Parliamentary constituencies in Essex
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The county of Essex (which includes the unitary authorities of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock) is divided into 18 parliamentary constituencies (sub-classified into six of borough type and twelve of county status, affecting the level of expenses permitted and status of returning officer).
The county saw the majority of its population and seats removed on the creation of the county of Greater London in 1965. Since then, the Conservatives have won a majority of the seats in the revised county. In the 2019 general election, all of Essex's seats were won by Conservative MPs by more than 50% of the vote. However, at the 2024 election, the Conservatives were reduced to ten seats, held on significantly reduced majorities. Labour won five seats, Reform UK two seats, and the Liberal Democrats one.
Constituencies
Conservative† Labour‡ Liberal Democrat¤ Reform#
2024 Boundary changes
| Former name | Boundaries 2010–2024 | Current name | Boundaries 2024-present |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basildon and Billericay BC Braintree CC Brentwood and Ongar CC Castle Point BC Chelmsford BC Clacton CC Colchester BC Epping Forest CC Harlow CC Harwich and North Essex CC Maldon CC Rayleigh and Wickford CC Rochford and Southend East CC Saffron Walden CC South Basildon and East Thurrock CC Southend West BC Thurrock BC Witham CC | Basildon and Billericay BC Braintree CC Brentwood and Ongar CC Castle Point BC Chelmsford BC Clacton CC Colchester BC Epping Forest CC Harlow CC Harwich and North Essex CC Maldon CC North West Essex CC Rayleigh and Wickford CC South Basildon and East Thurrock CC Southend East and Rochford CC Southend West and Leigh BC Thurrock BC Witham CC |
For the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, which redrew the constituency map ahead of the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the Boundary Commission for England retained the number of constituencies in Essex at eighteen, with minor boundary changes to reflect changes to electoral wards within the county and to bring the electorates within the statutory range. The commission opted to rename Southend West to Southend West and Leigh (although the town of Leigh-on-Sea had already been part of the Southend West constituency prior to the boundary changes), and rename Rochford and Southend East to Southend East and Rochford to acknowledge that Southend-on-Sea had achieved city status during the course of the review. In addition, Saffron Walden was renamed North West Essex. These changes came into effect from the 2024 general election.
Results history
Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019
2024
The number votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Essex in the 2024 general election were as follows:
| Party | Votes | % | Change from 2019 | Seats | Change from 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 270,382 | 32.9% | 31.6% | 10 | 8 |
| Labour | 235,891 | 28.7% | 7.5% | 5 | 5 |
| Reform | 179,977 | 21.9% | New | 2 | 2 |
| Liberal Democrats | 78,238 | 9.5% | 1.1% | 1 | 1 |
| Greens | 42,582 | 5.2% | 2.9% | 0 | |
| Others | 14,054 | 1.7% | 0.3% | 0 | |
| Total | 821,124 | 100.0 | 18 |
2019
The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Essex in the 2019 general election were as follows:
| Party | Votes | % | Change from 2017 | Seats | Change from 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 577,118 | 64.5% | 6.0% | 18 | 0 |
| Labour | 189,471 | 21.2% | 7.8% | 0 | 0 |
| Liberal Democrats | 95,078 | 10.6% | 4.8% | 0 | 0 |
| Greens | 20,438 | 2.3% | 0.8% | 0 | 0 |
| Others | 12,502 | 1.4% | 3.8% | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 894,607 | 100.0 | 18 |
Percentage votes
| Election year | 1974 (Feb) | 1974 (Oct) | 1979 | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 40.3 | 40.9 | 52.5 | 51.9 | 54.1 | 53.9 | 40.3 | 42.8 | 46.0 | 49.2 | 50.3 | 58.5 | 64.5 | 32.9 |
