South West Norfolk (UK Parliament constituency)

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South West Norfolk County constituency
South West Norfolk shown within Norfolk, and Norfolk shown within England
Created:	1885
MP:	Christopher Fraser
Party:	Conservative
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Norfolk
EP constituency:	East of England

South West Norfolk is a parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom composed of the towns of Downham Market, Swaffham and Thetford in Norfolk. The current Member of Parliament, Christopher Fraser, replaced Gillian Shephard, who stepped down at the May 2005 general election after having served since 1987.

Contents 1 2005 election 2 History 3 Members of Parliament 4 Election results 4.1 Elections in the 2000s 4.2 Elections in the 1990s 5 See also 6 References

[edit] 2005 election

Shephard decided not to run for the 2005 general election. The Conservative Party selected Christopher Fraser to be their candidate, and he was elected with a majority of over 10,000. Labour's candidate was Charmaine Morgan and United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) selected Delia Hall.

[edit] History

South West Norfolk has been held solidly by Conservatives since 1964 but for twenty years before then, it had been ultra-marginal. Labour first held it from 1929-31, and Sidney Dye won it for Labour in 1945 with a tiny majority of 53, holding it at the 1950 election by 260. He lost it to Denys Bullard in 1951 by 442 votes and won it back in 1955 with a majority of 193. Dye died at the end of 1958, and in the by-election Albert Hilton retained the seat for Labour by a margin of 1,354 votes. In the 1959 general election that soon followed, his majority was cut to 78.

Although Labour had held the seat during two Conservative national election victories, the Conservatives took the seat in the 1964 election, which Labour won nationally. Paul Hawkins and Shephard held the seat since then, although the latter's majority was slashed in the 1997 general election.

[edit] Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	William Tyssen-Amherst	Conservative
	1892	Sir Thomas Leigh Hare
	1906	Richard Winfrey
	1923	Alan McLean	Conservative
	1929	William Benjamin Taylor	Labour
	1931	Alan McLean	Conservative
	1935	Somerset de Chair	Conservative
	1945	Sidney Dye	Labour
	1951	Denys Bullard	Conservative
	1955	Sidney Dye	Labour
	1959	Albert Hilton	Labour
	1964	Paul Hawkins	Conservative
	1987	Gillian Shephard	Conservative
	2005	Christopher Fraser	Conservative

[edit] Election results

[edit] Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: South West Norfolk
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Christopher Fraser	25,881	46.9	−5.3
	Labour	Charmaine Morgan	15,795	28.7	−5.8
	Liberal Democrat	April Pond	10,207	18.5	+7.8
	UK Independence	Delia Hall	2,738	5.0	+2.4
	Independent	Kim Hayes	506	0.9	N/A
Majority			10,086	18.3
Turnout			55,127	62.5	−0.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.3

General Election 2001: South West Norfolk
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gillian Shephard	27,633	52.2	+10.2
	Labour	Anne Hanson	18,267	34.5	-3.3
	Liberal Democrat	Gordon Dean	5,681	10.7	-3.2
	UK Independence	Ian Smith	1,368	2.6	N/A
Majority			9,366	17.7	+13.5
Turnout			52,949	63.1	-10.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	+6.7

[edit] Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: South West Norfolk
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gillian Shephard	24,694	42.0	−12.6
	Labour	Adrian Hefferman	22,230	37.8	+10.7
	Liberal Democrat	David Bucton	8,178	13.9	−6.3
	Referendum Party	R. Hoare	3,694	6.3	N/A
Majority			2,434	4.2	−23.3
Turnout				73.1	−6.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	−11.65

General Election 1992: South West Norfolk
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gillian Shephard	33,637	54.6
	Labour	Mary Page	16,706	27.1
	Liberal Democrat	John Marsh	11,237	18.2
Majority			16,931	27.5
Turnout				79.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

[edit] See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Norfolk

[edit] References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs.
• Richard Kimber's Political science Resources: UK General Elections since 1832

Constituencies in the East of England
Conservative	Billericay | Braintree | Brentwood and Ongar | Broxbourne | Bury St Edmunds | Castle Point | Central Suffolk and North Ipswich | Epping Forest | Harwich | Hemel Hempstead | Hertford and Stortford | Hertsmere | Hitchin and Harpenden | Huntingdon | Maldon and East Chelmsford | Mid Bedfordshire | Mid Norfolk | North Essex | North East Bedfordshire | North East Cambridgeshire | North East Hertfordshire | North West Cambridgeshire | North West Norfolk | Peterborough | Rayleigh | Rochford and Southend East | Saffron Walden | Southend West | South Cambridgeshire | South East Cambridgeshire | South Norfolk | South Suffolk | South West Bedfordshire | South West Hertfordshire | South West Norfolk | St Albans | Suffolk Coastal | Welwyn Hatfield | West Chelmsford | West Suffolk
Labour	Basildon | Bedford | Great Yarmouth | Harlow | Ipswich | Luton North | Luton South | Norwich North | Norwich South | Stevenage | Thurrock | Watford | Waveney
Liberal Democrat	Cambridge | Colchester | North Norfolk
East of England European constituency: Conservative (3) | UKIP (2) | Labour (1) | Liberal Democrats (1)