Epping Forest

Epping Forest County constituency
Epping Forest shown within Essex, and Essex shown within England
Created:	1974
MP:	Eleanor Laing
Party:	Conservative
Type:	House of Commons
County:	Essex
EP constituency:	East of England

Epping Forest is a parliamentary 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.

Boundaries

The constituency of Epping Forest comprises Loughton, Epping, Waltham Abbey, Chigwell, Buckhurst Hill, Theydon Bois, North Weald, the surrounding villages and the ancient Forest itself.

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission for England has created a modified Epping Forest constituency with the following electoral wards:

• Broadley Common, Epping Upland and Nazeing, Buckhurst Hill East, Buckhurst Hill West, Chigwell Row, Chigwell Village, Epping Hemnall, Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common, Grange Hill, Loughton Alderton, Loughton Broadway, Loughton Fairmead, Loughton Forest, Loughton Roding, Loughton St John’s, Loughton St Mary’s, Theydon Bois, Waltham Abbey High Beach, Waltham Abbey Honey Lane, Waltham Abbey North East, Waltham Abbey Paternoster, and Waltham Abbey South West.

Other wards of Epping Forest have been used in the creation of a modified Harlow seat.

Historic wards

Redrawn boundaries of the Eppring Forest constituency to be in use after 2005

In the boundaries in place from the February 1974 general election to the 1983 general election the constituency officially was made up of:

• Urban Districts:
  • Chigwell Urban District: Loughton, Chigwell, Buckhurst Hill
  • Epping Urban District: Epping
  • Waltham Holy Cross Urban District: Waltham Abbey
• Rural Districts: Part of Epping and Ongar Rural District
  • Civil Parishes of Epping Upland, Lambourne, Stapleford Abbots, Stapleford Tawney, Theydon Bois, Theydon Garnon, Theydon Mount

Political geography

When Epping Forest was first created, it was instinctively more pro-Conservative than the old Epping seat, as it lost the new town of Harlow (inside the old Epping Rural District) and gained the less pro-Labour Chigwell Urban District. During the Thatcher period the Labour Party's vote was crushed. Even though the Liberals managed to move into second place, their vote did little more than follow national trends and as soon as 1987 they lost votes far faster than would be expected when looking at national results.

Labour almost took the seat in 1997, but since then, Epping Forest has swung far quicker to the right than the country as a whole, and the majority the Conservatives got in 2005 would resemble a Tory national victory in the early 1990s, even though Labour won with a 66-seat majority in 2005.

Two former candidates in the Epping Forest constituency have also stood for election as Mayor of London: Steve Norris (Conservative; MP 1988-97) and Julian Leppert (British National Party).

Members of Parliament

The constituency was created in 1974 from the seats of Epping & Chigwell; the former had been represented by Winston Churchill throughout his tenure as Prime Minister during the Second World War. The present MP is the Conservative Eleanor Laing.

Election results

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Notional results (before 1974)

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Essex

References

Coordinates: 51°40′N 0°05′E / 51.67°N 0.09°E / 51.67; 0.09