Winchester

Boundary changes: the old Winchester seat had one of the highest populations in the country, and as such Winchester undergoes major changes, with the City of Winchester District Council area now being split between two seats. The large rural eastern part of the council area, including Bishop`s Waltham and Wickham is separated out to form the core of the new

Profile: An affluent and fast growing city in Hampshire, the seat contains Winchester itself, once the capital of England, and picturesque surrounding towns and villages such as Twyford and New Alresford, and now the housing estates of Chandler`s Ford and Hiltingbury. In 2006 a Channel 4 programme announced that Winchester was the best place in the UK to live.

The constituency has an equally picturesque political history. The seat had been Conservative since 1950, but in 1992 the then Conservative MP John Browne was deselected having been suspended from the Commons for accepting cash for questions. Browne subsequently stood as a independent Conservative against the new Tory candidate, former MP Gerry Malone. Browne lost and has subsequently stood for UKIP in varous elections.

Five years later Malone himself was defeated by 2 votes by Mark Oaten in 1997, despite the intevention of serial spoiler candidate Richard Huggett, who stood as a “Liberal Democrat Top Choice for Parliament” and won 640 votes. The Conservatives successfully challenged the result in court and the election was re-run, but the perception of being a sore loser saw a huge swing against Malone at the subsequent by-election, making Winchester one of the safest Liberal Democrat seat in the country. It remains to be seen whether the circumstances of Mark Oaten`s retirement turn the seat away from the Liberal Democrats.

Current MP: Steve Brine (Conservative) Works in Public Relations for the golf industry. Former BBC radio producer, CCO researcher and Conservative Party Area campaign Director for Hampshire.

2010 election candidates:
Steve Brine (Conservative) Works in Public Relations for the golf industry. Former BBC radio producer, CCO researcher and Conservative Party Area campaign Director for Hampshire.
Patrick Davies (Labour) born 1943. Educated at Perse School and Oxford University. Solictor. Winchester councillor 1973-1976, 1980-2006. Contested Winchester 1997, 1997 by-election, 2005.
Martin Tod (Liberal Democrat) born 1964, Liverpool. Educated at Cambridge University. Former marketing director of Procter & Gamble and head of brand and marketing communications in the UK for Vodafone, now an independent business consultant. Ran the internet campaign for Menzies Campbell`s leadership bid in 2006. Contested North West Hampshire in 2005 and Ealing Acton and Shepherd`s Bush in 2001.
Jocelyn Penn-Bull (UKIP)
Mark Lancaster (English Democrat)