Lewes Tim Rathbone 19,950 5,232 21,250 0 256 Lewes 26,638 4,270 20,301 0 677 Conservative Once one of the Tory bastions in this deep southern county, some pundits are now suggesting that they might even be in some danger in the seat based on the county town of East Sussex. At the 1992 election, Tim Rathbone held a comfortable 12,000 lead for the Tories over their main challengers, the Liberal Democrats. However calculations suggest that the majority would have been only about half of that figure on the new boundaries. Some 16,000 very Conservative voters from the bungaloid coast around Saltdean and Peacehaven have been transferred to Brighton Kemptown, while in return an area just outside Eastbourne has been annexed, as the centre of gravity of the Lewes seat moves to the east; and to the Liberal Democrats, for these Polegate wards seem to have been affected by the Liberalism that led to their by-election victory in Eastbourne in 1990. However, such notional characteristics are by nature imperfect, and Lewes should be seen only as very much an outside bet for a Lib Dem gain, here in the affluent heart of east Sussex.

	4,344	12.07	9.03	134
	9,721	27.01	11.17	242
	1,799	5.00	11.25	44
	4,084	11.35	14.70	77
	1,297	3.60	10.45	34
	1,050	2.92	2.81	104
	7,761	21.56	8.01	269
	4,097	11.38	15.25	75
	326	0.91	7.13	13
	1,081	3.00	10.17	30