Wellingborough
2010 Results:
Conservative: 24918 (48.23%)
Labour: 13131 (25.42%)
Liberal Democrat: 8848 (17.13%)
BNP: 1596 (3.09%)
UKIP: 1636 (3.17%)
Green: 480 (0.93%)
English Democrat: 530 (1.03%)
TUSC: 249 (0.48%)
Independent: 273 (0.53%)
Majority: 11787 (22.81%)
Notional 2005 Results:
Conservative: 20729 (43.2%)
Labour: 19525 (40.7%)
Liberal Democrat: 5699 (11.9%)
Other: 2036 (4.2%)
Majority: 1204 (2.5%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 22674 (42.8%)
Labour: 21987 (41.5%)
Liberal Democrat: 6147 (11.6%)
UKIP: 1214 (2.3%)
Other: 983 (1.9%)
Majority: 687 (1.3%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 21512 (42.2%)
Labour: 23867 (46.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 4763 (9.3%)
UKIP: 864 (1.7%)
Majority: 2355 (4.6%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 24667 (43.8%)
Labour: 24854 (44.2%)
Liberal Democrat: 5279 (9.4%)
Other: 1489 (2.6%)
Majority: 187 (0.3%)
Boundary changes:
Profile:
Current MP: Peter Bone(Conservative) (more information at They work for you)
Peter Bone(Conservative) (more information at They work for you)Jayne Buckland (Labour) 
Kevin Barron (Liberal Democrat) Born Tripoli. Educated at Thomas Becket RC Upper School. IT Security consultant. Contested Northampton South 2005.
Jonathan Hornett (Green) Born 1974, Bishops Stortford. Educated at Richard Hale School. Shop manager.
Adrian Haynes (UKIP) 
Rob Walker (BNP) Born Finchley. Educated at Christchurch Secondary modern and Barnet College.Terry Spencer (English Democrat)Paul Crofts (TUSC)Marcus Lavin (Independent)Gary Donaldson (Independent)2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 98012
Male: 49.5%
Female: 50.5%
Under 18: 23.9%
Over 60: 19.5%
Born outside UK: 6.8%
White: 92.6%
Black: 2%
Asian: 3.4%
Mixed: 1.6%
Other: 0.3%
Christian: 68.3%
Hindu: 2.5%
Muslim: 0.7%
Full time students: 2%
Graduates 16-74: 12.4%
No Qualifications 16-74: 32.1%
Owner-Occupied: 73.3%
Social Housing: 18.7% (Council: 12.9%, Housing Ass.: 5.8%)
Privately Rented: 5.2%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 5.9%
Unfortunately in my opinion, judging from what I have heard I think Sven will take it again.
I think this seat saw one of the largest Labour to Tory swings in the election.
It was a similar sort of result to the one in neighbouring Kettering.
Overall, the results across Northampshire where at the higher end of my expectations in terms of the Tory performance – perhaps Corby being the exception.
“Ten candidates standing here, 2 independents. I see a lot of lost deposits”
Yep. Seven of the ten lost their deposits.
The Independent vote shown in the results above (273) is the total attained by both Independents… one of whom got 240, the other getting 33.
The Labour vote dropped by 16.0% here. That’s bigger than for example in Welwyn Hatfield where the figure was 14.9%.
There were a number of seats where the Labour vote dropped even more (14 to be precise). This includes the safest Labour seat won by the Conservatives (Cannock Chase) and the lowest Labour vote in any seat won in 1997 (Norfolk North West). It also includes Yvette Cooper in Castleford (and the neighbouring seat of Selby), and Caroline Flint in Don Valley, which I reckon is no longer safe after the proposed boundary changes.
As I keep pointing out on various threads Labour’s performance in Hemel was even worse than in Welwyn.
Worst Labour performance of all was Austin Mitchell in Grimsby. He previously had a large personal vote as an independent minded backbencher, but got a lot of unfavourable publicity in the expenses expose.
