Scarborough and Whitby

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Scarborough and Whitby County constituency
Scarborough and Whitby shown within North Yorkshire, and North Yorkshire shown within England
Created:	1918, 1997
MP:	Robert Goodwill
Party:	Conservative
Type:	House of Commons
County:	North Yorkshire
EP constituency:	Yorkshire and the Humber

Scarborough and Whitby is a 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.

History

The constituency has had two separate periods of existence. It was first created for the 1918 general election, partly replacing the old Scarborough constituency, and was abolished for the February 1974 general election. The Scarborough constituency was then re-established, but was again replaced by a new Scarborough and Whitby constituency for the 1997 general election.

Boundaries

This constituency covers the towns of Scarborough and Whitby. Both of these are seaside towns in North Yorkshire on the north-east coast of England. However, the constituency is largely rural and rural issues tend to influence voting preferences.

Boundary review

Following their review of parliamentary representation in North Yorkshire, the Boundary Commission for England has made only minor changes to the existing Scarborough and Whitby seat.

The electoral wards used in the newly drawn constituency are;

• Castle, Cayton, Central, Danby, Derwent Valley, Eastfield, Esk Valley, Falsgrave Park, Fylingdales, Lindhead, Mayfield, Mulgrave, Newby, North Bay, Northstead, Ramshill, Scalby, Hackness and Staintondale, Seamer, Stepney, Streonshalh, Weaponness, Whitby West Cliff, and Woodlands.

Members of Parliament

When the seat was recreated at the 1997 general election, the Labour candidate, Lawrie Quinn, defeated John Sykes, Conservative MP for Scarborough since 1992. This was one of many unlikely gains for Labour in their landslide victory of that year - at the time of the campaign the BBC election website, drawing on local culture, stated that the event of a Labour MP being elected for the seat would "probably [be] as fictional as Dracula's landing at Whitby".

Robert Goodwill defeated Quinn at the 2005 general election to regain the seat for the Conservative Party.

Election results

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in North Yorkshire

References

Sources

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 509. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs