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1997 Result:
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Hoon, Geoff
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Lab
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32,979
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65.20%
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Simmonds, Mark
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Con
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10,251
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20.30%
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Smith, William
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LibDem
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4,882
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9.60%
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Betts, Martin
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Ref
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1,896
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3.70%
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Belshaw, Steven
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BNP
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595
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1.20%
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Majority
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22,728
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11.3% swing from Con to Lab
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1992 Notional
Result:
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Lab
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31,978
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54.87%
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Con
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19,015
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32.63%
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LibDem
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7,285
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12.5%
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Notional Majority
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12,963
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22.24%
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Description:
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Ashfield has been Labour ever since its creation in 1955. In 1965, MP David Marquand resigned his seat to take up a post with the European Commission. It used to be a coalmining constituency, but its pits did not support Arthur Scargill's eighties strike. At the time the miners were much praised by the Tories but now all the pits have been closed and there is considerable bitterness, which may be one explanation for Labour's increased majority in 1992. The constituency lies to the north west of Nottingham, its main towns being Sutton-in-Ashfield, Kirby-in-Ashfield and Eastwood (where D H Lawrence was born and set many of his novels). As a result of coal's decline the constituency's social character is changing. New private housing estates have been built in recent years and from these estates residents commute to work in Nottingham or Mansfield. The M1 cuts through the constituency and junctions 27 and 28 provide easy access. This is a working class seat - skilled and partly skilled manual workers and their families form 60% of the population. (1991 Census)
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