Scarborough and Whitby
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Scarborough and Whitby in North Yorkshire
Location of North Yorkshire within England
County	North Yorkshire
Electorate	72,191 (December 2019)[1]
Major settlements	Scarborough and Whitby
Current constituency
Created	1997
Member of Parliament	Robert Goodwill (Conservative)
Seats	One
Created from	Scarborough
1918–1974 (1974)
Seats	One
Type of constituency	County constituency
Created from	Scarborough and Whitby
Replaced by	Scarborough

Scarborough and Whitby is a constituency^{[n 1]} in North Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Robert Goodwill, a Conservative.^{[n 2]}

History

The constituency name has had two separate periods of existence.

1918–1974

A Scarborough and Whitby division of the North Riding of Yorkshire was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 after the Boundary Commission of 1917 and first elected a Member of Parliament in the 1918 general election. This division took the entirety of the abolished Parliamentary borough of Scarborough together with the majority of the previous Whitby division and a very small part of Cleveland division^{[n 3]}. It had a population, in the middle of 1914, of 72,979.^[2] The Boundary Commission had initially recommended that the division simply be called 'Scarborough' but an amendment moved by the Government during enactment of their recommendations enacted it from the outset as Scarborough and Whitby.^[3] Throughout its 56-year first creation which allowed a full franchise for all resident men it was represented by a Conservative, including during the Attlee Ministry and First Wilson Ministry.

Changes to boundaries

The Initial Report of the Boundary Commission in 1947 made minor changes to the constituency, in line with local government changes which had abolished Guisborough Rural District in 1932 and absorbed it into Whitby Rural District. The new constituency again included the whole of Whitby Rural District, and so gained Hinderwell which was previously within Cleveland constituency. It had an electorate of 67,884 on 15 October 1946.^[4] No change was made in the First Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission in 1954.^[5]

The Second Periodical Report, published in 1969 recommended that the constituency be divided and its recommendations came into effect at the February 1974 general election abolishing the seat. The Scarborough constituency was thereby re-established, and Whitby joined with Guisborough, Loftus, Saltburn and Brotton to form Cleveland and Whitby.

By the beginning of the Third Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission, Cleveland had been created as a new county, which would normally prevent the commission from recommending a constituency crossing the border. Several representations were made to the commission to try to preserve Cleveland and Whitby constituency, but the Commission found itself unable to accept them and recommended putting Scarborough and Whitby together in a new Scarborough despite including the other coastal town, its old name, including Whitby, was finally reinstated in the next review.^{[n 4]} This constituency did not include Pickering, which was placed in a new Ryedale constituency.^[6]

1997-date

In the Fourth Periodical Report of the Boundary Commission for England, published in 1995 and coming into effect at the 1997 general election, the Scarborough constituency was renamed as Scarborough and Whitby with no change in boundaries.^[7]

When the constituency was recreated in 1997, the Labour candidate, Lawrie Quinn, defeated John Sykes, the sitting Conservative MP – one of many locally and national press-predicted unlikely gains for Labour in their landslide victory of that year. The current incumbent, Robert Goodwill, defeated Quinn in 2005 to regain the seat for Conservatives.

Boundaries

1918–1950: The Municipal Borough of Scarborough, the Urban Districts of Pickering, Scalby, and Whitby, the Rural Districts of Scarborough and Whitby, and parts of the Rural District of Pickering and Guisborough.

1950–1974: The Municipal Borough of Scarborough, the Urban Districts of Pickering, Scalby, and Whitby, and the Rural Districts of Scarborough and Whitby.

1997–2010: The Borough of Scarborough wards of Ayton, Castle, Cayton, Central, Danby, Derwent, Eastfield, Eskdaleside, Falsgrave, Fylingdales, Lindhead, Mayfield, Mulgrave, Newby, Northstead, Scalby, Seamer, Streonshalh, Weaponness, and Woodlands.

