Election 97

Winchester

Current MP Gerry Malone
Conservative 97 26,098
Labour 97 6,528
LibDem 97 26,100
Nationalist 97 0
Other 97 1,730
Elected party
Winchester

Robert Waller wrote
Old constituency Winchester
Conservative 92 32,604
Labour 92 4,734
LibDem 92 23,286
Nationalist 92 0
Other 92 2,468
Elected party Conservative

Winchester, once the capital of Anglo-Saxon Britain, seems as Conservative as they come. Surrounded by rural Hampshire, itself a mass of Tory blue surrounding the key Labour marginals in Southampton, it has a renowned cathedral, a major public school and one of the lowest unemployment rates in Britain. Yet sitting Tory MP Gerard Malone enjoys only a four-figure majority over the Lib Dems. This oddity is due to the unpopularity of Winchester's MP from 1979 to 1992, John Browne. After retiring from the Conservative Party, Browne then stood against Malone in 1992 as an Independent Conservative. In the event, Malone avoided a potentially disastrous split vote and slightly increased his majority. Boundary changes merely shuffle some Tory voters in and some out, and he should have no trouble this time.


Super Profiles

9,995 24.08 9.03 267
7,965 19.19 11.17 172
2,375 5.72 11.25 51
6,946 16.73 14.70 114
1,098 2.65 10.45 25
3,383 8.15 2.81 290
4,602 11.09 8.01 138
2,567 6.18 15.25 41
525 1.26 7.13 18
1,114 2.68 10.17 26