Clacton (UK Parliament constituency)

Clacton
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Clacton in Essex for the 2010 general election.
Location of Essex within England.
County	Essex
Population	85,359 (2011 census)
Electorate	67,447 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Clacton, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of parliament	Douglas Carswell (UKIP)
Number of members	One
Created from	Harwich
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	East of England

Clacton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament.

Clacton is currently represented by Douglas Carswell. Carswell defected to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) on 28 August 2014 from the Conservative Party. He resigned to force a by-election, held on 9 October 2014, in which he stood as the UKIP candidate and was re-elected. Carswell retained the seat for UKIP at the subsequent general election.

Boundaries

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission created this as a new seat, consisting of essentially the former Harwich constituency, minus the town of Harwich itself and a few nearby villages, plus St. Osyth and Weeley, moved from the old North Essex constituency. Apart from the North Sea it is surrounded by the Harwich and North Essex constituency on all other sides.

This new seat contains the towns of Clacton, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze, as well as surrounding villages.

The electoral wards used to form the Clacton constituency are entirely within the district of Tendring

• Alton Park, Beaumont and Thorpe, Bockings Elm, Burrsville, Frinton, Golf Green, Hamford, Haven, Holland and Kirby, Homelands, Little Clacton and Weeley, Peter Bruff, Pier, Rush Green, St Bartholomews, St James, St Johns, St Marys, St Osyth and Point Clear, St Pauls and Walton.

Constituency profile

The new seat is almost completely coastal, comprising seaside resorts along the Tendring peninsula. It shares an inland border with just one constituency - Harwich and North Essex.

Like some other coastal seats, such as Christchurch in Dorset, the electorate is one of the oldest in the country, with a high proportion of retirees, and low numbers of non-white residents. The area has experienced a considerable influx of White British families from areas of East London such as Barking and Dagenham, leading to the town of Clacton becoming known as "Little Dagenham."

The stark exception is the village of Jaywick, which suffers from extremely high levels of deprivation.

In the Indices of deprivation 2010 an area of Jaywick was identified as the single most deprived LSOA in all of England, out of around 32,000, with unemployment estimated at almost 50%. Many homes are essentially beach huts and lack basic amenities. In the 2007 Index, this area was the third most deprived in the country.

Members of Parliament

The constituency's only member of parliament to date has been Douglas Carswell, who had previously sat for the Harwich constituency since gaining that seat for the Conservatives in 2005.

On 28 August 2014 Carswell announced his defection to UKIP. Although not required to seek re-election following a change of allegiance, on 29 August, Carswell vacated his seat by taking up the appointment of Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, triggering a by-election on 9 October 2014 in which he was elected, standing as the UKIP candidate. He was re-elected as MP in the 2015 general election, seeing his majority cut by roughly three-quarters, an 11% swing to the Conservatives. Mr Carswell then became UKIP's only MP in the Commons, as Mark Reckless, a fellow Conservative defector, lost his seat.

Election		Member	Party
	2010	Douglas Carswell	Conservative
	2014		UKIP

Elections

See also: Opinion polling in United Kingdom constituencies, 2010–15 § Clacton

General Election 2015: Clacton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UKIP	Douglas Carswell	19,642	44.4	N/A
	Conservative	Giles Watling	16,205	36.7	−16.4
	Labour	Tim Young	6,364	14.4	−10.6
	Green	Chris Southall	1,184	2.7	+1.4
	Liberal Democrat	David Grace	812	1.8	−11.1
Majority			3,437	7.8	N/A
Turnout			44,207	64.1	+0.1
	UKIP hold		Swing	+30.4

By-election 2014: Clacton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	UKIP	Douglas Carswell	21,113	59.7	N/A
	Conservative	Giles Watling	8,709	24.6	−28.4
	Labour	Tim Young	3,957	11.2	−13.8
	Green	Chris Southall	688	1.9	+0.7
	Liberal Democrat	Andy Graham	483	1.3	−11.6
	Independent	Bruce Sizer	205	0.6	N/A
	Monster Raving Loony	Alan "Howling Laud" Hope	127	0.4	N/A
	Independent	Charlotte Rose	56	0.2	N/A
Majority			12,404	35.1	N/A
Turnout			35,338	51.2	-13.0
	UKIP gain from Conservative		Swing	+44.1

General Election 2010: Clacton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Douglas Carswell	22,867	53.0	+8.6
	Labour	Ivan Henderson	10,799	25.0	−10.9
	Liberal Democrat	Michael Green	5,577	12.9	−0.6
	BNP	Jim Taylor	1,975	4.6	N/A
	Tendring First	Terry Allen	1,078	2.5	N/A
	Green	Chris Southall	535	1.2	N/A
	Independent	Chris Humphrey	292	0.7	N/A
Majority			12,068	28.0	N/A
Turnout			43,123	64.2	+1.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	+9.7

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Essex

External links

• nomis Constituency Profile for Clacton — presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics.