Surrey Heath is a constituency 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. T ...

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 suprema ...

since 2005 by Michael Gove, 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 in ...

who was the

Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities The secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, also referred to as the levelling up secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction o ...

until July 2022, and returned to the office on October 25th 2022. The

Home counties The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Buckinghamshire and Surrey are usually included in definitions and Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent are also often included ...

suburban constituency is in the

London commuter belt The London metropolitan area is the metropolitan area of London, England. It has several definitions, including the London Travel to Work Area, and usually consists of the London urban area, settlements that share London's infrastructure, and ...

, on the outskirts of Greater London. Surrey Heath is in the north west of Surrey and borders the counties of Berkshire and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

History

The seat was created in 1997 from the most part of North West Surrey, a seat that was abolished, and smaller parts of Woking and Guildford, seats that remain. On its creation, Nick Hawkins was elected to parliament as Surrey Heath's MP, after

Michael Grylls Sir William Michael John Grylls (21 February 1934 – 7 February 2001) was a British Conservative politician. He was implicated in the cash-for-questions affair, a political scandal of the 1990s. He was the father of adventurer and the Scout Ass ...

, who had in 1992 achieved a majority of 28,392, retired. One of Hawkins' opponents for selection was future

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

John Bercow John Simon Bercow (; born 19 January 1963) is a British former politician who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham between 1997 and 2019. A member of the Conservative Party prior t ...

, selected for Buckingham the same day. In 1999 then-party chairman

Michael Ancram Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr, 13th Marquess of Lothian, Baron Kerr of Monteviot, (born 7 July 1945), commonly known as Michael Ancram, is a British politician and life peer who served as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 2001 to ...

was intervened to prevent a move to deselect Hawkins following local party disquiet about him leaving his wife of 20 years for a local councillor. In 2004, the

constituency association, then the richest in the country, deselected Hawkins for the next election, following accusations of racism, in the hope of obtaining an MP of cabinet calibre. The MP since 2005, Michael Gove, served in three Conservative governments across multiple departments between 2010 and 2022, lasting 4 years as

Secretary of State for Education The secretary of state for education, also referred to as the education secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the work of the Department for Education. The incumbent is a member of the C ...

until 2014, and most recently holding office as the

from 2021 until 2022.

Boundaries

Surrey Heath occupies the northwest corner of the county. It has electoral wards: * Bagshot, Bisley,

Chobham Chobham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England. The village has a small high street area, specialising in traditional trades and motor trades. The River Bourne and its northern tributary, the Hale, ...

Frimley Frimley is a town in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. The town is of Saxon origin, although it is not listed in Domesday Book of 1086. Train services to Frimley (on the line between ...

Frimley Green Frimley Green is a large village and ward of in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. It is south of the town of Frimley. Lakeside Country Club was the national venue for the BDO int ...

, Heatherside,

Lightwater Lightwater is a village in the Surrey Heath district of Surrey, England, about southwest of central London. Immediately surrounding towns and villages include Bagshot, Deepcut, Windlesham, Camberley, and West End, Woking. It is bounded to ...

Mytchett Mytchett is a village in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. It is to the east of Farnborough (in Hampshire), the nearest town. Much of the village dates from the first half of the twenti ...

and

Deepcut Deepcut is a village in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. The nearest towns are Camberley, Surrey ( to the north) and Farnborough, Hampshire (3 mi to the west). Deepcut is named af ...

Old Dean The Old Dean is a suburb of Camberley in Surrey, England. The area starts approximately 1 km NNE from the town centre. The estate is built on the Olddean or Old Dean Common falling within the district of Surrey Heath Borough Council. It is ...

, Parkside, St Michaels, St Pauls, Town, Watchett, West End, and

Windlesham Windlesham is a village in the Surrey Heath borough of Surrey, England, approximately south west of central London. Its name derives from the Windle Brook, which runs south of the village into Chobham, and the common suffix 'ham', the Old Engli ...

''in the Surrey Heath District'' * Ash South and

Tongham Tongham is a village northeast of the town of Farnham in Surrey, England. The village's buildings occupy most of the west of the civil parish, adjoining the A31 and the A331. The boundaries take in Poyle Park in the east and the replacement to ...

Ash Vale Ash Vale is a village in the borough of Guildford in Surrey, England and the larger, northern settlement of the civil parish of Ash. It is 7 miles (11 km) from Guildford but is closer to the Hampshire towns of Aldershot and Farnborough, the ...

, and Ash Wharf ''in the

Borough of Guildford The Borough of Guildford is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. With around half of the borough's population, Guildford is its largest settlement and only town, and is the location of the council. The distr ...

''. The largest town is Camberley. The

Boundary Commission A boundary commission is a legal entity that determines borders of nations, states, constituencies. Notable boundary commissions have included: * Afghan Boundary Commission, an Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission, of 1885 and 1893, delineated the no ...

made no boundary changes for Surrey Heath in the

Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies The Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was undertaken between 2000 and 2007 by the four boundary commissions for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the UK Parliament. The changes for England, Wales and Northern Ir ...

before the 2010 general election. The large village of Ash with Ash Vale and smaller one of Tongham are contiguous, similar to Frimley and Frimley Green.

Constituency profile

70% of homes were detached or semi-detached at the 2011 census. The detached percentage (45.2%) was at that time the second highest in the South East, behind the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, fea ...

. The area is well connected to

London Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

, IT, telecommunications and logistics centres of the M3 and M4 corridors, and to the military towns of

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

and Sandhurst. Farnborough, with its civil, private aviation base with certain military uses, is also nearby, as is

Blackbushe Airport Blackbushe Airport is an operational general aviation airport in the civil parish of Yateley in the north-east corner of the English county of Hampshire. Built during the Second World War, Blackbushe is north of the A30 road between Camberley ...

. Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.7% of the population based on a statistical compilation by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. According to the

British Election Study The British Election Study is an academic project to analyse the results of British elections that has examined every general election in the United Kingdom since 1964. The lead researchers are based at the University of Oxford and the University o ...

, it was the most right-wing seat in the UK as of 2014. Constituents on balance voted to leave the European Union in 2016 but an analysis of YouGov polling by Focaldata suggested support for remain rose from 48% then to 50.2% in August 2018. Until the 2019 general election, the constituency was seen as one of the Conservative Party's safest seats. This election saw an unexpected 16% swing to the Liberal Democrats' candidate Alasdair Pinkerton, polling the highest second place since the constituency's creation, with Labour recording the lowest share of the vote since the seat's creation. Surrey Heath is seen as the Liberal Democrats' 58th target seat, having taken the Conservatives from a majority of 35 on the local council to a majority of one at the 2019 election and pushed the Conservatives to the lowest number of councillors on

Guildford Borough Council Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildfo ...

since its creation in 1973.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Notes

References

Sources

Election result, 2010
(BBC)
Election result, 2005
(BBC)
Election results, 1997 - 2001
(BBC)

(Election Demon)
Election results, 1997 - 2010
(Guardian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Surrey Heath (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in South East England Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1997 Politics of Surrey