Earley and Woodley | |
---|---|
County constituency for the House of Commons | |
County | Berkshire |
Electorate | 70,083 (2020)[1] |
Current constituency | |
Created | Next general election |
Member of Parliament | Not yet contested |
Seats | One |
Created from | Reading West, Reading East, Maidenhead, and Wokingham |
Earley and Woodley is a proposed constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament.[2] Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it will first be contested at the next general election.
At the time of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, there were eight constituencies in the county of Berkshire. Of these constituencies, only three (Reading East, Reading West, and Windsor) were within the permitted electorate range of no fewer than 69,724 electors and no more than 77,062. All of the remaining constituencies were above the upper limit. The Boundary Commission for England therefore proposed the addition of a ninth constituency within the county.[3][4]
Whilst both Reading constituencies could have remained unchanged, the boundary commission instead proposed a reconfiguration to account for the increased electorates of the surrounding constituencies, and to better reflect local ties in the surrounding communities. This involved the creation of two new constituencies, Earley and Woodley and Mid Berkshire (renamed Reading West and Mid Berkshire in the final proposals), both with the bulk of their electorate outside the Borough of Reading but including outer wards of the borough, together with a new Reading Central constituency entirely within the borough.[3]
In June 2023, the Conservatives selected Pauline Jorgensen, the leader of the opposition group on Wokingham Borough Council, as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the seat. In December 2023, the Labour Party selected Yuan Yang, a Financial Times journalist and social campaigner, as their candidate. As of mid-December 2023, no other parties had announced their final selection.[5][6]
The constituency will be composed of the following (as they existed on 1st December 2020):
It will comprise:
The constituency will be bordered by the seats of Reading West and Mid Berkshire, Reading Central, Henley, and Wokingham.[8]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conservative | Pauline Jorgensen[9] | ||||
Labour | Yuan Yang[10] | ||||
Liberal Democrats | Tahir Maher[11] | ||||
SDP | Alastair Hunter[12] | ||||
Majority | |||||
Turnout | |||||
Swing |