Southend West and Leigh
Southend West and Leigh is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. In the 2024 general election the seat was won by David Burton-Sampson for Labour. It was previously held by Anna Firth who won the 2022 by-election, following the murder of the incumbent MP, David Amess.
Prior to the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, coming into effect at the 2024 general election, the constituency was known as Southend West.
History
The constituency was created for the 1950 general election under the Representation of the People Act 1948, when the Parliamentary Borough of Southend-on-Sea was split in two.Because four members of the Guinness family have held the seat it has been dubbed in political analyses in the media as "Guinness-on-Sea".
The seat had historically been seen by pundits as a safe Conservative seat and from its creation until 2019, the seat was held by the Conservative Party, with majorities ranging from 5.7% during the Labour Landslide of 1997 to 43.4% in 1955.
The seat was represented by David Amess for 24 years, from 1997 to 15 October 2021, when he was murdered. Amess was previously the MP for Basildon from 1983. A by-election was held to elect a replacement MP. In a similar vein to the subsequent by-election following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016, all major contender parties stated they would not field candidates in opposition to the successful Conservative candidate, Anna Firth.
At the 2024 general election it was won by Labour for the first time with a 35.6% share.
Boundaries and boundary changes
1950–1955
- The County Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh, Milton, Prittlewell, St Clements, Victoria, and Westborough.
1955–1983
- The County Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Blenheim, Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh, Prittlewell, St Clement's, Southbourne, and Westborough.
1983–2010
- The Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Belfairs, Blenheim, Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh, Prittlewell, and Westborough.
2010–2024
- The Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Belfairs, Blenheim Park, Chalkwell, Eastwood Park, Leigh, Prittlewell, St Laurence, Westborough, and West Leigh.
Current (Southend West and Leigh)
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the constituency comprises the whole of the current Southend West seat with the addition of St Luke's ward from Rochford and Southend East.The constituency comprises a small part of the west of Southend-on-Sea, and includes Leigh-on-Sea and Westcliff-on-Sea. It is bounded to the north and east by Rochford and Southend East, to the north by Rayleigh and Wickford, to the west by Castle Point, and to the south by the very end of the Thames Estuary.