Reigate
2010 Results:
Conservative: 26688 (53.4%)
Labour: 5672 (11.35%)
Liberal Democrat: 13097 (26.21%)
BNP: 1345 (2.69%)
UKIP: 2089 (4.18%)
Green: 1087 (2.17%)
Majority: 13591 (27.19%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Conservative: 21270 (48.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 10075 (23.1%)
Labour: 9326 (21.4%)
Other: 2974 (6.8%)
Majority: 11195 (25.6%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 20884 (49%)
Labour: 8896 (20.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 9896 (23.2%)
UKIP: 1921 (4.5%)
Other: 1008 (2.4%)
Majority: 10988 (25.8%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 18875 (47.8%)
Labour: 10850 (27.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 8330 (21.1%)
UKIP: 1062 (2.7%)
Other: 357 (0.9%)
Majority: 8025 (20.3%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 21123 (43.8%)
Labour: 13382 (27.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 9615 (20%)
Referendum: 3352 (7%)
Other: 702 (1.5%)
Majority: 7741 (16.1%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Current MP: Crispin Blunt(Conservative) (more information at They work for you)
Crispin Blunt(Conservative) (more information at They work for you)Robert Hull (Labour) Born Fulham. Has worked in IT and customer services. Crawley councillor.Jane Kulka (Liberal Democrat) born 1962. Educated at De-Burgh Secondary School and NESCOT. Finance Manager at RNIB Redhill College. Reigate Borough councillor and former leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Reigate Council (her husband is the present leader). Contested Reigate in 2001 and 2005. Jonathan Essex (Green) former civil enginneer in Bangladesh. Runs a sustainable construction organisation and lectures for the Open University.Joseph Fox (UKIP)Keith Brown (BNP) 2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 90666
Male: 49.2%
Female: 50.8%
Under 18: 22%
Over 60: 21.1%
Born outside UK: 9%
White: 94.7%
Black: 1%
Asian: 2.3%
Mixed: 1.3%
Other: 0.8%
Christian: 73.4%
Hindu: 0.8%
Muslim: 1.4%
Full time students: 2.3%
Graduates 16-74: 26.5%
No Qualifications 16-74: 19.7%
Owner-Occupied: 77.9%
Social Housing: 12.9% (Council: 10.3%, Housing Ass.: 2.5%)
Privately Rented: 7%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 4.2%
One of the more functional parts of Surrey with a significant Labour vote, although they did surrender the runner up spot to the Lib Dems in 2005. Conservative majorities are still large, and have recovered a bit since 1997, and should increase next time.
Redhill is also in this constituency.
Redhill has a population of 25,000 compared to Reigate’s 22,000, so Redhill is a bit unlucky not to be mentioned in the title.
Not posh enough perhaps to get mentioned in the title?
But the Council is Reigate and Banstead.
I’m not sure the constituency corresponds exactly, because
at one point some Banstead wards were in Epsom/Ewell.
between 1983 and 1997 all of Banstead was included in Epsom & Ewell. In 1997 Banstead Village came into this seat while Horley, also in this borough was moved to Surrey East. The new boundaries bring in another Banstead ward – the Labour voting council estate ward of Preston. In fact its a little surprising that Labour didnt come a bit closer than they did in 1997 or 2001 as there are solid sources of Labour support here in Redhill and the south of Reigate. In some local elections in the mid 90s they were getting 70% levels of support in some of the wards, and in 1995 I think Labour actually won most votes within the seats’ boundaries.
Yes, I remember that before 1997, Surrey East only had about 57,000 voters, which was pretty disgraceful for one of the most prosperous seats in the country to be over-represented like that. Now that Horley is in Surrey East, that situation has been resolved.
The above point is a very strange one.
I thought it had an electorate over 60,000, but it was a small seat. However, there have been many considerably smaller. Ideally, electorates should be as equal as possible without constantly dividing up communities, creating new ones, and breaking them.
But all representation is meant to be equal – rich or poor, poor or rich.