Local news! Ashleigh and Pudsey, winners of Britain’s Got Talent, are from Wellingborough. Maybe if Labour could get him to wear a red rosette until polling day 2015 this dog could bury Bone at the next election! Ha ha ha ha!
http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/local/britain-s-got-talent-final-result-1-3837112
Bone lost his seat on the 1922 Executive Committee. Even his colleagues are fed up with his far right views (opposes the minimum wage, wants Britain to leave the EU – one of a handful of MPs to support this publicly). His totally unfunny joke about “Mrs Bone” at every PMQs (it went flat after the 20th time he’d used it) probably tipped them over the edge.
This is not the place for that kind of partisan tripe.
It is not “far right” to want Britain to leave the EU. There are many on the left who oppose EU membership including Tony Benn, Arthur Scargill, Austin Mitchell, not to mention many prominent trade union leaders like Bob Crow. And although I disagree with it, it is a policy that around 50% of the population agrees with according to the polls, and 50% of the population is not all “far right”.
It is also not far right to be critical of the negative impact of the minimum wage on the economy and employment – although again I stress that personally I don’t believe it should be abolished. Many of the mainstream centre right criticisms of the minimum wage have nevertheless proved to be correct over the longer term.
Let’s have less of this party political yah-boo stuff and more discussion of elections.
Obviously, I completely disagree with the absurd comments of BIGD, above.
But I have to disagree with H.Hemmlig and defend his right to say it if he wants to. I happen to think that Dennis Skinner brings Parliament into contempt, and I’m quite happy to go to the Bolsover thread to say so whenever he stands up to make one of his boring and unfunny “jokes”.
Mr Skinner and indeed Mr Bone do not need people to close down debate of their talents or lack thereof.
What BIGD says is relevant to the characer of Mr Bone and therefore for understanding the electoral prospects for the seat. He’s entirely WRONG in his judgement, but it is relevant, all the same.
@ Shaun
Thank you for defending me.
@ H.Hemmelig
What I object to most is that at the 1995 Tory Party Conference he said he opposed the minimum wage because he wanted to carry one paying people poverty wages! The Daily Mirror famously dubbed him the “meanest boss” in the country for paying a 17-year-old 87p an hour. This man is not fit to be anywhere near Parliament!
Wellingborough will probably be a safe conservative seat for a quite a while.
Anyway I usually try and stay clear of the personality stuff/my own opinions most of the time but I do now have a degree of sympathy with Shaun’s points here.
I would certainly like to see the Stockport thread reopened so Patrick McCauley’s behaviour can be constructively commented on (as I believe he is now happily propping up the minority LD administratin there).
@H. Hemmelig
Also, I don’t accept that leaving the EU is a mainstream view. Only 6 MPs out support the Better Off Out campaign (interestingly Bone isn’t on the list of supporters on their website, it appears out of date). How can that be a mainstream view! Also, a large chunk of the British population support the restoration of the death penalty but I would view that as a far right position, certainly not centre or even centre right position. I also object to you claiming my points were partisan. I merely pointed out that he had been booted off the executive of the 1922 Committee. I believe this is because his views are too rightwing even for his colleagues in the Tory parliamentary party.
“This man is not fit to be anywhere near Parliament!”
Surely ALL views have a right to be represented in Parliament in a democracy. Mr Bone speaks for a hell of a lot of people in this country and to say that they must go unrepresented would be intolerable. Like him or loathe him, Mr Bone is a good MP.
“I don’t accept that leaving the EU is a mainstream view”
Well it IS a mianstream view. It is just not quite yet the majority view. The two are quite different things, and its interesting to see those who apologise for the EU still trying to fight this 1990s battle that to be anti EU is to be bonkers and extreme. Leaving the EU is a view whose time is rapidly coming.
“Only 6 MPs out support the Better Off Out campaign”
Well thats not true I don’t think. I think the BOO website is not up to date, but I think you’ll find more than 6 MPs in fact support withdrawel quite openly. I think you’ll also then find that the majority of Conservative MPs (yes, the majority!) would be happy to support withdrawel if the leadership came out in favour of it. Several Conservative MPs verge on the edge of saying they want withdrawel without actually quite getting there.
