Conwy (UK Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Conwy (National Assembly for Wales constituency).

Coordinates: 53°11′28″N 3°41′17″W / 53.191°N 3.688°W / 53.191; -3.688

Conwy
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Conwy in Wales for the 2005 general election.
Preserved county	Clwyd, Gwynedd
Major settlements	Conwy, Bangor, Llandudno
1950–2010
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Aberconwy

Conwy was an electoral constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) by the single-member district plurality (also known as first-past-the-post) system of voting.

The constituency was created for the 1950 general election, and abolished for the 2010 general election.

History

It was a marginal between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party throughout its existence.

The Conwy Welsh Assembly constituency was created with the same boundaries as the Conwy House of Commons constituency in 1999.

Boundaries

The constituency was, geographically, relatively small for its region, as it followed and tended to keep to the coast, taking in parts of two separate densely populated coastal conurbations.

As well as the walled castle town of Conwy from which it bore its name, the constituency mainly comprised the popular holiday resort and retail centre of Llandudno to the east, and the city of Bangor, which is home to the University of Wales, Bangor, to the west. It also included the smaller coastal towns of Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan, as well as some sparser inland areas including former slate-quarrying communities in the Ogwen Valley.

The constituency, notably, did not include Colwyn Bay (or outlying Rhos-on-Sea), which forms part of a coastal conurbation (and the Conwy county borough) with Llandudno and its outlying town of Penrhyn Bay—both in the constituency; this area comes under the constituency of Clwyd West to the east. Nor did it include the town of Caernarfon—just southwest of Bangor—which was in a constituency of the same name.

The constituency was also bordered by Meirionnydd Nant Conwy to the south, and the insular constituency of Ynys Mon to the west.

Following the decisions of the Welsh Boundary Commission, the Conwy seat was significantly altered, forming the base of a new Aberconwy constituency established for the 2010 general election. Part of the constituency (notably Bangor) became part of the new Arfon constituency.

Profile

Although the constituency included a student population from the university, most of the voters were towards the older end of the age spectrum as it was a popular retirement area. The constituency was also linguistically diverse, with mainly English speakers in the east and mainly Welsh speakers in the west and inland areas.

Members of Parliament

The last MP was Betty Williams of the Labour Party, who held the seat from 1997 (when she gained 35.04% of the vote—a 9.4% swing from the Conservatives) until its abolition in 2010. Williams increased her share of the vote in 2001 (by 6.8%), but it was reduced in 2005 (by 4.7%). She is also the first female MP to hold the seat. The seat was previously held (since its renaming in 1983) by Sir Wyn Roberts for the Conservative Party, who was first elected for Conway, the old anglicised name of the constituency, in 1970.

	Member^[1]	Party
1950	William Elwyn Edwards Jones	Labour
1951	Peter Thomas	Conservative
1966	Ednyfed Hudson Davies	Labour
1970	Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts	Conservative
1997	Betty Williams	Labour
2010	Constituency abolished: see Aberconwy

Elections

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1950: Conway
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	William Elwyn Edwards Jones	15,176	38.4	N/A
	Conservative	David Archibald Price-White	14,373	36.4	N/A
	Liberal	Hugh Emlyn Hooson	9,937	25.2	N/A
Majority			803	2.0	N/A
Turnout				84.6	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

General Election 1951: Conway
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Peter John Mitchell Thomas	17,115	43.40
	Labour	William Elwyn Edwards Jones	16,532	41.92
	Liberal	Hugh Emlyn Hooson	5,791	14.68
Majority			583	1.48
Turnout				84.95
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1955: Conway
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Peter John Mitchell Thomas	18,705	48.2
	Labour	William Elwyn Edwards Jones	13,881	35.8
	Liberal	Herbert Mostyn Lewis	3,217	8.2
	Plaid Cymru	Ioan Bowen Rees	3,019	7.8
Majority			4,824	12.4
Turnout			38,822
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1959: Conway
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Peter John Mitchell Thomas	17,795	47.1	−1.1
	Labour	Silvan Jones	13,260	35.1	−0.7
	Liberal	John H. Bellis	3,845	10.2	+2.0
	Plaid Cymru	Ioan Bowen Rees	2,852	7.6	−0.2
Majority			4,535	12.0
Turnout			37,752
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1964: Conway^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Peter John Mitchell Thomas	18,753	50.6	+3.5
	Labour	Gwilym Edffrwd Roberts	15,234	41.1	+6.0
	Plaid Cymru	Gwilym Hughes	3,058	8.3	+0.7
Majority			3,519	9.5
Turnout				80.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Conway
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Ednyfed Hudson Davies	18,203	47.5	+6.4
	Conservative	Peter John Mitchell Thomas	17,622	45.9	−4.7
	Plaid Cymru	Robert E. Jones	2,552	6.6	−1.7
Majority			581	1.5
Turnout				83.7
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970: Conway^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts	16,927	42.4	−3.5
	Labour	Ednyfed Hudson Davies	16,024	40.2	−7.3
	Plaid Cymru	Dafydd Elis-Thomas	4,311	10.8	+4.2
	Liberal	Elfyn Lloyd Morris	2,626	6.6	N/A
Majority			903	2.3
Turnout			48,662	82.0
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election February 1974: Conway
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts	16,763	40.2	−2.2
	Labour	David Benjamin Rees	12,214	29.3	−10.9
	Liberal	David Thomas Jones	8,546	20.4	+13.8
	Plaid Cymru	Pryce Michael Farmer	4,203	10.1	−0.7
Majority			4,549	10.9
Turnout			41,726	81.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Conway
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts	15,614	39.6	−0.5
	Labour	David Benjamin Rees	12,808	32.5	+3.2
	Liberal	David Thomas Jones	6,344	16.1	−4.4
	Plaid Cymru	Pryce Michael Farmer	4,668	11.8	+1.8
Majority			2,806	7.1
Turnout			39,434	76.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1979: Conway
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts	18,142	44.7	+5.1
	Labour	Gerson Wyn Davies	12,069	29.8	−2.7
	Liberal	John Roger Roberts	6,867	16.9	+0.8
	Plaid Cymru	Emyr Price	3,497	8.6	−3.2
Majority			6,073	14.97
Turnout				79.02
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1983: Conwy ^[4] retrieved 23 Sept 2013
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts	16,413	41.7	−1.5
	Liberal	John Roger Roberts	12,145	30.8	+12.6
	Labour	Ira Gwilym Walters	6,731	17.1	−12.0
	Plaid Cymru	Dafydd Iwan	4,105	10.4	+0.8
Majority			4,268	10.8
Turnout			39,394	76.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1987: Conwy
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts	15,730	38.7	−3.0
	Liberal	John Roger Roberts	12,706	31.2	+0.4
	Labour	Betty Helena Williams	9,049	22.3	+5.2
	Plaid Cymru	Rhodri Vaughn Davies	3,177	7.8	−2.6
Majority			3,024	7.5
Turnout			40,662	77.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1992: Conwy^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir Ieuan Wyn Pritchard Roberts	14,250	33.7	−5.0
	Liberal Democrat	John Roger Roberts	13,255	31.4	+0.1
	Labour	Betty Helena Williams	10,883	25.8	+3.5
	Plaid Cymru	Rhodri Vaughan Davies	3,108	7.4	−0.5
	Independent Conservative	Owen Wainwright	637	1.5	+1.5
	Natural Law	David Emrys Hughes	114	0.3	+0.3
Majority			995	2.4	−5.1
Turnout			42,247	78.7	+1.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	−2.5

