Northampton North Constituency
The constituency is wholly within the Borough of Northampton and includes the areas of Thorplands, Kingsthorpe, Moulton Leys, Parklands, Eastfield, Kingsley, St David, Abington, Lumbertubs, Boughton Green, Headlands and Boothville. The current constituency boundaries also include Spencer, Dallington Kings Heath as well as part of Ecton Brook but under the changes to be introduced at the next General Election these will move into the new Northampton South Constituency.
The current MP is Labour's Sally Keeble who won the seat from the Conservative (Tony Marlow) in the 1997 Labour landslide which saw Tony Blair swept into power.
Sally Keeble is a Blairite loyalist MP and was controverisally selected under an all woman shortlist. She was previously a Councillor in Southwark and moved to Northampton upon being elected. Since being elected in 1997 with a majority of 10,000 at the following two General Elections her majority has been reduced to now just short of 4,000.
See past General Election results courtesy of The Guardian website.
Lib Dems a growing force
Northampton North constituency has the longest history of Liberal Democrat success. The first Liberal Councillors to be elected back onto the Borough Council were in Kingsthorpe and Boughton Green wards in 1983. The party has been steadily increasing in strength since the 1980's such that in 2003 13 Lib Dem Borough Councillors were elected in the constituency - more than the other parties put together. With the County Council elections in 2005 the party gained 5 seats in the constituency giving 6 in total - Kingsthorpe having been held continuously since 1981.
The party has been increasing its share of the vote since the previous high point in 1983 when it achieved 26.1%:
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1987 - Tony Rounthwaite - 20.7%
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1992 - Richard Church - 15.2%
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1997 - Lesley Dunbar - 12.7%
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2001 - Richard Church - 17.7%
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2005 - Andrew Simpson - 24.5%
The 2005 General Eelction
The party selected local Borough Councillor Andrew Simpson as its candidate for the 2005 General Election. Andrew fought a campign building on the Lib Dem grass roots strength in the constituency with national issues such as the Iraq war, student tuition fees and council tax as key elements.
The results saw a shift in vote of 3,000 from Labour to the Lib Dems with the Conservative vote staying static.
The Lib Dems are now challenging Labour hard in the constituency and see the seat as a prospective gain at the next election.
General Election Results - May 2005.
On 13th May 2006 Northampton North Liberal Democrats voted by an overwhelming majority to re-select Andrew Simpson as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the constituency for the next general election.
Northampton South Constituency
The constituency includes the areas of Delapre, St Crispin, St James, Old and New Duston, East and West Hunsbury, Nene Valley, Weston and Castle within the Borough of Northampton. It also includes parts of South Northamptonshire covering the villages of Roade, Denton, Milton Malsor, Collingtree, Quinton, Rothersthorpe, Ashton, Brafield on the Green, Whiston, Kislingbury, Piddington, Hartwell, Litlle Houghton, Great Houghton, Hackleton, Cogenhoe, Harpole and Yardley Hastings.The current constituency includes the southern part of Abington (south of the Wellingborough Road) and part of Ecton Brook. Under the boundary changes to be introduced at the next election the South Northamptonshire part of the constituency together with East West Hunsbury and Nene Valley become part of a new South Northamptonshire constituency which includes Towcester and Brackley. The new Northampton South constituency will cover all the remaining wards in the Borough not in the north including Spencer and Ecton Brook but not south Abington which moves into Northampton North.
The current MP is Conservative Brian Binley who won the seat from the Labour's (Tony Clarke) in the May 2005. The seat was one of the most marginal in the country and had been unexpectedly won by Tony Clarke in the 1997 Labour landslide. He retained the seat in 2001. In 2005 it was 14th on the Conservatives target list.
Brian Binley is also a Conservative County Councillor for Hackleton Division which is within the Northampton South Constituency - he is the Portfolio Holder for Finance on the now Conservative Controlled County Council. When not being the MP and a County Councillor he has his own marketing business.
See past General Election results courtesy of The Guardian's website.
Lib Dems breakthrough into the South
Whilst Delapre ward in the South had the last Liberal Councillor in Northampton up until the decline of the party in the 1950's the Northampton South constituency has not been fertile territory for the party until 1999. Then in the Borough Council elections the party won its first ward by gaining the then new seat of West Hunsbury. This was followed by the gain of Delapre ward in 2003.
Traditionally up until the forming of the Liberal Democrats in 1988 the SDP had fought the Northampton South seat whilst the Liberals Northampton North.
The party has been struggling to make major progress since coming second in 1983 with 23.4% of the vote - a high point for the Lib/SDP Alliance. The constituency is a typical Labour/Conservative marginal but with the Lib Dems beginning to make headway:
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1987 - George Hopkins - 18.6%
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1992 - Graham Mabbutt - 14.9%
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1997 - Tony Worgan - 11.1%
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2001 - Andrew Simpson 12.5%
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2005 - Kevin Barron - 15.3%
The 2005 General Election
The party selected local Lib Dem activist Kevin Barron in the spring of 2005 as its candidate for the General Election. It was Kevin's first campaign as a parliamentary candidate and he concentrated on supporting colleagues standing for council in the constituency as well as tackling national issues with Northampton South getting high profile media coverage as a key marginal seat.
Whilst the result saw the Conservatives gaining the seat from Labour the Lib Dem vote increased by 2.8% and did not get squeezed in this traditional two-way marginal contest.
Northampton South General Election Result - May 2005.