Eastbourne (UK Parliament constituency)

Eastbourne
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Eastbourne in East Sussex.
Location of East Sussex within England.
County	East Sussex
Electorate	76,978 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Eastbourne
Current constituency
Created	1885 (1885)
Member of Parliament	Stephen Lloyd (Liberal Democrat)
Number of members	One
Created from	East Sussex
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South East England

Eastbourne is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election. Traditionally a safe Conservative seat, Eastbourne became very marginal following the 1990 by-election between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats for many years. The Liberal Democrats gained the seat at the 2010 general election.

Boundaries

The constituency is presently made up of all nine electoral wards of Eastbourne Borough Council, as well as Willingdon ward from Wealden District Council. It covers the town of Eastbourne in East Sussex, in particular the whole Borough of Eastbourne, along with some nearby villages such as Willingdon and Wannock.

History

This seat was created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885. Its territory had previously been incorporated in the East Sussex constituency, which in turn had been created by the Reform Act 1832 as a division of the Sussex constituency.

There have been four by-elections in the constituency:

• Eastbourne by-election, 1925 (held by the Conservatives), following the resignation of the Conservative MP Sir George Ambrose Lloyd
• Eastbourne by-election, 1932 (held by the Conservatives), following the death of the Conservative MP Edward Marjoribanks
• Eastbourne by-election, 1935 (held by the Conservatives), following the death of the Conservative MP John Slater
• Eastbourne by-election, 1990 (won by the Liberal Democrats), following the death of the Conservative MP Ian Gow

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Edward Field	Conservative
	1900	Sir Lindsay Hogg	Conservative
	1906	Hubert Beaumont	Liberal
	Jan 1910	Rupert Gwynne	Conservative
	1924	Sir George Lloyd	Conservative
	1925 by-election	Sir William Hall	Conservative
	1929	Edward Marjoribanks	Conservative
	1932 by-election	John Slater	Conservative
	1935	Sir Charles Taylor	Conservative
	Feb 1974	Ian Gow	Conservative
	1990 by-election	David Bellotti	Liberal Democrat
	1992	Nigel Waterson	Conservative
	2010	Stephen Lloyd	Liberal Democrat

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Stephen Lloyd	24,658	47.3	+5.6
	Conservative	Nigel Waterson	21,223	40.7	-2.3
	Labour	Dave Brinson	2,497	4.8	-6.0
	Independent	Stephen Shing	1,327	2.5	+2.5
	UKIP	Roger Needham	1,305	2.5	+0.0
	BNP	Colin Poulter	939	1.8	N/A
	Independent	Michael Baldry	101	0.2	N/A
	Independent	Keith Gell	74	0.1	N/A
Majority			3,435	6.6
Turnout			52,124	67.0	+3.8
	Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative		Swing	4.0

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Nigel Waterson	21,033	43.5	-0.6
	Liberal Democrat	Stephen Lloyd	19,909	41.1	+1.8
	Labour	Andrew Jones	5,268	10.9	-2.4
	UKIP	Andrew Meggs	1,233	2.5	+0.5
	Green	Clive Gross	949	2.0	N/A
Majority			1,124	2.3
Turnout			48,392	64.8	+5.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 2001: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Nigel Waterson	19,738	44.1	+2.0
	Liberal Democrat	Chris Berry	17,584	39.3	+0.9
	Labour	Gillian Roles	5,967	13.3	+0.8
	UKIP	Barry Jones	907	2.0	+1.5
	Liberal	Theresia Williamson	574	1.3	-0.1
Majority			2,154	4.8
Turnout			44,770	59.6	-13.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Nigel Waterson	22,183	42.1	-10.9
	Liberal Democrat	Chris Berry	20,189	38.3	-2.9
	Labour	David Lines	6,576	12.5	+7.8
	Referendum Party	Trevor Lowe	2,724	5.2	N/A
	Liberal	Theresia Williamson	741	1.4
	UKIP	John Dawkins	254	0.5	N/A
Majority			1,994	3.8
Turnout			52,667	72.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

This constituency underwent boundary changes between the 1992 and 1997 general elections and thus change in share of vote is based on a notional calculation.

