Wyre Forest (UK Parliament constituency)

Template:UK constituency infobox Wyre Forest is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

The Wyre Forest constituency as it was drawn for the 1997 election is almost coterminous with Wyre Forest district, with around 2,000 electors from the district in the neighbouring Leominster constituency. Following its review of parliamentary constituencies in advance of the 2010 election, the Boundary Commission has recommended the portions of the district currently in Leominster move in to this seat, making the constituency and district wholly coterminous.

These changes have been brought about in part by the consideration of Worcestershire and Herefordshire separately for the drawing of parliamentary constituency boundaries.

History

The Wyre Forest constituency was first fought under its present name in the 1983 general election, having succeeded the old Kidderminster seat, and was won for the Conservatives by Esmond Bulmer. Wyre Forest was held with relative ease by the Conservatives' Anthony Coombs in the 1987 and 1992 general elections; however the 1997 Labour landslide saw that party gain the seat with David Lock securing a majority of almost 7,000. Anger over the downgrading of Kidderminster Hospital reflected on Lock at the 2001 election, and Health Concern's Richard Taylor stormed to a decisive victory, then held the seat with a considerably reduced majority in 2005.

Turnout in the Wyre Forest at general elections has generally been around 2-3% above the national average, but in 2001 the constituency recorded a 68.0% turnout as against 59.4% nationally; this spike (not repeated in 2005) is widely attributed to the intense local feelings on the hospital issue.

Members of Parliament

• Constituency created (1983), replacing Kidderminster

Election		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1983	Esmond Bulmer	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1987	Anthony Coombs	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1997	David Lock	Labour
style="background-color: Template:Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern/meta/color" |	2001	Richard Taylor	Health Concern
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	2010	Mark Garnier	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2000s

United Kingdom general election, 2010: Wyre Forest

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Mark Garnier	18,793	36.9	+7.8
	Health Concern	Richard Taylor	16,115	31.7	−6.9
	Labour	Nigel Knowles	7,298	14.3	−8.2
	Liberal Democrats	Neville Farmer	6,040	11.9	+10.6
	UKIP	Michael Wrench	1,498	2.9	+0.6
	BNP	Gordon Howells	1,120	2.2	+2.2
Majority			2,643	5.2
Turnout			50,899	66.8	+2.9
	Conservative gain from Health Concern		Swing

General Election 2005: Wyre Forest

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Health Concern	Richard Taylor	18,739	39.9	−18.2
	Conservative	Mark Garnier	13,489	28.7	9.6
	Labour	Marc Bayliss	10,716	22.8	0.7
	Liberal	Frances Oborski	2,666	5.7	N/A
	UKIP	Rustie Lee	1,074	2.3	1.5
	Monster Raving Loony	Bert Priest	303	0.6	N/A
Majority			5,250	11.2
Turnout			46,987	64.2	−3.8
	Health Concern hold		Swing	−13.9

General Election 2001: Wyre Forest

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Health Concern	Richard Taylor	28,487	58.1	N/A
	Labour	David Lock	10,857	22.1	−26.7
	Conservative	Mark Simpson	9,350	19.1	−17.1
	UKIP	Jim Millington	368	0.8	+0.2
Majority			17630	36.0
Turnout			49,062	68.0	−7.3
	Health Concern gain from Labour		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Wyre Forest

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Lock	26,843	48.8
	Conservative	Anthony Coombs	19,897	36.1
	Liberal Democrats	David Cropp	4,377	8.0
	Referendum	W. Till	1,956	3.6
	Liberal	C. Harvey	1,670	3.0
	UKIP	Jim Millington	312	0.6
Majority			6,946
Turnout				75.4
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Herefordshire and Worcestershire
• Wyfopedia 1997 General Election
• Wyfopedia 2005 General Election