I actually think most LABOUR MPs would support withdrawel if the leadership of their party came out for it.
Certainly, the view is much more widespread privately than you might imagine from the public declarations.
“Also, a large chunk of the British population support the restoration of the death penalty but I would view that as a far right position”
It may be far right to you, but if the majority of the public agree with it then that is the dead centre ground of British politics surely?
I think the problem is that for too long now people have been trying to ‘load’ this term “the centre ground” for their own particular viewpoint so that it no longer means anything objective anymore. Consequently, “the centre” today is whatever I say it is; or whatever you say it is; or whatever Mrs Bone says it is.
But surely it should be whatever the British people genuinely feel as a collective group? In which case, the death penalty is far from being a far right position (another highly loaded term, I notice).
“I merely pointed out that he had been booted off the executive of the 1922 Committee. I believe this is because his views are too rightwing even for his colleagues in the Tory parliamentary party.”
Since you clearly don’t have a clue what the nature of the Conservative Party or its organisation actually is, that judgement is highly flawed.
My interpretation, as you would expect, is that Mr Bone lost because he was stitched up to lose by the cronies of an out of touch leadership.
In fact Mr Bone is more representative of the Conservative Party at large than almost anyone in the Cameron team, the inner circle or the top table.
It would be shame if this site went the way of Mike Smithson’s where you have to wade through acres of inane partisan ‘commentary’ to get to any useful information.
@ Shaun
I support you all the way. If people like Bone (who you seem to agree with) increase their influence within the Tory party then I’d be delighted. You’d be following a strategy that clearly “worked” so well for you and your party in 2001 – we’ve lost an election so we need to move further to the right! It makes a Labour victory a near certainty. At least Cameron is wise enough to realise that positioning the Conservative party further to the right is electoral suicide. As has been noted by political commentators, including Andrew Neil, the Tory party if no longer a national party given their total lack of support in major cities across England. Not a single councillor in Norwich, Oxford, Manchester, Liverpool or Newcastle. Only one MP in Scotland and a disastrous performance in the Welsh local elections. Only Labour is a truly national party.
I don’t think my comments are partisan at all. I find it reprehensible that someone could pay a worker 87p an hour! He decided to do that and then boast about it on the national stage during a speech to the Tory party conference. I was merely highlighting this to underline my case that he sits on the far right of the Tory party. I wasn’t commenting on whether he is right or wrong or whether Tory party members agreed or disagreed with him.
I take issue with your claim that a majority of Tory MPs support withdrawal from the EU or (which I find even more unbelievable) a majority of Labour MPs support withdrawal. You have no facts to back this up. I however was pointing out that only 5 MPs (6 including Bone) have publicly signed up to the Better Off Out campaign. If only 6 MPs in the whole House of Commons supports something then I consider that a minority fringe view. Whilst a sizeable amount of people, but as you say not a majority, support withdrawal, people can change their mind when subjected to arguments on both sides during a referendum. We saw that with the polls on AV where 2/3 supported at the start of the campaign but that switched to 2/3 against. I happen to believe that once people were told the truth about how the EU operates and what influence and benefits we get from membership they’d swing behind staying in.
Also, just because a sizeable chunk of the electorate support something or other doesn’t make it a mainstream view. I believe the latest polls show a wide majority in favour of electing the House of Lords but that doesn’t mean it is a mainstream view. Mainstream I would judge as something that has widespread support and is a priority for the voters. When asked to name the most pressing issues facing the country House of Lords reform and the EU come very low down the list (a couple of % pick them). That’s my definition of mainstream. Also, opposing the minimum wage fails both tests. I haven’t seen a poll putting up there as a major issue for a large chunk of the electorate or large chunks supporting abolition. Again, a view Bone has which I think is not mainstream.
Apologies for the long post but I feel I have been subjected to a number of attacks from you and I wanted to adequately defend myself.
Apologies. I should have re-read my posting before hitting the button. Meant “That’s NOT my definition of mainstream” and the text above should read “I wasn’t commenting on whether Tory party members agreed or disagreed with him”.