I’ve just had a look on the excellent Keele elections website to see if memory served or not.
Surrey East electorates:
1983 – 58,485
1987 – 59,528
1992 – 57,878
Strange to see the electorate dropping in 1992. I would have thought such a pleasant area would have seen a rising population. Maybe the locals were trying hard to keep the riff-raff out.
http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge92/i19.htm
57,000 is quite a low electorate but not ‘disgraceful’ compared to many other seats. I dont see why the relative prosperity of the area should make the overrepresentaion any less justifiable than that in Hackney or Cynon valley for example.
Andy makes these quite snide remarks, often on very selective information.
The electoral register is not entirely accurate, and apparent falls and rises do occur where you don’t expect them.
He really has no basis for saying people were trying to keep the riff-raff out.
I presume the Labour vote in this constituency comes mainly from Redhill?
You would think, but in the recent local elections Labour came fourth in Redhill East and third in Redhill West, in both cases a long way behind the Tory victor. They were similarly routed in the wards of Southern Reigate town which used to be (on slightly different boundaries) solidly in their grasp.
In fact Labour has only one councillor in this borough now, representing the Preston ward which is basically Banstead’s council estate ward. That ward is moving from Epsom & Ewell into this seat.
The late Sir George Gardiner was one of the most unrewarded supporters of Mrs Thatcher,
and I understand it was a surprise when he was left out of the new government in 1979.
There was some occasion when Mrs Thatcher cooked him a meal (with another MP) at number 10.
Clearly she realised who was government material and who wasn’t – it may have been fair in this case.
Redhill was quite strongly Labour in the County Council elections on the same day as the 2005 election – and probably more so in 1997 and 2001.
Indeed, I have heard that the real founders of ‘Thatcherism’ were Sir Keith Joseph, Norman Tebbit, Sir George Gardiner and Angus Maude as well as Airey Neave. It was these people that provided the backbone of the Thatcher cause in the early years. Odd that only Tebbit went on take a significant role in the government up until the late 1980s. Although, Neave would probably have had a prominent place in the cabinet in 1979 if he had survived.
I suppose George Gardiner could comfort himself with the fact that he had been invited into no 10 for a meal – without having to do the job.
Jonathan Essex has been selected as Green Party candidate for the next G.E.
REIGATE-prediction 2010
Conservative: 23,886
Liberal Democrat: 10,575
Labour: 7,712
UKIP: 2,774
Green- 1,822
Majority: 13,311
Why does everyone refer to Preston ward as being part of Banstead? It’s actually in Tadworth KT20 and not Banstead SM7.
Labour could edge into second here,
but on balance
C 55%
Lab 19%
LD 19.5%
UKIP 3%
Grn 3.5%
James’ prediction in %
Cons 51.1% +2.4
Lib Dem 22.6% -0.5
Labour 16.5% -4.9
UKIP 5.9% +1.4
Green 3.9%
Crispin Blunt the present MP has been appointed a Conservative spokesman on terrorism in the Jan 2009 reshuffle. He was a whip before.
This could make him more prominent in the media.
Personally I’[d have deselected Blunt after his knifing of IDS
Interestingly the Greens narrowly missed taking Redhill ward from the Conservatives in the CC elections having not stood previously. Anyone know why?
“Personally I’[d have deselected Blunt after his knifing of IDS
”
I wouldn’t have done actually – he was right, but Iain Duncan-Smith has many qualities and should be a senior member of the team.
I agree it’s pretty pathetic the way the Tories start bickering about their leader as soon as things get difficult, but in certain situations, changes are needed.
“Why does everyone refer to Preston ward as being part of Banstead? It’s actually in Tadworth KT20 and not Banstead SM7.”
Merton James is quite right…Preston is part of Tadworth, though it is, I suppose, at the “Banstead” end of the seat and would have been part of the old Banstead UDC before 1974.