| Labour | 32.9 | 35.2 | 28.9 | 17.8 | 18.9 | 23.5 | 36.4 | 34.7 | 28.9 | 18.6 | 18.4 | 29.0 | 21.2 | 28.7 |
| Reform | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 21.9 |
| Liberal Democrat1 | 26.7 | 23.8 | 17.7 | 29.7 | 26.6 | 21.7 | 18.2 | 16.7 | 19.1 | 21.3 | 6.7 | 5.8 | 10.6 | 9.5 |
| Green Party | - | - | - | - | * | * | * | * | * | 1.0 | 3.0 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 5.2 |
| UKIP | - | - | - | - | - | - | * | * | * | 4.1 | 20.5 | 4.6 | * | * |
| Other | - | 0.1 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 5.8 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 1.7 |
11974 & 1979 - Liberal Party; 1983 & 1987 - SDP–Liberal Alliance
* Included in Other
Seats
| Election year | 1974 (Feb) | 1974 (Oct) | 1979 | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 11 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 10 |
| Labour | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Reform | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| Liberal Democrat1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| UKIP | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 14 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
11974 & 1979 - Liberal Party; 1983 & 1987 - SDP–Liberal Alliance
Maps
1885-1910
- 1885
- 1886
- 1892
- 1895
- 1900
- 1906
- Jan 1910
- Dec 1910
1918-1945
- 1918
- 1922
- 1923
- 1924
- 1929
- 1931
- 1935
- 1945
1950-1970
- 1950
- 1951
- 1955
- 1959
- 1964
- 1966
- 1970
1974-present
- Feb 1974
- Oct 1974
- 1979
- 1983
- 1987
- 1992
- 1997
- 2001
- 2005
- 2010
- 2015
- 2017
- 2019
- 2024
Historical representation by party
A cell marked → (with a different colour background to the preceding cell) indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.
Key: bulk or all of areas marked † form part of present-day Greater London.
1852 to 1885
Conservative Independent Whig Liberal Radical Whig
1885 to 1918
Conservative Independent Labour Independent Labour Party Labour Liberal Liberal-Labour
1918 to 1945
British Socialist (1919-20) / Communist (1920-22) Coalition Liberal (1918-22) / National Liberal (1922-23) Coalition National Democratic & Labour Common Wealth Conservative Constitutionalist Independent Labour Liberal National Liberal (1931-68) National Socialist
1945 to 1974
Common Wealth Conservative Labour Independent Group (1949-50) Labour National Liberal (1931-68)
1974 to 2010
Conservative Independent Labour Liberal Democrats UKIP
| Constituency | Feb 74 | Oct 74 | 76 | 77 | 1979 | 80 | 1983 | 1987 | 88 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 08 | 08 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basildon | Moonman | Proctor | Amess | Smith | |||||||||||
| Braintree | Newton | Hurst | Newmark | ||||||||||||
| Brentwood and Ongar | McCrindle | Pickles | |||||||||||||
| Chelmsford / West Chelmsford (1997) | St John-Stevas | Burns | |||||||||||||
| Colchester (1974−1983, 1997−) / Colc. N (1983−1997) | Buck | Jenkin | Russell | ||||||||||||
| Epping Forest | Biggs-Davison | Norris | Laing | ||||||||||||
| Harlow | Newens | Hayes | Rammell | ||||||||||||
| Harwich | Ridsdale | Sproat | Henderson | Carswell | |||||||||||
| Maldon / S Colchester & Maldon (1983) / Maldon & E Chelmsford (1997) | Wakeham | Whittingdale | |||||||||||||
| Southend East / Rochford & S'end E (1997) | McAdden | Taylor | Duddridge | ||||||||||||
| Saffron Walden | Kirk | Haselhurst | |||||||||||||
| South East Essex / Castle Point (1983) | Braine | Spink | Butler | Spink | → | → | |||||||||
| Southend West | Channon | Amess | |||||||||||||
| Thurrock | Delargy | McDonald | Janman | MacKinlay | |||||||||||
| Billericay | Proctor | Gorman | Baron | ||||||||||||
| Rochford / Rayleigh (1997) | Clark | Francois | |||||||||||||
| North Essex | Jenkin |
2010 to present
Conservative Independent Labour Liberal Democrats Reform UKIP
See also
- Parliamentary constituencies in the East of England
- History of parliamentary constituencies and boundaries in Essex
- Historical list of parliamentary constituencies in Essex
- List of former parliamentary constituencies in Essex