General Election 1992: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Nigel Waterson	31,792	51.6	−8.3
	Liberal Democrat	David Bellotti	26,311	42.7	+13.0
	Labour	IA Gibbons	2,834	4.6	−4.2
	Green	D Aherne	391	0.6	−0.9
	Liberal	Mrs MT Williamson	296	0.5	−29.3
Majority			5,481	8.9	−21.3
Turnout			61,624	80.9	+5.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	−10.7

By-election 1990: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	David Bellotti	23,415	50.8
	Conservative	Richard Hickmet	18,865	41.0
	Labour	Charlotte Atkins	2,308	5.0
	Green	David Aherne	553	1.2
	Liberal	Theresia Williamson	526	1.1
	Corrective Party	Lady Whiplash	216	0.5
	National Front	John McAuley	154	0.3
	Ironside Party	Eric Page	35	0.1
Majority			4,550	9.8
Turnout			46,072	60.7
	Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ian Gow	33,587	59.9
	Liberal	Peter Driver	16,664	29.7
	Labour	Ash Patel	4,928	8.8
	Green	Ruth Addison	867	1.6
Majority			16,923	30.2
Turnout			56,046	75.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1983: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ian Gow	31,501	59.1
	Liberal	Peter Driver	18,015	33.8
	Labour	Charles Clark	3,790	7.1
Majority			13,486	25.3
Turnout			53,306	73.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1979: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ian Gow	37,168	63.05
	Liberal	David Bellotti	11,084	18.80
	Labour	Len Caine	10,166	17.24
	National Front	C Mitchell	533	0.90
Majority			26,084	44.25
Turnout			58,951	76.68
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ian Gow	30,442	54.66
	Liberal	G H Millar	14,417	25.89
	Labour	Len Caine	10,830	19.45
Majority			16,025	28.78
Turnout			55,689	74.55
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ian Gow	31,462	51.31
	Liberal	Stephen Terrell	23,987	39.12
	Labour	David Dawson	5,874	9.58
Majority			7,475	12.19
Turnout			61,323	82.60
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1970: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Stuart Taylor	30,296	48.80
	Liberal	Stephen Terrell	23,308	37.55
	Labour	Cyril Abley	8,475	13.65
Majority			6,988	11.26
Turnout			62,079	73.67
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1966: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Stuart Taylor	26,039	46.26
	Liberal	Stephen Terrell	16,746	29.75
	Labour	J H High	12,620	22.42
	Independent	V H Petty	883	1.57
Majority			9,293	16.51
Turnout			56,288	77.24
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1964: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Stuart Taylor	26,410	49.01
	Liberal	Stephen Terrell	15,441	28.66
	Labour	J E M Baker	12,034	22.33
Majority			10,969	20.36
Turnout			53,885	76.70
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Stuart Taylor	27,874	57.28
	Labour	A A Dumont	11,837	24.32
	Liberal	Ronald Gardner-Thorpe	8,955	18.40
Majority			16,037	32.95
Turnout			48,666	77.28
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1920s

By-election 1925: Eastbourne
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir William Reginald Hall	12,741	58.4	−9.5
	Liberal	Harcourt Johnstone	5,386	24.7	+8.6
	Labour	T. S. B. Williams	3,696	16.9	+0.9
Majority			7,355	33.7	−18.1
Turnout			21,823	60.7	−14.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	−9.0

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in East Sussex

Sources

• Election result, 2005 (BBC)
• Election results, 1997 - 2001 (BBC)
• Election results, 1997 - 2001 (Election Demon)
• Election results, 1983 - 1992
• Election results, 1992 - 2005 (Guardian)
• Election results, 1950 - 2001 (Keele University)
• The Times House of Commons 1945. The Times. 1945. 
• Iain Dale, ed. (2003). The Times House of Commons 1929, 1931, 1935. Politico's (reprint). ISBN 1-84275-033-X. 
• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd edition ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.