Leicestershire North West gain from Conservative David Ashby (Retiring) 0 ( 0.0%) 16,113 (31.0%) 29,332 (56.4%) 4,492 ( 8.6%) 0 ( 0.0%) 2,088 ( 4.0%) 65,069 52,025 (80.0%) David Ashby (Retiring) Leicestershire North West 866 ( 1.6%) 24,735 (45.4%) 23,869 (43.8%) 5,648 (10.4%) 0 ( 0.0%) 198 ( 0.4%) Conservative 62,949 54,450 (86.5%) -14.5% +12.5% -1.7% +0.0% +3.6% +3.4% -6.5% At first sight the seat of North West Leicestershire is unremarkable. Based on the old Leicestershire coalfield (all pits now closed), and with its largest town appropriately named Coalville, it looked on its creation (1983) like an attempt to create a Labour seat in the East Midlands county of Leicestershire (not that the Boundary Commission would do such a thing). In fact it has never yet been won by Labour, but returned the Conservative MP David Ashby in the three elections since 1983, all of which by fairly narrow margins, and last time by just 973 votes. In fact, though, NW Leics has a number of very interesting characteristics. One is that the turnout of voters at the last election was remarkably high, reaching a figure of 86.1 per cent, which was not surpassed anywhere in the United Kingdom. Certainly the spirit of parliamentary democracy is alive and well in this unpretentious corner of the East Midlands. Also, the constituency came into public note when the MP, David Ashby, admitted sharing a double bed with a male friend while on a French holiday, while denying that he was gay. The NW Leics Conservative Party promptly deselected him. His successor will have a mountain to climb if Labour are not to win their first election in this almost unchanged seat next time. 2,661 7.63 9.03 85 3,214 9.22 11.17 83 3,902 11.19 11.25 100 6,108 17.52 14.70 119 0 0.00 10.45 0 512 1.47 2.81 52 2,039 5.85 8.01 73 12,278 35.22 15.25 231 3,624 10.40 7.13 146 479 1.37 10.17 14