Scarborough and Whitby (UK Parliament constituency)

Scarborough and Whitby
County constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Scarborough and Whitby in North Yorkshire.
Location of North Yorkshire within England.
County	North Yorkshire
Electorate	76,078 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Scarborough and Whitby
Current constituency
Created	1997 (1997)
Member of Parliament	Robert Goodwill (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Scarborough
1918 (1918)–1974 (1974)
Number of members	One
Type of constituency	County constituency
Replaced by	Scarborough
Created from	Scarborough and Whitby
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	Yorkshire and the Humber

Scarborough and Whitby 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.

History

The constituency name has had two separate periods of existence. A Scarborough and Whitby division of the North Riding of Yorkshire was created by the Boundary Commission of 1917 and first elected a Member of Parliament in the 1918 general election. This division took the entirety of the abolished Parliamentary borough of Scarborough, together with the majority of the previous Whitby division and a very small part of Cleveland division: the parishes of Westerdale and Commondale. It had a population, in the middle of 1914, of 72,979. The Boundary Commission had initially recommended that the division simply be called 'Scarborough' but an amendment moved by the Government during enactment of their recommendations changed it to Scarborough and Whitby.

The Initial Report of the Boundary Commission for England in 1947 made minor changes to the constituency, in line with local government changes which had abolished Guisborough Rural District in 1932 and absorbed it into Whitby Rural District. The new constituency again included the whole of Whitby Rural District, and so gained Hinderwell which was previously within Cleveland constituency. It had an electorate of 67,884 on 15 October 1946. No change was made in the First Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission in 1954.

The Second Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission, published in 1969, recommended that the constituency be divided. The recommendations came into effect at the February 1974 general election. The Scarborough constituency was then re-established, and Whitby joined with Guisborough, Loftus, Saltburn and Brotton to form Cleveland and Whitby.

By the beginning of the Third Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission, Cleveland had been created as a new county, which would normally prevent the Commission from recommending a constituency crossing the border. Several representations were made to the Commission to try to preserve Cleveland and Whitby constituency, but the Commission found itself unable to accept them and recommended putting Scarborough and Whitby together in a new Scarborough county constituency. This constituency did not include Pickering, which was placed in a new Ryedale constituency. In the Fourth Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for England, published in 1995 and coming into effect at the 1997 general election, the Scarborough constituency was renamed as Scarborough and Whitby with no change in boundaries.

Boundaries

When initially created in 1918 the constituency was defined as the whole of the Municipal Borough of Scarborough, the Urban Districts of Pickering, Scalby and Whitby, the Rural Districts of Scarborough and Whitby. It also included parts of two Rural Districts. Nine out of the eleven parishes within Pickering Rural District were included, namely Allerston, Ebberston, Kingthorpe, Levisham, Lockton, Marishes, Newton, Thornton Dale, and Wilton. Three of the nine parishes within Guisborough Rural District were also included: Commondale, Danby and Westerdale. As from 1950, the constituency was defined as the Municipal Borough of Scarborough, the Urban Districts of Pickering, Scalby and Whitby, the Rural Districts of Scarborough and Whitby.

The constituency in 1997 was defined as the following wards of the Borough of Scarborough: Ayton, Castle, Cayton, Central, Danby, Derwent, Eastfield, Eskdaleside, Falsgrave, Fylingdales, Lindhead, Mayfield, Mulgrave, Newby, Northstead, Scalby, Seamer, Streonshalh, Weaponness, and Woodlands (all of Scarborough Borough except the wards of Filey and Hertford, this is by coincidence or design that part of SBC that used to be in the North Riding). No change was made to the boundaries by the Fifth Periodical Review published in 2007, although changes in ward boundaries meant that the definition of the constituency was changed. It was now defined as the following wards of the Borough of Scarborough: Castle, Cayton, Central, Danby, Derwent Valley, Eastfield, Esk Valley, Falsgrave Park, Fylingdales, Lindhead, Mayfield, Mulgrave, Newby, North Bay, Northstead, Ramshill, Scalby Hackness and Staintondale, Seamer, Stepney, Streonshalh, Weaponness, Whitby West Cliff, and Woodlands.

The constituency covers the towns of Scarborough and Whitby. Both of these are seaside towns in North Yorkshire on the north-east coast of England. However, the constituency is largely rural and rural issues tend to influence voting preferences.

History since 1997

When the constituency was recreated in 1997, the Labour candidate, Lawrie Quinn, defeated John Sykes, the sitting Conservative MP - one of many unlikely gains for Labour in their landslide victory of that year. The current incumbent, Robert Goodwill, defeated Quinn in 2005 to regain the seat for the Conservatives.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1918–1974

Scarborough & Whitby 1918-1974

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir Gervase Beckett, Bt.	Coalition Conservative
	1922	Sidney Herbert	Conservative
	1931 by-election	Sir Paul Latham	Conservative
	1941 by-election	Sir Alexander Spearman	Conservative
	1966	Michael Shaw	Conservative
	Feb 1974	constituency abolished

MPs since 1997

Election		Member	Party
	1997	Lawrie Quinn	Labour
	2005	Robert Goodwill	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Scarborough & Whitby 1997-

General Election 2010: Scarborough and Whitby
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Goodwill	21,108	42.8	+1.8
	Labour	Annajoy David	12,978	26.3	-12.0
	Liberal Democrat	Tania Exley-Moore	11,093	22.5	+6.5
	UKIP	Michael James	1,484	3.0	+1.0
	BNP	Trisha Scott	1,445	2.9	+2.9
	Green	Dilys Cluer	734	1.5	-1.1
	Independent	Peter Popple	329	0.7	+0.7
	Alliance for Green Socialism	Juliet Boddington	111	0.2	+0.2
Majority			8,130	16.5
Turnout			49,282	65.3	+1.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	6.9

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Scarborough and Whitby
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Goodwill	19,248	41.0	+1.4
	Labour	Lawrence Quinn	18,003	38.4	-8.8
	Liberal Democrat	Tania Exley-Moore	7,495	16.0	+7.6
	Green	Jonathan Dixon	1,214	2.6	+0.4
	UKIP	Paul Abbott	952	2.0	0.0
Majority			1,245	2.7
Turnout			46.912	71.7	+8.5
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	5.1

General Election 2001: Scarborough and Whitby
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lawrence Quinn	22,426	47.2	+1.6
	Conservative	John Sykes	18,841	39.6	+3.4
	Liberal Democrat	Thomas Pearce	3,977	8.4	-5.8
	Green	Jonathan Dixon	1,049	2.2	N/A
	UKIP	John Jacob	970	2.0	N/A
	ProLife Alliance	Theresa Murray	260	0.5	N/A
Majority			3,585	7.6
Turnout			47,523	63.2	-8.4
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Scarborough and Whitby
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lawrence Quinn	24,791	45.6	N/A
	Conservative	John Sykes	19,667	36.2	N/A
	Liberal Democrat	Martin Allinson	7,672	14.1	N/A
	Referendum Party	S. Murray	2,191	4.0	N/A
Majority			5,124		N/A
Turnout			54,321	71.6	N/A
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	14.70

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in North Yorkshire
• [1] www.annajoydavid.org.uk

Sources

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 509. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.