List of parliamentary constituencies in Essex
The county of Essex (which includes the unitary authorities of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock) is divided into 18 Parliamentary constituencies (sub-classified into six of borough type and twelve of county status affecting the level of expenses permitted and status of returning officer). The county saw the majority of its population and seats removed on the creation of the county of Greater London in 1965. Since then, the Conservatives have won a majority of the seats in the revised county, with all of Essex's seats being won by Conservative MPs at the 2019 United Kingdom general election.
Constituencies
Conservative† Labour‡ Liberal Democrat¤
2010 boundary review
Under the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the Boundary Commission for England increased Essex's representation from 17 to 18 MPs, with the creation of the constituency of Witham. This had a significant impact on the boundaries of the majority of the existing constituencies and also resulted in several name changes.
| Constituency name | Boundaries 1997-2010 | Constituency name | Boundaries 2010-present |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
|
 |
Proposed boundary changes
The Boundary Commission for England submitted their final proposals in respect of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies (the 2018 review) in September 2018. Although the proposals were immediately laid before Parliament they were not brought forward by the Government for approval. Accordingly, they did not come into effect for the 2019 election which took place on 12 December 2019, and which was contested using the constituency boundaries in place since 2010.
Under the terms of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, the Sixth Review was based on reducing the total number of MPs from 650 to 600 and a strict electoral parity requirement that the electorate of all constituencies should be within a range of 5% either side of the electoral quota.
On 24 March 2020, the Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, Chloe Smith, issued a written statement to Parliament setting out the Government's thinking with regard to parliamentary boundaries.[3] Subsequently, the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020[4] was passed into law on 14 December 2020. This formally removed the duty to implement the 2018 review and set out the framework for future boundary reviews. The Act provided that the number of constituencies should remain at the current level of 650, rather than being reduced to 600, while retaining the requirement that the electorate should be no more than +/- 5% from the electoral quota.
The Act specified that the next review should be completed no later than 1 July 2023 and the Boundary Commission formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021.[5] See 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for further details.
Results history
Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019[6]
2019
The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Essex in the 2019 general election were as follows:
| Party | Votes | % | Change from 2017 | Seats | Change from 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 577,118 | 64.5% |  6.0%
|
18 | 0 |
| Labour | 189,471 | 21.2% |  7.8%
|
0 | 0 |
| Liberal Democrats | 95,078 | 10.6% | 4.8%
|
0 | 0 |
| Greens | 20,438 | 2.3% | 0.8%
|
0 | 0 |
| Others | 12,502 | 1.4% | 3.8%
|
0 | 0 |
| Total | 894,607 | 100.0 | 18 |
Percentage votes
| Election year | 1974
(Feb) |
1974
(Oct) |
1979 | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 40.3 | 40.9 | 52.5 | 51.9 | 54.1 | 53.9 | 40.3 | 42.8 | 46.0 | 49.2 | 50.3 | 58.5 | 64.5 |
| Labour | 32.9 | 35.2 | 28.9 | 17.8 | 18.9 | 23.5 | 36.4 | 34.7 | 28.9 | 18.6 | 18.4 | 29.0 | 21.2 |
| Liberal Democrat1 | 26.7 | 23.8 | 17.7 | 29.7 | 26.6 | 21.7 | 18.2 | 16.7 | 19.1 | 21.3 | 6.7 | 5.8 | 10.6 |
| Green Party | - | - | - | - | * | * | * | * | * | 1.0 | 3.0 | 1.5 | 2.3 |
| UKIP | - | - | - | - | - | - | * | * | * | 4.1 | 20.5 | 4.6 | * |
| Other | - | 0.1 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 5.8 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 1.4 |
11974 & 1979 - Liberal Party; 1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance
* Included in Other
Seats
| Election year | 1974
(Feb) |
1974
(Oct) |
1979 | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 11 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 18 |
| Labour | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Liberal Democrat1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| UKIP | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 14 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
11974 & 1979 - Liberal Party; 1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance
Maps
-
Feb 1974 -
Oct 1974
-
1979 -
1983 -
1987 -
1992
-
1997 -
2001 -
2005 -
2010 -
2015 -
2017 -
2019
Historical representation by party
A cell marked → (with a different colour background to the preceding cell) indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.
Key: bulk or all of areas marked † form part of present-day Greater London.
1885 to 1918
Conservative Independent Labour Independent Labour Party Labour Liberal Liberal-Labour
1918 to 1945
British Socialist (1919-20) / Communist (1920-22) Coalition Liberal (1918-22) / National Liberal (1922-23) Coalition National Democratic & Labour Common Wealth Conservative Constitutionalist Independent Labour Liberal National Liberal (1931-68) National Socialist
1945 to 1974
Common Wealth Conservative Labour Independent Group (1949-50) Labour National Liberal (1931-68)
1974 to present
Conservative Independent Labour Liberal Democrats UKIP
See also
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in the East of England (region)
- History of Parliamentary constituencies and boundaries in Essex
- Historical List of Parliamentary constituencies in Essex
- List of former parliamentary constituencies in Essex
Notes
References
- ^ Baker, Carl; Uberoi, Elise; Cracknell, Richard (2020-01-28). "General Election 2019: full results and analysis".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ a b c "Constituencies A-Z - Election 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
- ^ "Update: Strengthening Democracy:Written statement - HCWS183". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
- ^ "Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020".
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "2023 Review launched | Boundary Commission for England". Retrieved 2021-01-08.
- ^ Watson, Christopher; Uberoi, Elise; Loft, Philip (2020-04-17). "General election results from 1918 to 2019".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help)