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1997 Result:
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Maples, John
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Con
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29,967
|
48.30%
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Juned, Susan
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LibDem
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15,861
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25.50%
|
|
Stacey, Stewart
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Lab
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12,754
|
20.50%
|
|
Hilton, Adrian
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Ref
|
2,064
|
3.30%
|
|
Spilsbury, Julian
|
UKIP
|
556
|
0.90%
|
|
Brewster, James
|
NLP
|
307
|
0.50%
|
|
Marcus, Simon
|
SFDC
|
306
|
0.50%
|
|
Miller, Sarah
|
ProLife
|
284
|
0.50%
|
|
Majority
|
14,106
|
|
|
5.2% swing from Con to LibDem
|
|
1992 Notional
Result:
|
|
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Con
|
37,252
|
58.81%
|
|
|
LibDem
|
16,247
|
25.65%
|
|
|
Lab
|
8,512
|
13.44%
|
|
|
Others
|
1,337
|
2.11%
|
Notional Majority
|
21,005
|
33.16%
|
|
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Description:
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Stratford-on-Avon is an oddity. One of the safest Conservative seats in the country with a majority of 23,000 at the 1992 election, it is now in Labour hands after sitting MP Alan Howarth crossed the floor in October 1995 and refused calls for a by-election. Former Treasury minister and recent Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, John Maples will represent the Tories, having lost his Lewisham West seat to Labour in 1992. This is a rural constituency, Stratford-upon-Avon being the only big town in a seat that covers almost half of Warwickshire. Stratford is one of the world's greatest tourist attractions, marketing its Shakespeare connections for all their considerable worth. The inhabitants are generally white middle-class and 50% are over 40. It is however not a seat safe from Tory embarrassment - 20 years before it became home to Alan Howarth it was the seat of John Profumo.
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