Gravesham (UK Parliament constituency)

Gravesham
County constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Gravesham in Kent for the 2010 general election.
Location of Kent within England.
County	Kent
Electorate	70,412 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Gravesend
Current constituency
Created	1983 (1983)
Member of Parliament	Adam Holloway (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South East England

Gravesham ( /ˈɡreɪvʃəm/) is a county 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. Adam Holloway captured the seat for the Tories in an upset in 2005 and held the seat with an expanded majority in the May 2010 election.

Boundaries

The constituency shares similar borders to that of the Borough of Gravesham. The largest town in the constituency is Gravesend.

The boundaries of this constituency are due to change slightly under initial proposals published by the Boundary Commission to include 4,784 electors currently situated in the neighbouring constituency of Dartford. Such changes would also see the constituency renamed Gravesend.

History

The constituency and its predecessor the Gravesend constituency have been called a Bellwether constituency; until the 2005 general election, they had voted for the winning party in each election since the 1951 general election, and in each election since World War I other than the 1929 general election. In the 1929 and 1951 elections, they voted for the party with the largest share of the vote nationally.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1983	Timothy Brinton	Conservative
	1987	Jacques Arnold	Conservative
	1997	Chris Pond	Labour
	2005	Adam Holloway	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Gravesham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Adam Holloway	22,956	48.5	+4.8
	Labour Co-op	Kathryn Smith	13,644	28.8	-13.4
	Liberal Democrat	Anna Arrowsmith	6,293	13.3	+2.6
	UKIP	Geoffrey Clark	2,265	4.8	+2.9
	English Democrats	Steve Uncles	1,005	2.1	N/A
	Green	Richard Crawford	675	1.4	N/A
	Independent	Alice Dartnell	465	1	N/A
Majority			9,312	19.7
Turnout			47,303
	Conservative hold		Swing	{{{swing}}}

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Gravesham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Adam Holloway	19,739	43.7	+4.9
	Labour	Chris Pond	19,085	42.2	-7.7
	Liberal Democrat	Bruce Parmenter	4,851	10.7	+1.5
	UKIP	Geoff Coates	850	1.9	-0.2
	English Independence Party	Christopher Nickerson	654	1.4	+1.4
Majority			654	1.4
Turnout			45,179	65.8	3.1
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	6.3

General Election 2001: Gravesham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Chris Pond	21,773	49.9	+0.2
	Conservative	Jacques Arnold	16,911	38.8	-0.1
	Liberal Democrat	Bruce Parmenter	4,031	9.2	+1.5
	UKIP	William Jenner	924	2.1	N/A
Majority			4,862	11.1
Turnout			43,639	62.7	-14.1
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1992: Gravesham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Jacques Arnold	29,322	49.7	−0.4
	Labour	GA Green	23,829	40.4	+5.5
	Liberal Democrat	DR Deedman	5,269	8.9	−6.2
	Independent	AJ Bunstone	273	0.5	N/A
	Independent Conservative	REB Khilkoff-Boulding	187	0.3	N/A
	Independent Socialist	BJ Buxton	174	0.3	N/A
Majority			5,493	9.3	−5.9
Turnout			59,054	83.4	+4.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	−3.0

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Kent