Arundel and South Downs () 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 (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

created in 1997 and represented in the House of Commons 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 suprem ...

since 2019 by Andrew Griffith of 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 ...

Constituency profile

This is a mostly rural constituency including the town of

Arundel Arundel ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Arun District of the South Downs, West Sussex, England. The much-conserved town has a medieval castle and Roman Catholic cathedral. Arundel has a museum and comes second behind much larg ...

and villages within the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...

national park boundaries or encircled by the park; the largest of which are Hassocks,

Hurstpierpoint Hurstpierpoint is a village in West Sussex, England, southwest of Burgess Hill, and west of Hassocks railway station. It sits in the civil parish of Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common which has an area of 2029.88 ha and a population ...

Petworth Petworth is a small town and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 east–west road from Heathfield to Winchester and the A283 Milford to Shoreham-by-Sea road. Some twe ...

, Pulborough, Steyning and Storrington. Residents' incomes and house prices are significantly wealthier than the UK averages.

Boundaries

;2010 – reviewed boundaries adopted Following their review of parliamentary boundaries in West Sussex which Parliament approved in 2007, the Boundary Commission for England formed new constituencies. First contested in 2010 the seat was constituted as follows: In their recommendations, the Boundary Commission for England mooted the name ''Chanctonbury'' after uninhabited Chanctonbury Ring, an ancient hill fort at its centre. This name was rejected during the local inquiry process at which the current name was chosen.

History

Results and EU referendum stance

The 2017 result saw the sixth Conservative win. Second-place runners-up have been, listed in order, four times a Liberal Democrat, once the UKIP candidate and once the Labour candidate. In line with regional trends, the highest percentage of the vote among these was the Liberal Democrat in 2010, with 27.9% of the vote. In June 2016, an estimated 50.3% of local adults voting in the EU membership referendum chose to remain in the European Union instead of to leave. This was defied in two January 2018 votes in Parliament by its MP, in line with his governing party's promise to adhere to the overall result of that referendum. The 2015-2017 status was as the 8th safest of the Conservative Party's 331 seats by percentage of majority.

De-selection of incumbent seeking re-election in 2005

The incumbent

Howard Flight Howard Emerson Flight, Baron Flight (born 16 June 1948) is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom and a member of the House of Lords2005 general election due to his deselection requested by the party leader for membership of

Conservative Way Forward Conservative Way Forward (CWF) is a British pressure and campaigning group, which is Thatcherite in its outlook and agenda. Margaret Thatcher was its founding President. Conservative Way Forward was founded in 1991 to "defend and build upon t ...

, lobbying for spending cuts to be more severe than set out in the small cuts in the 2005 manifesto. Flight hinted his preferred cuts would be as implemented by a Conservative government in his view. He had represented the constituency since its creation at the 1997 general election. Anne Marie Morris,

Laura Sandys Laura Jane Sandys (; born 5 June 1964) is a former chair of the European Movement UK, and a British Conservative Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet between 2010 and 2015 when she stood down at th ...

and Nick Herbert put themselves forward for nomination as replacement candidates. The chosen candidate,

Nick Herbert Nicholas Le Quesne Herbert, Baron Herbert of South Downs, (born 7 April 1963) is a British Conservative Party politician and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and South Downs from 2005 to 2019. He was Minister of State for Police ...

, won the seat at the election. Morris and Sandys became MPs elsewhere in 2010.

Predecessor seats

The seat and its predecessors have in the 20th century been a Conservative Party stronghold save that the minor contributory Horsham seat to the area's electorate saw victory by 8.6% of the vote over the Labour Party in 1966, followed statistically by a next-most-marginal victory again with the Labour Party as runner-up, in 1950, of 14.4%. Between 1974 and 1983, much of the South Downs area was part of the Shoreham constituency, with the town of Arundel remaining in the Arundel constituency. Prior to 1974, the seat was largely part of the Arundel and Shoreham constituency.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Elections in the 2000s

Elections in the 1990s

Notes

References

Sources

Election result, 2005
(BBC)
Election results, 1997 – 2001
(BBC)

(Election Demon)

(Guardian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Arundel And South Downs (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in South East England Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1997 Politics of West Sussex Arun District Chichester District Mid Sussex District Horsham District Arundel