Leicester East 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, ...

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 December 2019 by

Claudia Webbe Claudia Naomi Webbe (born 8 March 1965) is a British politician who is currently the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East. Elected to Parliament for Labour in the 2019 general election, she currently sits as an independent. Born in L ...

, who was elected as a

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 ...

MP, but now sits as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

due to her suspension and subsequent expulsion from the party in November 2021 after she was convicted of harassment.

Boundaries

1918–1950: The County Borough of Leicester wards of Belgrave, Latimer, Spinney Hill, and West Humberstone. 1974–1983: The County Borough of Leicester wards of Belgrave, Charnwood, Evington, Humberstone, and Latimer. 1983–2010: The City of Leicester wards of Belgrave, Charnwood, Coleman, Evington, Humberstone, Latimer, Rushey Mead, Thurncourt, and West Humberstone. 2010–present: The City of Leicester wards of

Belgrave Belgrave may refer to: Places *Belgrave, Cheshire, an English village *Belgrave, Leicester an English district *Belgrave, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia ** Belgrave railway line **Belgrave railway station, Melbourne **Belgrave (Puffing ...

, Charnwood, Coleman,

Evington Evington is an Electoral ward and administrative division of the city of Leicester, England. It used to be a small village centred on Main Street and the Anglican church of St Denys but was close enough to Leicester to become one of the outer ...

Humberstone & Hamilton Humberstone and Hamilton is an electoral ward and administrative division of the City of Leicester, England. It comprises the north-eastern Leicester suburbs of Humberstone, Humberstone Garden City, Hamilton and Netherhall. Geography Humber ...

, Latimer,

Rushey Mead Rushey Mead is an area, suburb, electoral ward and administrative division of the city of Leicester, England. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 15,962. It comprises the northern Leicester suburb of Rushey Mead in its entirety, as ...

, and Thurncourt. 2015–present: The City of

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

wards of

, Troon,

North Evington North Evington is an area, suburb, electoral ward and administrative division of the city of Leicester, England. North Evington is bordered by Belgrave to the west, Charnwood to the north, Evington and Humberstone & Hamilton to the east and ...

and Thurncourt. The newly created Troon Ward replaced the old Charnwood Ward covering the Northfields Estate and the adjacent Industrial Estate Area to the north, of which it takes its name.

Constituency profile

This is an urban seat in the commercial and engineering centre of Leicester. The seat excludes the heart of the city centre, skirting its tightly planned ring road. A golf course is situated in the southeast and a large municipal garden in the northwest of the boundaries. Leicester East has an extremely high South Asian population. In the 2011 census, two-thirds of the population were non-white and 48.5% of people described themselves as Asian. Almost a third of the population are Hindu and the majority of others of Asian ethnicity are of Muslim or Sikh faiths. Those of mixed ethnicities are gradually increasing — to 3.1% of the population in 2011. The bulk of the eastern outskirts are relatively compact and much of the remainder of the county by the 21st century has become transformed economically into a retirement and commuter belt for the city and its railway links. The division's south-west quarter is within normal walking distance of all parts of

Leicester City Centre Leicester City Centre is Leicester's historical commercial, cultural and transport hub and is home to its central business district. Its inner core is roughly delineated by the A594, Leicester's inner ring road, although the various central c ...

and the seat is served by buses and cycle routes into the city centre.

History

First creation

The seat was created in 1918 and for the next four years was served by Sir

Gordon Hewart Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart, (7 January 1870 – 5 May 1943) was a politician and judge in the United Kingdom. Background and education Hewart was born in Bury, Lancashire, the eldest son of Giles Hewart, a draper, and Annie Elizabeth J ...

KC, resigning to become

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

. In 1950 the area was divided between

Leicester North East Leicester North East was a borough constituency in the city of Leicester. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme le ...

and Leicester South East, which also covered part of the present Charnwood seat and Rutland and Melton.

Second creation, current creation

In 1974 the seat was recreated. ;Summary of results Leicester East has been won by the Labour Party's candidate in 10 of 11 elections since its recreation. Its MP,

Keith Vaz Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz (born 26 November 1956) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 to 2019. He was the British Parliament's longest-serving Br ...

, had won an absolute majority (plurality) of votes since the 1992 general election. The 2015 result made the seat the 37-safest of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority. Leicester East was narrowly won by Conservative candidate Peter Bruinvels at the height of the Tory party's popularity in 1983; the following election saw Labour's Keith Vaz regain the seat; he had held it at every election thereafter, and since 1992 had always won by margins of over 20% and 11,000 votes until standing down at the 2019 general election. Vaz won his highest majority ever, 22,428 votes (42.8%), in 2017. In 2019

held the seat with a substantially reduced majority of 6,019, down from 22,428 - a swing of 15%. ;Opposition parties The candidate fielded by the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

has been runner-up in every election save for Bruinvels' win in 1983. The candidate of

UKIP 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 p ...

for the first time took third place in 2015, her 2010 counterpart having won 1.5% of the vote and the party not having stood before. The pro-UKIP swing between 2010 and 2015 elections, of 7.4%, was less than the national average of 9.5%. Susan Cooper was 1.8% away from second place in 2005, giving the best result of a Liberal Democrat to date, attracting just under one fifth of the vote. ;Turnout Turnout in the recreated seat has ranged between 78.7% in 1992 to 62.1% in 2001.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

In 2005 this seat bucked the national trend as there was a swing to Labour whereas the national swing was 2.5% to the Conservatives.

Elections in the 1990s

Elections in the 1980s

Elections in the 1970s

Elections in the 1940s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1920s

Election in the 1910s

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leicester East (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in Leicestershire Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1918 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1950 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1974 Politics of Leicester