Reading East
2010 Results:
Conservative: 21269 (42.55%)
Labour: 12729 (25.47%)
Liberal Democrat: 13664 (27.34%)
UKIP: 1086 (2.17%)
Green: 1069 (2.14%)
Independent: 168 (0.34%)
Majority: 7605 (15.21%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Conservative: 15461 (35.8%)
Labour: 14611 (33.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 10545 (24.4%)
Other: 2606 (6%)
Majority: 850 (2%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 15557 (35.4%)
Labour: 15082 (34.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 10619 (24.2%)
Green: 1548 (3.5%)
UKIP: 849 (1.9%)
Other: 257 (0.6%)
Majority: 475 (1.1%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 13943 (32%)
Labour: 19531 (44.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 8078 (18.5%)
UKIP: 525 (1.2%)
Green: 1053 (2.4%)
Other: 488 (1.1%)
Majority: 5588 (12.8%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 17666 (35.2%)
Labour: 21461 (42.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 9307 (18.5%)
Referendum: 1042 (2.1%)
Other: 744 (1.5%)
Majority: 3795 (7.6%)
Boundary changes: loses parts of the divided wards of Battle and Whitley to Reading West and gains part of Loddon from Maidenhead. A tiny area of Maiden Erlegh is moved into Maidenhead, though this contains less than 30 voters.
Profile: Reading is a commerical centre and commuter town in the Thames Valley in Berkshire. It is an affluent town, home to light, hi tech and service industry. It houses many corporate headquarters, including Microsoft, Sage, British Gas and Prudential. Reading East is the more urban of the two Reading seats, taking in the town centre and the eastern and northern suburbs. It covers both the eastern part of the Broough of Reading as well as some of the Reading suburbs that fall under Wokingham District council, such as Woodley and Earley. The seat contains the majority of the University of Reading, which straddles the constituency border, but more importantly the majority of the students.
Reading East was a Conservative seat lost to Labour in the 1997 landslide. The Labour MP, Jane Griffiths, was acrimoniously deselected prior to the 2005 election, following a long standing disagreement with the neighbouring MP, Martin Salter, and infighting within the local Labour party and the new Labour candidate Tony Page was defeated by Conservative Rob Wilson.
Current MP: Robert Wilson(Conservative) born 1965, Oxfordshire. Educated at Reading University. Former member of the SDP, elected to Reading council as a Conservative in 1992, and subsequently served from 2003-2006. First elected as MP for Reading East in 2005. Was successfully sued for libel by Martin Salter in 2005 (more information at They work for you)
Robert Wilson(Conservative) born 1965, Oxfordshire. Educated at Reading University. Former member of the SDP, elected to Reading council as a Conservative in 1992, and subsequently served from 2003-2006. First elected as MP for Reading East in 2005. Was successfully sued for libel by Martin Salter in 2005 (more information at They work for you)Anneliese Dodds (Labour) born 1978. Educated at Oxford, Doctorate from the LSE. Fellow at LSE. Contested Billericay in 2005. Opposed the war in Iraq.Gareth Epps (Liberal Democrat) Educated at University of Manchester. West Oxfordshire District Councillor from 2000-2006. Reading councillor since 2007. Contested Witney in 2001.Rob White (Green) born 1979. Educated at De Montfort University Leicester. Self employed gardener and grower. Contested Reading East 2005.Adrian Pitfield (UKIP) Joan Lloyd (Independent)Michael Turberville (Independent)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 100154
Male: 50.6%
Female: 49.4%
Under 18: 20.6%
Over 60: 15.6%
Born outside UK: 15%
White: 86.7%
Black: 3.3%
Asian: 6.4%
Mixed: 1.9%
Other: 1.7%
Christian: 61.9%
Hindu: 1.1%
Muslim: 4.5%
Sikh: 1.1%
Full time students: 11.8%
Graduates 16-74: 31.8%
No Qualifications 16-74: 18.8%
Owner-Occupied: 70.1%
Social Housing: 11.7% (Council: 7.3%, Housing Ass.: 4.4%)
Privately Rented: 15.1%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 7.7%
An indication of the difficulty Labour will have mounting any effective challenge to Rob Wilson is that in 2005 they had 18 councillors in the Reading B.C. wards in this seat and now they only have 6 (7 lost to the Conservatives, 5 to the Lib Dems). The Wokingham D.C. wards in the seat – essentially the bulk of Woodley have long been a Labour free zone.
Con Hold
Maj 3900
Con maj 6,000
The full list of those standing confirmed:
Anneliese Dodds (Labour),
Gareth Epps (Lib Dems),
Joan Lloyd (Independent),
Adrian Pitfield (UKIP),
Michael Turberville (Independent),
Rob White (Green)
Rob Wilson (Conservative)
Ukip switched candiates, and theres some extra independents
I’m starting to change my mind on my earlier prediction. It seems clear that the Lib Dem surge is not abating, and this is mainly coming from younger voters. Reading East has a very young electorate (85% under 60) and will be one to watch on election night. The Conservatives still ought to win, especially with a candidate untainted by expenses but this could be a lot closer than people think.