In fact the estate was built to house residents from inner Surrey suburbs (that now form part of the London Boroughs of Merton and Sutton respectively). These two Boroughs used to be responsible for maintaining their respective “parts” of the Preston estate (and were the landlords of the Council tenants, even though Council Tax would be paid to Reigate and Banstead BC) , but estate has now transferred to Raven Housing association.
Revised
most likely
April/May 2010
*Con 27,731 57.3% +8.6%
LD 9,050 18.7% -4.4%
Lab 7,308 15.1% -6.3%
UKIP 2,468 5.1%
Green 1,839 3.8%
Con majority 18,681 38.6%
Total votes 48,397
Con hold
Swing 6.5% from LD to Con
Close between Conservatives and Greens
in the Redhill division, in the June 2009 County Council elections.
Conservative: 1,761
Labour: 486
Liberal Democrat: 497
UK Independence: 441
BNP: 211
Green: 1,591
Majority: 170
Percentage of Poll :35.3%
Votes cast: 5001
Number of electors: 12087
Turnout: 41.4%
Spoilt papers: 14
Evergreenadam
“Interestingly the Greens narrowly missed taking Redhill ward from the Conservatives in the CC elections having not stood previously. Anyone know why?”
June 18th, 2009
The Greens seem to have come from pretty much nowhere here and hoovered up much of the left leaning vote in what used to be a good area for Labour (but no more). They did not contest the CC seat before, but the same candidate (Johnathan Essex who is listed at the top of the page as Green candidate for this constituency) came within a whisker of winning Redhill East in May 2008, having first contested it in 2007. I would guess he must have some personal local appeal to augment any natural propensity to vote Green in this area.
re: Preston – Yes RichardR is correct as to why I referred to it as ‘Banstead’, the whole of Tadworth etc having previously been part of the Banstead UD. These areas are unparished so it is not always clear to the outsider where one community ends and another begins and I would not necessarily treat postal codes as offering some gospel truth on the matter either.
Also I recall Robert Waller talking about the area as being where Banstead Athletic play, though that also does not make it strictly speaking part of Banstead – it is clearly I think part of ‘greater Banstead’.
It’s interesting to read about the history of Preston estate. There was a similar situation in Potters Bar with an estate owned and managed by Haringey council, but ofcourse the residents voted for and paid council tax to Hertsmere council. I assume that is probably housing association now too. There is also of cousre the well known and massive Leigh Park estate which is in Havant borough but which large parts at elast are run by Portsmouth city. This always strikes me as a strange situation as many policies which will affect residents (obviously in relation to housing anyway, rents etc) will be made by a council which they cannot help elect. Presumably matters like street lighting and rubbish collection are taken care of by the local authority in which the estate is actually located. These kind of arrangements must also give rise to the temptation to dump some difficult tenants outside the local authority. It is difficult to understand why, for example, Hertsmere council should be happy to allow Haringey to build council estates on it’s territory in order to house Haringey residents
Apparently there’s another by-election in Reigate. Anyone know the date?
From a Green Perspective the reason for the jump is a well organised loacl party and a strong candidate.
Jonathan Essex is a persausive and focused young candidate, a Green Christian Socialist. I guess he ran a good doorstep campaign. Should get a respectable vote in the General election.
Cons Hold= 15,000 maj
Con Hold
Maj 14000
Con maj 13,000
Con maj 10500
CON HOLD
‘Crispin Blunt decides “to come to terms with his homosexuality” and separates from his wife’
He’s released a short statement.
See Conservative Home.
“See Conservative Home.”
Where the site owners have found it necessary to disable comments on this particular story.
I expect their servers had trouble coping with all the well-wishers. Yeah that’ll be it.
I suspect they disabled them from the start,
not in reaction to anything,
as they don’t want 22,800 comments, one way or the other.
But obviously I don’t know.
Tory share of the vote up 9.9% since 1997 – but I think it fell a good 15 points plus here with George Gardiner also standing as Referendum.
Gardiner backed Steve Norris as Mayoral candidate in 2000.
3 Reigate Cllrs elected as Conservatives are now sitting as members of the Downland Group.