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1997 Result:
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Rendel, David
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LibDem
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29,887
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53.00%
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Benyon, Richard
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Con
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21,270
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37.70%
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Hannon, Paul
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Lab
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3,107
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5.50%
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Snook, Ted
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Ref
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992
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1.80%
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Stark, Rachel
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Green
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644
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1.10%
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Tubb, Roy
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UKIP
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302
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0.50%
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Howse, Katrina
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SLP
|
174
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0.30%
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Majority
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8,617
|
|
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17% swing from Con to LibDem
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1992 Notional
Result:
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Con
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32,898
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55.89%
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|
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LibDem
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21,841
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37.11%
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|
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Lab
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3,584
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6.09%
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|
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Others
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539
|
.92%
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Notional Majority
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11,057
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18.78%
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|
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Description:
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Newbury was the site of the government's first by-election defeat of the current parliament (following the sudden death of Judith Chaplin, former political secretary and special adviser to John Major), in May 1993. Newbury has experienced acrimonious and well-publicised road protests since the last general election. Construction of the Newbury bypass eventually commenced in January 1996, and is still ongoing. The constituency has undergone a significant change in its boundary, what remains is very largely rural, the only sizeable town being Newbury (which has now grown to join its near-neighbour Thatcham). The only other town, in the west of the constituency, is Hungerford. Newbury itself is a market town famous for its horse racing associations. The constituency is served by the M4, A4 and A34, which have helped the local economy (in particular the London Road Industrial estate) to grow in recent years. Local unemployment is relatively low, and the constituency's social composition is quite heavily weighted towards professional and managerial and technical classes. Greenham Common, which was the UK base for the United States Cruise missiles, has now closed, but defence-related services continue to play an important part in the local economy.
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