. Former Royal Mail worker. First elected in Morecambe & Lunesdale in 2005 (more information at They work for you)
Les Jones (Liberal Democrat) Contested Hyndburn 1997, Ashton under Lyne 2005.
Chris Coates (Green) Lancashire county councillor since 2005. Lancaster councillor.
Mark Knight (UKIP) 2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 87711
Male: 47.6%
Female: 52.4%
Under 18: 22.7%
Over 60: 25.5%
Born outside UK: 2.8%
White: 98.8%
Asian: 0.3%
Mixed: 0.5%
Other: 0.3%
Christian: 79.1%
Full time students: 3%
Graduates 16-74: 16.3%
No Qualifications 16-74: 30.4%
Owner-Occupied: 74.8%
Social Housing: 9.9% (Council: 6.3%, Housing Ass.: 3.6%)
Privately Rented: 12.4%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 15%
Id imagine this is the type of seat that has trended labour significantly since 92 and especially 83 though.
Clearly yes. Morecambe was once a strongly Tory town and it simply isn’t any more. It is Morecambe itself which has seen the most demographic change though I think Heysham too has become weaker for the Tories than once it was.
Labour did very well here at the locals and took many seats from the independents
A very interesting set of mocked up boundaries suggested for this area by the Lewis Baston model in the Guardian recently.
Lancashire, as expected, looses a seat given the overall reductions. Baston’s model suggests abolishing Lancaster and Fleetwood, with Lancaster being paired with Morecambe and Fleetwood returning to Blackpool North. It seems this would cost the tories one seat for the abolished constituency. But worse than that Labour’s strength is concentrated in a new urban constituency in the north west of the county, which surely would have had them ahead in 2010 – effectively meaning the Tories loose 2 seats overall. It would be interesting to hear how feasible that proposal might be? Are Lancaster and Morecambe two places that would gel well into a single seat? I know Skerton (North Lancaster?) is already in the Morecambe seat. It also seems the best tory parts of the old Lancester & Fleetwood / Morecambe & Lunesdale seats go with the old Wyre seat to make a new Lancashire North. Overall you’d go from 2 highly marginal tory seats and a safe tory seat to 1 fairly reliable Labour seat and a safe tory seat.
In addition the changes in Burnley (which becomes Burnley & Bacup) tip that seat over from the Lib Dems to Labour. Surely the Labour party should get a copy of these plans ready to fax as a counter proposal to the Boundary Commission!!
Overall the suggestion sees 6 seats go in the North West – Weaver Vale in Cheshire (tories down 1), Hazel Grove and Bolton North East in Greater Manchester (Lib Dems down 1 in HG, but notionally ahead in a redrawn Stockport that surely Labour would still fancy their chanes in, Labour down one in Bolton). Two seats go in Merseyside (Wavertree, Labour clearly down one and Wirral West, though tories notionally ahead in a redrawn Wirral South, though maybe Labour still has a chance there). Elsewhere the marginal Sefton Central would take part of Knowsley to become a safe Labour seat (Bootle becomes Bootle and Crosby). A redrawn Cheadle is also tipped from Lib Dem to Conservative
Overall the model suggests Con, Lab and LD would each loose 2 seats in the North West.
He was hardly the first person to suggest the Lancaster and Morecambe link up
Odds on David Morris losing his seat must have just shot up. He’s refusing to defend his local hospital from cuts and blaming Labour for ‘scaremongering’. He’ll have egg on his face if anything gets cut now.