Esher and Walton

Esher and Walton is more than half of the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, to be in East Surrey from April 2027. Studded with well-kept green spaces - and keeping some such buffers to its north-east - it is due to its few contiguous neighbourhoods recognised economically and in academic geography as part of London's built-up area. Settlements comprise the populous towns of Esher and Walton-on-Thames and their attached villages of Molesey, Long Ditton/Thames Ditton, Hersham and Claygate. All of the area is well-connected to central London by the South West Main Line and the triple-lane A3 road for commutes to South London, business areas by the M25, London's main airports and Guildford. The constituency is highly affluent with low levels of deprivation,^[3] and house prices are more than double the national average.^[4]

In general, residents are well-educated and have very high levels of income and professional employment. White people made up 86% of the population at the 2021 census.^[4] For the new council 11 Liberal Democrat councillors were elected in 2026, one residents' association, one Conservative.^[5]. An estimated 59% of voters here supported remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, higher than the nationwide figure of 48%.^[4]

Almost all of the present area had seen 'Tory' representation for 154 years – 1870 saw the death of wealthy Liberal John Ivatt Briscoe so a resultant by-election for a set-to-be-soon-divided vast tract West Surrey; he was one of two joint MPs and for his empty seat only a Tory stood. One brief and tiny exception exists; the elections of 1910 ended four years of Liberal tenure "for Chertsey" and specifically thus Weybridge parish, covering the west of today's Oatlands ward.^[7][8][9] As Briscoe co-served with a Tory, as to the vast bulk of this seat the last time its local MPs (including the pre-1885 centuries-old set-up of two co-MPs) lacked Conservatives was 1832 to 1835, when both MPs for West Surrey were Whigs, prompting 189 years of having a Conservative MP to turn to and represent the area's interests.

Ian Taylor held the seat from 1997 to 2010, having held the previous Esher seat from 1987. Taylor stood down at the 2010 election, and Dominic Raab was elected as the new Conservative MP for this seat.

For the 2019 general election, 60 seats, including this seat, were written into the Remain Alliance between the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru not to vie against one another there.^[10] These were parties opposed to Britain's departure from the European Union. In consequence, Laura Harmour,^[11] for the Green Party, did not stand. Axel Thill,^[12] the for the Brexit Party, was one of those withdrawn by party leader Nigel Farage before nominations closed,^[13] not fielding his candidates in Conservative-held seats.

The seat, safe in terms of length of tenure but not now convincingly by percentage majority for the Conservatives, was heavily targeted by the Liberal Democrats, particularly because the incumbent Conservative, Dominic Raab, had campaigned for a Leave vote in the EU referendum. The constituency voted in favour of remaining in the EU and is socially similar to the two Greater London seats it borders, namely Twickenham and Kingston & Surbiton, which are both strongholds for the Lib Dems. This resulted in a large swing to the Liberal Democrats of 18.5%, reducing the seat's majority to make it a marginal for the first time since its creation.

Raab, who had served as the UK's Foreign Secretary two years then as deputy prime minister before resignation in April 2023 due to bullying allegations,^[2] did not contest the 2024 election and a further swing of 13.8% resulted in the Liberal Democrat Monica Harding winning the seat, a landmark change.

• List of parliamentary constituencies in Surrey
• List of parliamentary constituencies in the South East England (region)