Wakefield
Notional 2005 Results:
Labour: 18014 (43.8%)
Conservative: 11477 (27.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 8221 (20%)
Other: 3436 (8.4%)
Majority: 6537 (15.9%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 13648 (31.5%)
Labour: 18802 (43.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 7063 (16.3%)
BNP: 1328 (3.1%)
Green: 1297 (3%)
UKIP: 467 (1.1%)
Other: 776 (1.8%)
Majority: 5154 (11.9%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 12638 (30.6%)
Labour: 20592 (49.9%)
Liberal Democrat: 5097 (12.4%)
UKIP: 677 (1.6%)
Green: 1075 (2.6%)
Other: 1175 (2.8%)
Majority: 7954 (19.3%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 14373 (28.5%)
Labour: 28977 (57.4%)
Liberal Democrat: 5656 (11.2%)
Referendum: 1480 (2.9%)
Majority: 14604 (28.9%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Current MP: Mary Creagh(Labour) (more information at They work for you)
Candidates: 
Alex Story (Conservative) born 1974. Former Olympic rower, now a film and documentary producer. Contested Denton and Reddish in 2005.David Smith (Liberal Democrat) Keith Wells (UKIP)
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 91157
Male: 48.5%
Female: 51.5%
Under 18: 22.4%
Over 60: 19.6%
Born outside UK: 3.7%
White: 95.9%
Black: 0.3%
Asian: 2.9%
Mixed: 0.7%
Other: 0.3%
Christian: 74.4%
Muslim: 2.6%
Full time students: 3.6%
Graduates 16-74: 14.3%
No Qualifications 16-74: 34.9%
Owner-Occupied: 62.7%
Social Housing: 29.8% (Council: 27%, Housing Ass.: 2.7%)
Privately Rented: 5.7%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 8.6%
Sorry John it should have been “sent theirs back” with no apostrophe.
Is their no LD PPC here yet? I expect the BNP to hold their deposit here and could decide the outcome.
Strangely enough Lancs Observer, David smith has been selected as the LibDem candidate.
Whilst having no chance of victory he will take 6000 votes from the pot.
Just seen that there was a by-election last week in the Airedale & Ferry Fryston Ward. Quite a decent result for Labour who held the seat. The Labour & LD vote share were both up, the Tory & BNP vote share went down with Labour narrowly missing 50%.
Airedale’s in Normanton (now “Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford”) right?
It can only be a matter of time before Wakefield district becomes noc.
Labour only need to lose one councillor for it to become NOC, so rather than ‘only a matter of time’ I think it’s a pretty big certainty.
What is only a matter of time is untill the district (which includes wakefield, hemsworth, normanton pontefract & castleford and part of morley and outwood) becomes overall Tory controlled…..now that *is* something quite breathtaking!
Unless the Tories win enough seats in May for overall control (which is extremely unlikely) then, assuming they win the General Election, it’s likely to be a while yet before Wakey turns blue