General Election 1997: Conwy
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Betty Helena Williams	14,561	35.0	+9.2
	Liberal Democrat	John Roger Roberts	12,965	31.2	−0.2
	Conservative	David Ian Jones	10,085	24.3	−9.4
	Plaid Cymru	Rhodri Vaughan Davies	2,844	6.8	−0.6
	Referendum	Allan Cyril Barham	760	1.8	N/A
	Independent	Richard Blaine Bradley	250	0.6	N/A
	Natural Law	David Emrys Hughes	95	0.2	−0.1
Majority			1,596	3.8
Turnout			41,560	75.4
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+9.3

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2001: Conwy
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Betty Helena Williams	14,366	41.8	+6.8
	Conservative	David Andrew John Logan	8,147	23.7	−0.6
	Liberal Democrat	Mrs. Victoria Mercier Macdonald MacDonald	5,800	16.9	−14.3
	Plaid Cymru	Mrs. Ann Owen	5,665	16.5	+9.6
	UKIP	Allan Cyril Barham	388	1.1	N/A
Majority			6,219	18.1
Turnout			34,366	62.9	−12.5
	Labour hold		Swing

In the 2005 general election, the seat was the 81st easiest seat for the Liberal Democrats to gain, and the 153rd easiest seat for the Conservative Party to gain. The Labour Party did not include the seat on its list of vulnerable seats and eventually held the seat (with a reduced proportion of the vote).

General Election 2005: Conwy
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Betty Helena Williams	12,479	37.1	−4.7
	Conservative	Guto Bebb	9,398	27.9	+4.2
	Liberal Democrat	Gareth Roberts	6,723	20.0	+3.1
	Plaid Cymru	Paul Rowlinson	3,730	11.1	−5.4
	Green	Jim Killock	512	1.5	N/A
	Socialist Labour	David Lloyd Jones	324	1.0	N/A
	UKIP	Ken Khambatta	298	0.9	−0.2
	Legalise Cannabis	Tim Evans	193	0.6	N/A
Majority			3,081	9.2
Turnout			33,723	62.6	−0.3
	Labour hold		Swing	−4.5

Official declaration of result of the poll (in PDF)

References

↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 5)
↑ Wales at Westminster a History of Parliamentry representation in Wales 1800-1979 Arnold J James and John E Thomas Gwasg Gomer 1981 ISBN 0 85088 684 8
↑ Wales at Westminster a History of Parliamentry representation in Wales 1800-1979 Arnold J James and John E Thomas Gwasg Gomer 1981 ISBN 0 85088 684 8
↑ http://www.election.demon.co.uk/1983WC.html
↑ "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 Dec 2010.

Constituencies in Wales (40)

Labour (25)	Aberavon Alyn and Deeside Blaenau Gwent Bridgend Caerphilly Cardiff Central Cardiff South and Penarth Cardiff West Clwyd South Cynon Valley Delyn Islwyn Llanelli Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney Neath Newport East Newport West Ogmore Pontypridd Rhondda Swansea East Swansea West Torfaen Wrexham Ynys Môn

Conservative (11)	Aberconwy Brecon and Radnorshire Cardiff North Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire Clwyd West Gower Monmouth Montgomeryshire Preseli Pembrokeshire Vale of Clwyd Vale of Glamorgan

Plaid Cymru (3)	Arfon Carmarthen East and Dinefwr Dwyfor Meirionnydd

Liberal Democrats (1)	Ceredigion

Wales European constituency: Conservative (1) Labour (1) Plaid Cymru (1) UKIP (1)

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