Our Campaigns - UK Parliament - Calder Valley Race

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UK Parliament - Calder Valley

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> United Kingdom > England > Yorkshire & the Humber > Yorkshire & the Humber > Calder Valley

Office

Parliament

Honorific

Member of Parliament - Abbr: MP

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

00, 0000 - 06:00pm Central

Polls Open

May 06, 2010 - 01:00am Central

Polls Close

May 06, 2010 - 04:00pm Central

Term Start

May 17, 2010 - 12:00pm

Term End

May 17, 2015 - 12:00pm

Contributor

Ralphie

Last Modified

Takahe May 07, 2010 11:32pm

Data Sources

Description

BBC Profile:
Christine McCafferty won this marginal seat for Labour in 1997 with a swing of 9.5%. The Tories regained some ground in 2001, and again in 2005 when the Labour majority was reduced to 1,367. Ms McCafferty is retiring at this election. Slight boundary changes have resulted in an exchange of part-wards with Halifax due to the realignment of local government boundaries. To find out what might have happened had these changes been in force at the last election, see a notional - or estimated - result below.
This large West Yorkshire seat, winding around Halifax and up into the Pennines, includes the smaller Calderdale towns and villages.

The largest of these is Brighouse, a former textile centre. The seat also includes Todmorden, a market town that sits on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border, Elland and Hebden Bridge.

By most measures this is a modestly prosperous constituency with a large percentage of owner-occupied households. But the Calder Valley is traditionally a working-class industrial area of small settlements, heavily dominated by the wool industry. Manual workers make up much of the workforce and there is still some textile activity, although the mills are long gone.

Tourism is important, and there is some upland farming. More modern industries have located in the Elland and Brighouse areas close to the M62.

Rallings & Thrasher Notional:
Lab 18,347 (38.50%)
C 17,044 (35.76%)
LD 9,007 (18.90%)
Others 1,887 (3.96%)
Green 1,371 (2.88%)