Election 97

Elmet

Current MP Spencer Batiste
Conservative 97 19,569
Labour 97 28,348
LibDem 97 4,691
Nationalist 97 0
Other 97 0
Elected party
Elmet

Robert Waller wrote
Old constituency Elmet
Conservative 92 27,677
Labour 92 24,416
LibDem 92 6,144
Nationalist 92 0
Other 92 0
Elected party Conservative

Elmet in West Yorkshire was an entirely new constituency in 1983, but the Boundary Commission seems confident that it got it right then - no change at all is proposed for the next election. There is no place in the seat called Elmet - it is an old name for the last Celtic kingdom in England, set in Yorkshire. Elmet must rank as a marginal, with a Conservative lead of only 3,261 in 1992.

There is one very strong Tory area, the market town of Wetherby, north east of Leeds, which is very much desired by commuters to that city. On the other hand, Garforth to the south is an ex-mining area that tends to favour Labour, and the villages in between are mixed in political and economic character: some commuting, some mainly working-class.

Elmet is just the sort of seat that will be won by whichever party triumphs in the general election itself. In other words it is a classic key marginal.


Super Profiles

5,971 15.91 9.03 176
4,937 13.16 11.17 118
6,499 17.32 11.25 154
6,939 18.49 14.70 126
0 0.00 10.45 0
228 0.61 2.81 22
2,161 5.76 8.01 72
6,115 16.29 15.25 107
2,717 7.24 7.13 102
1,780 4.74 10.17 47