The Libdem surge is starting to end, the polls may still show them in second, but they are gradually falling back towards third, holding second place by 1%, also the LibDems are weak in Reading. On their campaign materials, they show them in second in local elections. But people reguarly vote differently in local elections. for example, in 1997, when Tony Blair won his landslide, the Tories won the local elections. Reading East, i think will have a bigger tory majority, with labpur in second, lib dems in third, the greens losing their deposit, and maybe ukip just holding onto theirs, there will be no suprises here.
RedBean
Dont know if you are familiar with this seat but Labour have no guarantee of 2nd place. They are particularly weak in the Woodley wards which are outside Reading B.C. but make up circa 25% of the electorate. Within Reading Labour currently have 7 council seats to the Lib Dems 5.
This could be one of a handful of Tory losses.
To who ?
Lib Dem gain
This seat will remain Tory, Lib Dems will gain more votes from ex Labour supporters than from the Tory ones but not enough to win the seat.
The result will be a bigger Tory majority. Labour could well come third.
Pete – it could be a close 3 way. Also Sefton Central and Warrington South.
The Greens may hold their deposit here. PPC’s name similar to the MP’s too.
Have seen nothing from the LibDems through my door and I live in Reading East.
Rob Wilson has been a very proactive local MP since getting elected 5 years ago, and communicates with his electorate throughout thebyear, not just at elections. A big improvement on the awful Ms Griffiths. He’ll be getting my vote on the strength of his record, not because I feel the Tories have all the answers…
Lib Dems will finish 2nd, i’d like them to win, but that will only happen if Labour slump even more massively than i’m predicting.
CON HOLD
The LD did well to come second. But is wasn’t a 2 horse race. No Clegmania on the night.
Anneliese Dodds confirmed standing down as candidate
Reading unitary authority is one of the relatively few genuine Southern English Labour targets in this year’s local elections. It looks on the face of it to be one of the more achievable ones, having had long periods of past overall Labour control. A Labour recapture does not of course give many pointers to a future general election in either East or West constituencies however, since the seats both contain so much territory outside the borough boundary. Neither seat is completely beyond Labour – there are likely to be many switchers from LD to Lab in East – but everything depends on boundaries & the state of the parties at that time, neither of which can be accurately forecast at the moment.
The boundaries are quite likley to be completely unchanged in reading as both seats are within the thresholds as in fact are all seats in berkshire with the exception of Slough and Windsor (which can be resolved with the simple expedient of moving back Foxborough from Slough to Windsor). Labour would need to make 5 gains to take Reading outright this May which is a lot but this is posisble – they would need to take all the marginals: Church, Kentwood and Park from the Conservatives and Katesgrove and Redlands from the LDs. None require a swing much greater than 5% compared with 2007 so it is quite likely. Labour are lucky in Reading , as in so many places, in the way the boundaries are drawn. They can win a majority of the wards by a small margin while in the minority of wards where they can’t win they are extremely weak. This means they are often capable of winning a majority of wards without winning a plurality of the popular vote (as in 2006 for example when they won half the wards on a third of the vote)
Labour gained 3 seats on Reading council to bring their total seats to 22. The Greens now have 2 councillors after gaining one to add to their existing councillor. They now hold the balance of power as Labour did well enough to deny the Tories and Lib Dems another chance to form a coalition so we could see Labour take minority control thanks to the Greens.
I have heard that Labour are to take control with Green support by abstention from voting – no coalition though.
Since the 1950 election which Reading constituencies have included the territory presently covered by Abbey ward?
It was in Reading North from 1950-55, Reading from 1955-74, Reading North again 1974-83 and Reading East since then
Many thanks Pete!
Labour’s shortlist for this seat has been announced,
Cllr Richard Davies – Caversham ward Councillor
Angela Pober – Slough Labour Party
Cllr Matt Rodda – Katesgrove ward Councillor and former candidate for Surrey East in 2010
Cllr James Walsh – Slough Borough Councillor
Cllr Paul Woodward – Church ward Councillor
A possible Labour gain in a very good year for them and if the Liberals collapse in 2015 as polls are implying now.
Hi all. First off, a disclaimer. I’m a Labour activist in Reading East, but I don’t like partisan comments on this kind of a site anymore than the next person, so whilst I understand if people take my comments with a pinch of salt, I do actually aim to be objective.
So, with that said, an update and some of my thoughts.
Here are the prospective candidates for the seat so far:
Conservative – Rob Wilson MP was re-selected easily.
Labour – Cllr Matt Rodda, who won selection by a large margin.
Lib Dems – Have yet to select a candidate. Their last candidate, Gareth Epps, is no longer a local councillor and for a variety of reasons is unlikely to stand again for the nomination.
Greens – Cllr Rob White has again been selected.
Have yet to hear news on who the other parties, like UKIP, will select.
So, how do I think this seat is going to go? Again, as said, I’m a Labour activist there so maybe some of you think I’m going to unduly beef up our chances, but there’s a genuine conviction amongst alot of us here that we have a fair chance. The party machine in some areas is better than average, and alot of the Liberal votes were by disillusioned Labour voters who seem unwilling to stay with them (the local elections here of late show the Liberals being particularly hard hit in Reading). On the flipside, the constituency doesn’t just contain the east of Reading (which happens to include alot of the Tory areas in the town) but also the more Tory-Liberal Woodley area.
Basically, my view is those who count Labour out here aren’t looking at the numbers properly, but clearly it’s still going to be a toughish ask for the party. Think I remember reading an 8% swing is needed.