Chatham and Aylesford is a

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

since

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Tracey Crouch Tracey Elizabeth Anne Crouch (born 24 July 1975) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chatham and Aylesford since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, she gained the seat from Labour's Jonathan S ...

, a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Constituency profile

Most of the population lives in two distinct areas divided by the North Downs. These are Chatham and its suburbs of Luton and Walderslade, within the

Medway Towns Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to for ...

conurbation; and a patchwork of smaller settlements in the

Medway Gap The Medway Gap is a topographic feature in Kent, England. It was created when the prehistoric River Medway cut roughly south to north through the line of chalk hills now known as the North Downs; other rivers such as the Darent and the Stou ...

further west. This is one of the less affluent seats in the otherwise wealthy South East, as shown by lower rates of formal qualifications and cheaper house prices.

Political history

Local voters returned the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

candidate in the first three elections to 2005 then the

candidate in the four general elections up to and including 2019 (which two parties' candidates have polled second when they have not won the seat). The greatest third party share of vote was 19.9% for the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

candidate in 2015. A

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

came third in the first four elections reaching a vote share of 15% in 1997. In June 2016, an estimated 63.9% of local adults voting in the EU membership referendum chose to leave the European Union instead of to remain. This was matched in two January 2018 votes in Parliament by its MP.

Boundaries

1997–2010: The City of Rochester-upon-Medway wards of Holcombe, Horsted, Lordswood, Luton, Walderslade, Wayfield, and Weedswood, and the Borough of Tonbridge and Malling wards of Aylesford, Blue Bell Hill, Burham, Eccles and Wouldham, Ditton, Larkfield North, Larkfield South, Snodland East, and Snodland West. 2010–present: The Borough of Medway wards of Chatham Central, Lordswood and Capstone, Luton and Wayfield, Princes Park, and Walderslade, and the Borough of Tonbridge and Malling wards of Aylesford, Blue Bell Hill and Walderslade, Burham, Eccles and Wouldham, Ditton, Larkfield North, Larkfield South, Snodland East, and Snodland West.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Notes

References

External links

nomis Constituency Profile for Chatham and Aylesford
— presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics. {{Authority control Politics of Medway Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1997 Parliamentary constituencies in Kent