Leeds North East gain from Conservative Timothy Kirkhope 0 ( 0.0%) 15,409 (33.9%) 22,368 (49.2%) 6,318 (13.9%) 0 ( 0.0%) 1,414 ( 3.1%) 63,185 45,509 (72.0%) Timothy Kirkhope Leeds North East 4,244 ( 8.6%) 22,462 (45.4%) 18,218 (36.8%) 8,274 (16.7%) 0 ( 0.0%) 543 ( 1.1%) Conservative 65,082 49,497 (76.1%) -11.5% +12.3% -2.8% +0.0% +2.0% -2.9% -4.0% For years Leeds NE has been moving away from its traditional status as a Tory stronghold. This was for 31 years the seat of Mrs Thatcher's guru, spiritual forebear and colleague, Sir Keith Joseph, but he saw his majority eroded, even in 1979, the year of Thatcher's takeover of the reins of government. Joseph's difficulty concerned social change. North East Leeds was once the best residential quadrant in the city, but gradually the parts of the wedge closest to the city centre have changed in nature, as its older housing was taken over by students and other multi-occupiers, and members of the non-white communities. This process has gradually continued and Leeds NE is still moving in Labour's favour. In 1992 the Labour share of the vote increased by 11.6 per cent as they shot forward into a strong second place at the expense of the Liberal Democrats, who could not repeat the SDP's share. There are still good Tory residential areas towards the outer edge of the city, at Alwoodley and Roundhay for example, but the inner portion, Chapel Allerton, is becoming increasingly cosmopolitan and run-down. Timothy Kirkhope's majority for the Conservatives was halved to just over 4,000 last time and a win for Labour, once unimaginable, now seems just about a realistic possibility. 7,126 19.70 9.03 218 4,781 13.22 11.17 118 6,150 17.00 11.25 151 2,667 7.37 14.70 50 6,162 17.03 10.45 163 292 0.81 2.81 29 2,487 6.88 8.01 86 3,430 9.48 15.25 62 339 0.94 7.13 13 2,280 6.30 10.17 62