Conwy (UK Parliament constituency)

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Not to be confused with Conwy (National Assembly for Wales constituency).
Conwy
County constituency
Conwy shown within Wales
Created: 1983
MP: Betty Williams
Party: Labour
Type: House of Commons
Preserved county: Clwyd, Gwynedd
EP constituency: Wales

Conwy is an electoral constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the single-member district plurality (also known as first-past-the-post) system of voting.

The Conwy Welsh Assembly constituency was created with the same boundaries in 1999.

Contents

[edit] Boundaries

The constituency is, geographically, relatively small for its region, as it follows and tends to keep to the coast, taking in parts of two separate densely populated coastal conurbations.

As well as the walled castle town of Conwy from which it bears its name, the constituency mainly comprises the popular holiday resort and retail centre of Llandudno to the east, and the city of Bangor, which is home to the University of Wales, Bangor, to the west. It also includes the smaller coastal towns of Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan, as well as some sparser inland areas including former slate-quarrying communities in the Ogwen Valley.

The constituency, notably, does not include Colwyn Bay (or outlying Rhos-on-Sea), which forms part of a coastal conurbation (and the Conwy county borough) with Llandudno and its outlying town of Penrhyn Bay—both in the constituency; this area comes under the constituency of Clwyd West to the east. Nor does it include the town of Caernarfon—just southwest of Bangor—which is in a constituency of the same name.

The constituency is also bordered by Meirionnydd Nant Conwy to the south, and the insular constituency of Ynys Mon to the west.

Following the decisions of the Welsh Boundary Commission, the Conwy seat is to be significantly altered, and will form the base of a new Aberconwy constituency. The name was chosen partly to avoid confusion between the parliamentary seat and the existing county.

[edit] Profile

Although, the constituency includes a student population from the university, most of the voters are towards the older end of the age spectrum as it is a popular retirement area. The constituency is also linguistically diverse with mainly English speakers in the east and mainly Welsh speakers in the west and inland areas.

[edit] Members of Parliament

The current MP is Betty Williams of the Labour Party, who has held the seat since 1997 when she gained 35.04% of the vote—a 9.4% swing from the Conservatives. She increased her share of the vote in 2001 (by 6.8%) but it was reduced in 2005 (by 4.7%). She is also the first female MP to hold the seat. The seat was previously held (since its renaming in 1983) by Sir Wyn Roberts for the Conservative Party, who was first elected for Conway, the old anglicised name of the constituency, in 1970.

[edit] Elections

In the 2005 general election, the seat was the 81st easiest seat for the Liberal Democrats to gain, and the 153rd easiest seat for the Conservative Party to gain. The Labour Party did not include the seat on its list of vulnerable seats and eventually held the seat (with a reduced proportion of the vote).

General Election 2005: Conwy
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Betty Williams 12,479 37.1 -4.7
Conservative Guto Bebb 9,398 27.9 +4.2
Liberal Democrat Gareth Roberts 6,723 20.0 +3.1
Plaid Cymru Paul Rowlinson 3,730 11.1 -5.4
Green Jim Killock 512 1.5 +1.5
Socialist Labour David Lloyd Jones 324 1.0 +1.0
UK Independence Ken Khambatta 298 0.9 -0.2
Legalise Cannabis Tim Evans 193 0.6 +0.6
Majority 3,081 9.2
Turnout 33,723 62.6 -0.3
Labour hold Swing -4.5
General Election 2001: Conwy
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Betty Williams 14,366 41.8 +6.8
Conservative David Logan 8,147 23.7 -0.6
Liberal Democrat Vicky MacDonald 5,800 16.9 -14.3
Plaid Cymru Ann Owen 5,665 16.5 +9.6
UK Independence Allan Barham 388 1.1 N/A
Majority 6,219 18.1
Turnout 34,366 62.9 -12.5
Labour hold Swing

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Constituencies in Wales
Labour
Liberal Democrat
Conservative
Plaid Cymru
Independent
Wales European constituency: Labour (2) · Conservative (1) · Plaid Cymru (1)