.
Runnymede
“It would be shame if this site went the way of Mike Smithson’s where you have to wade through acres of inane partisan ‘commentary’ to get to any useful information.”
I completely agree.
@Runnymede
@H.Hemmelig
I agree with both of you. I admit I shouldn’t have said “This man is not fit to be anywhere near Parliament”. That comment is partisan and I withdraw that it. However, I stand by the rest of what I said. I don’t think it partisan to point out that he sits on the far right of the Tory party or even that this generally a position of very small part of the electorate given election results for the Tories over the last 20 years. I’m happy to say Tony Benn sits on the far left of the Labour Party if that makes you happy!
Peter Bone represents a vital strand of Conservative thinking, and I’d be very sorry if people like him were not in Parliament.
(I also think Ken Clarke, George Young Nadine Dorries, Lawrence Robertson, Nicholas Soames, and Jacob Rees Mogg do aswell).
I don’t always agree with Peter Bone’s political positions but I find the way he always says exactly what he thinks quite refreshing.
I think one of the reasons he failed to win Wellingborough so poorly (Labour increased its lead from something like 187 to 2,500) in 2001 was his opposition to the minimum wage. I do find him very grating with the dull-as-ditchwater references to his Mrs and I do find his attitude to the minimum wage awful. But that isn’t relevant. I do think it would be silly to say he isn’t fit to be in parliament since he’s won 2 democratic elections fair & square. I can’t disagree with H.Hemmelig or Runnymede however. I don’t want to “close down debate” as Shaun always puts it, I just think that if we want to slag off MPs we dislike, or indeed praise our political heroes to the skies, this isn’t really the place primarily to do it. If it’s relevant to the voting in a constituency, fine.
Why is his attitude so dreadful. The minimum wage causes unemployment and as such it can be viewed as the poorest subsidising the less poor
‘Why is his attitude so dreadful. The minimum wage causes unemployment and as such it can be viewed as the poorest subsidising the less poor’
Many decent people oppose the minium wage on a whole variety of grounds. If what you say is true, Peter Bone clearly isn’t one if them
If he did actually say at the 1995 Tory Party Conference that he opposed the minimum wage because he wanted to “carry one paying people poverty wages” then I think we can quite safely conclude he’s a fairly wicked man who certainly shouldn’t be in Parliament and more the fool for his constituenbts for putting him there
However, even the likes of the late Eric Forth – one of the only Tory MPs to the right of Peter Bone – have far more eloquent arguments than that for opposing the minimum wage and I find it highly unlikely that even someone as limited in the intelligence department as Mr Bone would come out and actually say he opposes the minimun wage because he wants to pay people poverty wages
In that it prevents people from (legally) being paid 80p an hour, a minimum wage has been a good thing.
However I think it was a mistake to set a national rate, and that this mistake has most likely exacerbated the economic problems in the north and other low-wage parts of the country. The minimum wage should be set regionally, to reflect living costs in that region (which may well mean the minimum wage in London and the South East going up).
I also personally dislike Peter Bone, and agree with Barnaby that his appearances on the media tend to increase that dislike. But this isn’t the place to start slagging off each other’s political views….otherwise we will have a site full of never ending mud slinging.
I do favour a minimum wage – so a Labour policy for the reason that if you don’t have one
the state ends up picking up the bill anyway,
therefore is effectively subsidising employers to under-cut other ones.
So it is actually the best market solution,
to set a floor,
although we can’t set it too high otherwise it’ll put people out of work.
That said, I often agree with Peter Bone on other policies and am quite a fan.
By the way, I washed up for £1.10 an hour (in the student holidays in 1990).
Every 5-10 minutes someone comes and stacks up a huge pile next to you to keep you going.
Bloody hot in the kitchen though.
Didn’t do me any harm – or maybe it did.
2015:
Con 48
Lab 33
LD 10
Others 9
Turnout 67%
Peter Bone got a lot of praise from the POA over his attempt to stop the closure of Wellingborough Prison.