Parliamentary constituency in the UK
Surrey Heath is a constituency[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Michael Gove, a Conservative who has also been the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since October 2022.[n 2] The Home counties suburban constituency is in the London commuter belt, on the outskirts of Greater London. Surrey Heath is in the north west of Surrey and borders the counties of Berkshire and Hampshire.
History
The seat was created under the Fourth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies in 1997 from the most part of North West Surrey, a seat that was abolished, and smaller parts of Woking and Guildford, seats that remain.
On its creation, Nick Hawkins was elected to parliament as Surrey Heath's MP, after Michael Grylls, who had in 1992 achieved a majority of 28,392, retired.[1] One of Hawkins' opponents for selection was future Speaker John Bercow, selected for Buckingham the same day.[2]
In 1999 then-party chairman Michael Ancram was intervened to prevent a move to deselect Hawkins following local party disquiet about him leaving his wife of 20 years for a local councillor.[3][4] In 2004, the Conservative constituency association, then the richest in the country, deselected Hawkins for the next election, following accusations of racism, in the hope of obtaining an MP of cabinet calibre.[5][6]
The MP since 2005, Michael Gove, has served in four Conservative governments across multiple departments since 2010, the longest appointment being his 4 years as Education Secretary. Most recently he has held office as Levelling Up Secretary since 25 October 2022, having previously held the same office from 2021 until 6 September 2022.
Boundaries
Map of current boundaries
Fourth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies
Surrey Heath occupies the northwest corner of the county. From its inception in 1997 until the next general election, it covers the Borough of Surrey Heath and the Guildford wards knows as 'The Ashes'.[7]:
- Bagshot, Bisley and West End, Frimley, Frimley Green, Heatherside, Lightwater, Mytchett and Deepcut, Old Dean, Parkside, St Michaels, St Pauls, Town, Watchett, and Windlesham & Chobham in the Surrey Heath District
- Ash South and Tongham, Ash Vale, and Ash Wharf in the Borough of Guildford.
The large village of Ash with Ash Vale and smaller one of Tongham are contiguous, similar to Frimley and Frimley Green.
2023 Boundary review
Under the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, the boundaries of the constituency from the next general election, due by January 2025, will be composed of the following wards:
Surrey Heath Borough - all wards
Guildford Borough - Normandy and Pirbright. (The wards were amalgamated into one two member wards after the review had commensed so are listed as individual wards in the review but now are one wards).
The electorate will be reduced to bring it within the permitted range by transferring the three Guildford Borough wards which constitute the community of Ash to the newly created constituency of Godalming and Ash. The two small wards of Normandy and Pirbright are move from the current Woking constituency.
Constituency profile
70% of homes were detached or semi-detached at the 2011 census. The detached percentage (45.2%) was at that time the second highest in the South East, behind the New Forest.[8] The area is well connected to London Heathrow Airport, IT, telecommunications and logistics centres of the M3 and M4 corridors, and to the military towns of Aldershot and Sandhurst. Farnborough, with its civil, private aviation base with certain military uses, is also nearby, as is Blackbushe Airport.
Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.7% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.[9]
According to the British Election Study, it was the most right-wing seat in the UK as of 2014.[10]
Constituents on balance voted to leave the European Union in 2016 but an analysis of YouGov polling by Focaldata suggested support for remain rose from 48% then to 50.2% in August 2018.[11]
Until the 2019 general election, the constituency was seen as one of the Conservative Party's safest seats. This election saw an unexpected 11.1% swing to the Liberal Democrats' candidate Alasdair Pinkerton, polling the second-highest second place since the constituency's creation, with Labour recording the lowest share of the vote since the seat's creation.
Surrey Heath is seen as the Liberal Democrats' 60th target seat under new boundary changes,[12] having taken control in 2023 ending a 49 years of continuous Conservative administration[13] and pushed the Conservatives to the lowest number of councillors on Guildford Borough Council since its creation in 1973.[14]