2010–present: The Borough of Scarborough wards of Castle, Cayton, Central, Danby, Derwent Valley, Eastfield, Esk Valley, Falsgrave Park, Fylingdales, Lindhead, Mayfield, Mulgrave, Newby, North Bay, Northstead, Ramshill, Scalby Hackness and Staintondale, Seamer, Stepney, Streonshalh, Weaponness, Whitby West Cliff, and Woodlands.

Constituency profile

The constituency covers the towns of Scarborough and Whitby. Both of these are seaside towns in North Yorkshire on the north-east coast of England. However, the constituency is largely rural and semi-rural, such issues tend to influence voting preferences, with Scarborough itself mostly Labour and the rural areas Conservative. At the last two general elections, it was the most marginal seat in North Yorkshire.

In statistics

The constituency consists of Census Output Areas of a Borough with a working population whose income is close to the national average and lower than average reliance upon social housing.^[8] At the end of 2012 the unemployment rate in the constituency stood as 4.8% of the population claiming jobseekers allowance, compared to the regional average of 4.7%.^[9] The borough has a medium-high 28.8% of its population without a car, a high 26.0% of the population without qualifications and a medium 22.7% with level 4 qualifications or above.

In terms of tenure, a high 75.8% of homes are owned outright or on a mortgage as at the 2011 UK Census across the borough.^[10]

Members of Parliament

MPs 1918–1974

Scarborough and Whitby 1918-1950

Year		Member[11]	Party
	1918	Gervase Beckett	Unionist
	1922	Sidney Herbert	Unionist
	1931	Paul Latham	Conservative
	1941	Alexander Spearman	Conservative
	1966	Michael Shaw	Conservative
	1974	constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Scarborough and Whitby^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Goodwill	27,593	55.5	+7.1
	Labour	Hugo Fearnley	17,323	34.8	-6.8
	Liberal Democrats	Robert Lockwood	3,038	6.1	+3.4
	Yorkshire	Lee Derrick	1,770	3.6	+2.9
Majority			10,270	20.7	+13.9
Turnout			49,724	66.8	-1.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+6.9

General election 2017: Scarborough and Whitby^[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Goodwill	24,401	48.4	+5.2
	Labour	Eric Broadbent	20,966	41.6	+11.4
	UKIP	Sam Cross	1,682	3.3	-13.8
	Liberal Democrats	Robert Lockwood	1,354	2.7	-1.8
	Green	David Malone	915	1.8	-2.8
	Independent	John Freeman	680	1.4	New
	Yorkshire	Bill Black	369	0.7	New
	Independent	Gordon Johnson	82	0.2	New
Majority			3,435	6.8	-6.2
Turnout			50,523	68.6	+3.7
	Conservative hold		Swing	-3.1

General election 2015: Scarborough and Whitby^[14][15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Goodwill	20,613	43.2	+0.4
	Labour	Ian McInnes	14,413	30.2	+3.9
	UKIP	Sam Cross	8,162	17.1	+14.1
	Green	David Malone	2,185	4.6	+3.1
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Beckett	2,159	4.5	-18.0
	Alliance for Green Socialism	Juliet Boddington	207	0.4	+0.2
Majority			6,200	13.0	-3.5
Turnout			47,739	64.9	-0.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	-1.8

Scarborough & Whitby 1997-

General election 2010: Scarborough and Whitby^[16][17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Goodwill	21,108	42.8	+1.8
	Labour	Annajoy David	12,978	26.3	-12.0
	Liberal Democrats	Tania Exley-Moore	11,093	22.5	+6.5
	UKIP	Michael James	1,484	3.0	+1.0
	BNP	Trisha Scott	1,445	2.9	New
	Green	Dilys Cluer	734	1.5	-1.1
	Independent	Peter Popple	329	0.7	New
	Alliance for Green Socialism	Juliet Boddington	111	0.2	New
Majority			8,130	16.5	+13.9
Turnout			49,282	65.3	+1.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+6.9

See also

• List of parliamentary constituencies in North Yorkshire
• Wayback Machine www.annajoydavid.org.uk

Notes

References

Specific

General

Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

Sources

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 509. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.