Kingston and Surbiton (UK Parliament constituency)

Kingston and Surbiton Borough constituency
Kingston and Surbiton shown within Greater London
Created:	1997
MP:	Edward Davey
Party:	Liberal Democrat
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Greater London
EP constituency:	London

Kingston and Surbiton is a borough 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.

Boundaries

The constituency covers most of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, covering the south of Kingston itself and the town of Surbiton, as well as Chessington, New Malden and Tolworth. The remainder of the borough lies in the Richmond Park constituency.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in South London, the Boundary Commission for England has made subtle changes to the Kingston and Surbiton constituency, realigning its northern boundary to match the recent changes made to ward boundaries. The Commission received only eleven representations following the publication of the original proposals, of which ten were in support.

The electoral wards forming the constituency are:

• Alexandra, Berrylands, Beverley, Chessington North & Hook, Chessington South, Grove, Old Malden, St James, St Mark’s, Surbiton Hill, and Tolworth & Hook Rise.

History

The constituency was created in 1997, when the number of seats covering the boroughs of Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames was reduced from four to three. It replaced the former Surbiton constituency completely and also covers the south of the former Kingston constituency. Being largely middle-class, suburban areas, both Kingston and Surbiton were traditionally strongholds for the Conservatives, with Norbiton being the sole Labour voting ward.

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont represented Kingston from a by-election in 1972 until the 1997 general election, when he was not selected as the Conservative candidate for either of its replacements. Instead, the incumbent Surbiton MP Richard Tracey was selected, while Lamont ended up unsuccessfully contesting Harrogate and Knaresborough in North Yorkshire. In the event, Tracey was defeated by the Liberal Democrat candidate Edward Davey, by a narrow margin of just 56 votes, due to the intervention of the Referendum Party.

Davey has held on to the seat since then, with an increased majority of over 15,000 at the 2001 election, and a smaller one (just under 9,000) at the 2005 election, and 7,560 in the 2010 election. On 3rd February 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Davey Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in the Coalition Cabinet, resulting from the resignation of Chris Huhne earlier that day.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1997	Edward Davey	Liberal Democrats

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Kingston and Surbiton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Edward Davey	28,428	49.8	-1.3
	Conservative	Helen Whately	20,868	36.5	+3.5
	Labour	Max Freedman	5,337	9.3	-3.8
	UKIP	Jonathan Greensted	1,450	2.5	+1.2
	Green	Chris Walker	555	1.0	+1.0
	Monster Raving Loony	Monkey The Drummer	247	0.4	+0.4
	Christian Peoples	Tony May	226	0.4	+0.4
Majority			7,560	13.2
Turnout			57,111	70.4	+2.7
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	-2.4

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Kingston and Surbiton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Edward Davey	25,397	51.0	−9.2
	Conservative	Kevin Davis	16,431	33.0	+4.8
	Labour	Nick Parrott	6,553	13.2	+4.4
	UKIP	Barry Thornton	657	1.3	+0.4
	Socialist Labour	John Hayball	366	0.7	+0.1
	Veritas	David Henson	200	0.4	N/A
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	George Weiss	146	0.3	N/A
Majority			8,966	18.0
Turnout			49,750	68.5	+1.0
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	−7.0

General Election 2001: Kingston and Surbiton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Edward Davey	29,542	60.2	+23.5
	Conservative	David Shaw	13,866	28.2	-8.3
	Labour	Philip Woodford	4,302	8.8	-14.3
	Green	Chris Spruce	572	1.2
	UKIP	Amy Burns	438	0.9	+0.1
	Socialist Labour	John Hayball	319	0.6
	Unrepresented People's Party	Jeremy Middleton	54	0.1
Majority			15,676	32.0
Turnout			49,093	67.5	-7.8
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Kingston and Surbiton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Edward Davey	20,411	36.7
	Conservative	Richard Tracey	20,355	36.6
	Labour	Sheila Griffin	12,811	23.0
	Referendum Party	G. Tchiprout	1,470	2.6
	UKIP	P. Burns	418	0.8
	Natural Law	M. Leighton	100	0.2
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	C. Port	100	0.2
Majority			56	0.1
Turnout			55,665	75.3

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London

Sources

• Boundary Commission for England

External links

• Kingston and Surbiton (BBC)
• Royal Borough of Kingston Council website
• The Public Whip

2010 candidates

• Max Freedman - Labour PPC for Kingston & Surbiton
• Conservative Parliamentary Candidate
• TheyWorkforyou.com - Kingston and Surbiton's MP