Bournemouth East

Bournemouth East is a parliamentary constituency in Dorset represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Tom Hayes, of the Labour Party.

Constituency profile

The constituency covers the eastern suburbs of Bournemouth including Boscombe, Muscliff, Springbourne and Southbourne. Bournemouth is a large seaside resort town on the south coast of England. The town is located in Dorset but was traditionally in Hampshire. Bournemouth is a popular tourist destination; in 2011, 15% of the town's population were employed in the tourism sector and the seafront received 4.5 million visitors.

Levels of wealth, education, professional employment and ethnic diversity in the constituency are similar to national averages. Local politics were mixed at the most recent local council election in 2023. Labour Party councillors were elected in the more deprived parts of the constituency close to the town centre. The more affluent eastern suburbs of Southbourne and Iford elected Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors. Independent and Green Party representatives were elected in the northern areas of Muscliff and Moordown. Similar to the country as a whole, the constituency voted marginally in favour of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, with an estimated 53% of voters supporting Brexit.

:Very small change following re-organisation of local authorities and wards in Dorset.

History

This was a safe seat for the Conservatives since its creation in 1974 with Liberal-inclined candidates being their main opponents, the Labour Party finishing a distant second place on only two occasions in a 1977 by-election, and the 1979 General Election.

Labour finished second behind the Conservatives for the first time in over three decades in 2015, with a large swing in their favour in 2017, as wards within Bournemouth East were beginning to swing to Labour, particularly Boscombe, with Labour eventually winning the seat in 2024 for the first time on a swing of 15%.