Isle_of_Wight_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

Isle of Wight (UK Parliament constituency)

Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom

Isle of Wight (/waɪt/ WYTE)^[1] is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Bob Seely, a Conservative.

Quick Facts The Isle of Wight, County ...

The Isle of Wight
County constituency for the House of Commons
Location of Isle of Wight within England
County	Isle of Wight
Electorate	113,021 (2019)
Major settlements	Brading, Lake, Newport, Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin
Current constituency
Created	1832
Member of Parliament	Bob Seely (Conservative)
Seats	One
Created from	Hampshire Newtown Yarmouth

Created by the Great Reform Act for the 1832 general election, it covers the whole of the Isle of Wight. It had the largest electorate of any constituency at the 2019 general election.^{[n 2]}

Following the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the constituency will be abolished with the island being divided into Isle of Wight East and Isle of Wight West.^[2]

Boundaries

Map of current boundaries

The Isle of Wight has been a single seat of the House of Commons since 1832. It covers the same land as the ceremonial county of the Isle of Wight and the area administered by the unitary authority, Isle of Wight Council: a diamond-shaped island with rounded oblique corners, measuring 22.5 miles (36.2 km) by 13 miles (21 km), the Needles and similar small uninhabitable rocks of very small square surface area. The island is linked by ferry crossings from four points (five points if counting Cowes and East Cowes separately) to three points in Hampshire: Lymington, Southampton and Portsmouth.

Its electorate of 113,021 at the 2019 general election^[3] is the largest in the UK, more than 50% above the UK average: 73,181,^[3] and five times the size of the smallest seat: Na h-Eileanan an Iar, formerly known as the Western Isles.^[4]

One or two seats problem

The reviews of the Boundary Commission for England since 1954 have consulted locally on splitting the island into two seats (and included occasional proposals for a seat crossing the Solent onto the mainland) but met an overall distaste by the independent commissioners and most consultees and consultation respondents. The consensus of varying panels of Boundary Commissioners, party-interested and neutral commentators is that the island would be best represented by one MP. The Commissioners did make mention perfunctorily of their duty by law to avoid such an extent of malapportionment (termed by most commissioners "leaving the island somewhat oversized"). One problem the independent body cited in 2008 was a difficulty of dividing the island in two in a way that would be acceptable to all major interests. The arbitrary division line problem is routinely encountered in those council areas which have no rural elements or natural divides.^[5]

Eventually, under the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, which proposed that the total number of constituencies in the UK Parliament should be reduced from 650 to 600, it was specified that the Isle of Wight should comprise two "protected" seats, meaning that their electorates did not have to be within the statutory range of ±5%. The 2011 Act was amended by the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020 which reversed the decrease in the total number of seats but retained the two protected seats for the Isle of Wight.

Proposed boundary changes

Main article: 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies

The Isle of Wight has elected one MP since 1832 but will elect two MPs for the first time at the next general election

Following the abandonment of the Sixth Periodic Review (the 2018 review), the Boundary Commission for England formally launched the 2023 Review on 5 January 2021.^[6] Initial proposals were published on 8 June 2021 and, following two periods of public consultation, revised proposals were published on 8 November 2022. The final proposals were published on 28 June 2023.^[7]

The commission has proposed splitting the island into Isle of Wight East (electorate 56,805) and Isle of Wight West (electorate 54,911).^[8]^[9]^[10]

Isle of Wight East will include the communities of Ryde, Bembridge, Brading, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor;
Isle of Wight West will include the communities of Newport, East Cowes, Cowes and Freshwater.

History

Before the Reform Act 1832 (apart from the First Protectorate Parliament (1654–1655), when a whole island constituency existed) the island was usually represented by three Parliamentary boroughs: Newport, Newtown, and Yarmouth, each electing two MPs. The county electorate of the island, which included freeholders qualified by property, was represented by the two MPs for Hampshire.^[11] The Reform Act abolished the Newtown and Yarmouth parliamentary boroughs, and a single-member county division of Hampshire was created for the island. The separate and overlapping Newport representation was reduced to one MP in 1868^[12] and finally abolished in 1885.^[13] Since then, the whole of the Isle of Wight has been represented by one constituency.

The constituency has traditionally been a battleground between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats and their predecessors. The seat was held by a Liberal from 1974 until 1987,^[14]^[15]^[16] a Conservative until 1997, a Liberal Democrat until 2001,^[16]^[17] and a Conservative since then.^[17]

At the 2015 election, the incumbent Conservative scored one of his party's largest swings against the Liberal Democrats whose candidate finished in fifth place.

In the 2017 general election, the Labour candidate gained second place with the party's best result since 1966. Nick Belfitt, the Liberal Democrat candidate, became the youngest ever candidate to stand for the seat at the age of 23.^[18]

At the December 2019 general election, Labour came second, marginally increasing the party's vote total and share of the poll compared to 2017. The Liberal Democrats agreed to stand aside and support the Green Party candidate as part the Unite to Remain agreement between the two parties and Plaid Cymru involving 60 constituencies in England and Wales, with the purpose of increasing the chances of candidates who supported remaining in the European Union.^[19]

Members of Parliament

Pre 1832

1654: Lord Lisle; William Sydenham
1830–1831: Horrace Twiss

Since 1832

Andrew Turner (pictured in 2010) served as the MP from 2001 to 2017.

More information Election, Member ...

	Member^[20]	Party
1832	Sir Richard Simeon, Bt	Whig^[21]^[22]
1837	William Holmes à Court	Conservative^[21]
1847	John Simeon	Whig^[23]^[24]^[25]
1851 by-election	Edward Dawes	Radical^[26]^[27]^[28]
1852	Francis Venables-Vernon-Harcourt	Conservative
1857	Charles Clifford	Whig^[29]
1859	Charles Clifford	Liberal
1865	John Simeon	Liberal
1870 by-election	Alexander Baillie-Cochrane	Conservative
1880	Evelyn Ashley	Liberal
1885	Richard Webster	Conservative
1900	John Seely	Conservative
1904 by-election	John Seely	Ind. Conservative
1906	Godfrey Baring	Liberal
1910	Douglas Hall	Conservative
1922	Sir Edgar Chatfeild-Clarke	Liberal
1923	John Seely	Liberal
1924	Peter Macdonald	Conservative
1959	Mark Woodnutt	Conservative
February 1974	Stephen Ross	Liberal
1987	Barry Field	Conservative
1997	Peter Brand	Liberal Democrats
2001	Andrew Turner	Conservative
2017	Bob Seely	Conservative