Bognor Regis and Littlehampton () is a constituency in West Sussex represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Alison Griffiths, a Conservative.
Constituency profile
The constituency is located on the south coast of England, within the Arun district of the county of West Sussex. It stretches from Aldwick in the west to Rustington in the east and contains the large seaside resort town of Bognor Regis, the smaller town of Littlehampton and the village of Yapton. Bognor Regis was traditionally a small fishing village which grew rapidly in the late 19th century as a coastal tourist town.
Compared to national averages, residents of the constituency are older, more deprived and have lower levels of education and professional employment. The proportion of social housing is lower than the UK average, and White people make up 95% of the population.
:The electorate was reduced to bring it within the permitted range by transferring Bersted and Pagham to Chichester. To partly compensate, Rustington was added from Worthing West.
History
Political history
The vote share and majority for the Conservative MP, Nick Gibb, who won the first six general elections in this seat, grew since 2001 to reach over 22,000 votes.
At the first three general elections, the Labour Party candidate was runner-up, notably denting Gibb's winning margin to 5,632 votes in 2001. In 2010, the Liberal Democrat candidate took second place, more than 4,000 votes ahead of Labour and 13,063 short of Gibb's total. Mirroring nationwide performance, the Lib Dem vote share fell in 2015, whilst the UKIP vote share rose in this constituency, becoming the runner-up, but 13,944 votes short of Gibb's tally.
In June 2016, an estimated 64.8% of local adults voting in the EU membership referendum voted to Leave the European Union. This was matched in two January 2018 votes in Parliament by MP Nick Gibb.
In 2017, Labour's candidate of 2015 was reselected to stand and took second place.
The year 2017 saw an independent candidate, Paul Sanderson, the chaplain of The Littlehampton Academy come within 1% of retaining his political deposit and ahead of the UKIP and Green candidates.
Gibb was re-elected for a seventh time in 2019, with an increased majority of 22,503 votes and a vote share of 63.5%. He did not stand at the 2024 general election and his successor as the Conservative candidate, Alison Griffiths, was elected with a drastically reduced majority of 1,765, having suffered an adverse swing of 19.8%.
Contents and regional context
The seat was created from the western, more populous part of the Arundel seat on its 1997 abolition. Before the latter's creation in 1974, Bognor Regis was part of the Chichester seat and Littlehampton part of the Arundel and Shoreham seat.
Notable representatives
From its creation in 1997 until 2024, the seat was represented by Nick Gibb of the Conservative Party. Gibb had worked for the party for over ten years, and became an MP at his third attempt. After thirteen years in opposition, he joined David Cameron's coalition government after the 2010 general election, becoming Minister of State for School Standards, working under Education Secretary Michael Gove. He left the government in a 2012 reshuffle, being replaced by David Laws. He then returned to the same department, now run by Nicky Morgan, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Childcare, Education and School Reform in 2014. The following year, he again took up his previous post, which he then held under three Prime Ministers (Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson) and five Education Secretaries (Gove, Morgan, Justine Greening, Damian Hinds and Gavin Williamson). He was dismissed from this position in 2021.
Members of Parliament
Arundel prior to 1997
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan="2"|Election!!Member
!Party
|-
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| 1997
| Nick Gibb
| Conservative
|-
|style="color:inherit;background-color: " |
| 2024
| Alison Griffiths
| Conservative
|}
Elections
thumb|centre|750px|Election results 1950-2024
Elections in the 2020s
Elections in the 2010s
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="4" | 2019 notional result
|-
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="130px" colspan="2" | Party
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="50px" | Vote
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="30px" | %
|-
|
| Conservative ||align=right| 32,645 ||align=right| 62.2
|-
|
| Labour ||align=right| 9,963 ||align=right| 19.0
|-
|
| Liberal Democrats ||align=right| 6,978 ||align=right| 13.3
|-
|
| Green ||align=right| 1,711 ||align=right| 3.3
|-
|
| Others ||align=right| 1,213 ||align=right| 2.3
|-
|colspan="4" bgcolor="#EAECF0"|
|-
|colspan="2"|Turnout
|align=right|52,510
|align=right|68.2
|-
|colspan="2"|Electorate
|align=right|76,985
|}
Elections in the 2000s
Elections in the 1990s
See also
- List of parliamentary constituencies in West Sussex
- List of parliamentary constituencies in the South East England (region)
Notes
References
Sources
- Election result, 2005 (BBC)
- Election results, 1997 - 2001 (BBC)
- Election results, 1997 - 2001 (Election Demon)
- Election results, 1997 - 2005 (Guardian)
External links
- nomis Constituency Profile for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton — presenting data from the ONS annual population survey and other official statistics.
- Bognor Regis and Littlehampton UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) at MapIt UK
- Bognor Regis and Littlehampton UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK
- Bognor Regis and Littlehampton UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) at MapIt UK