Gedling (constituency)

Gedling is a suburban constituency located in the Borough of Gedling in Nottinghamshire. It lies to the north-east of the city of Nottingham and covers suburban towns that form part of Nottingham's wider urban area but that lie outside the official city boundaries. It includes the connected towns and villages of Arnold, Carlton, Netherfield and Gedling and the outlying villages of Woodborough, Burton Joyce and Bestwood Village. There is some deprivation in Arnold, which has a history of textile manufacturing and was the birthplace of the 19th-century Luddite movement. The constituency was also traditionally a coal mining area.^[4] Gedling, Woodthorpe and the outlying villages are generally affluent, with these parts of the constituency falling within the top 10% least-deprived areas in England.^[5] The average house price in the constituency is lower than the rest of the East Midlands and considerably lower than the rest of the country.^[6]

In general, residents of the constituency are older than average, and levels of education, employment and income are similar to national averages. White people made up 89% of the population at the 2021 census.^[6] At the local district council, most of the constituency is represented by the Labour Party whilst the outlying villages elected Conservatives and Carlton elected Liberal Democrats. At the county council, which held elections more recently, Reform UK won in most parts of the constituency. An estimated 55% of voters in the constituency supported leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, marginally higher than the nationwide figure of 52%.^[6]

The constituency of Gedling was created in 1983, replacing the earlier Carlton constituency. Until 1997, it only elected candidates from the Conservative Party. The seat was represented by the former Carlton MP Sir Philip Holland until 1987, then for ten years by Andrew Mitchell, son of former Conservative MP David Mitchell. The Labour Party gained the seat in their landslide victory at the 1997 general election. At that election, the junior minister lost to Labour's Vernon Coaker, who retained the seat until the 2019 election.

Summary of results

The 2010 and 2015 results set the seat as marginal: first and second place were separated by less than 7%. At the 2005 general election, the Conservative candidate Anna Soubry (who was elected MP for nearby Broxtowe in 2010) caused controversy by revealing that she "was not proud" of the record of the area she was vying to represent, referring to crime levels in Nottingham^[8] — the subsequent swing from Labour to Conservative was only 2.1%, compared with the national swing of 3.1%. The 2015 result gave the seat the 29th-smallest majority of Labour's 232 seats by percentage of majority.^[9]

Other parties

In 2015, UKIP fielded the other candidate to retain their deposit. The party's swing nationally was +9.5% in 2015, and reached 11.4% in Gedling. Liberal Democrat and Green Party candidates forfeited their deposits in 2015.

Turnout

Turnout has varied from 82.3% of the vote in 1992 to 63.9% in 2001 and 2005.

Carlton prior to 1983

• parliamentary constituencies in Nottinghamshire