This seat was a creation of the 1995 Boundary Review. It is an amalgam of Wyre and the former Lancaster constituency, represented from 1970 to 1997 by one of the Commons' more colourful characters, the right-winger, Dame Elaine Kellet-Bowman. Wyre contains the seaside retirement towns of Poulton-le-Fylde, Thornton, Hambleton and Knott-End-on-Sea and was held by Tory Keith Mans between 1987 and 1997. Lancaster, on the seat's northern border with Morecambe and Lunesdale, is the largest town in a primarily rural constituency. Its university is one of the major employers and 16% of the population are students. There is a mixture of isolated settlements - small, pretty villages such as Hambleton and Pilling, historic market towns like Garstan and Poulton and coastal Clevelys. The age profile is older. Unemployment is low - the main sectors being education, health and social work and public administration and defence. Thornton is home to ICI. Most of the dwellings are owner-occupied houses. Labour's majority in 1997 of 1,295 was more than outweighed by the vote of the Referendum Party and in 2001 by the 1,600 votes cast for the Greens. Hilton Dawson, the victor in 1997, was only the second Labour MP in the seat - the first was Stanley Henig who lost in 1970. Hilton Dawson has decided to stand down at this election. Standing instead for Labour will be Ann Sacks, who was selected from an all-women shortlist. With a majority of only 481 votes, this is Labour's fourth most marginal sea

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This seat was a creation of the 1995 Boundary Review. It is an amalgam of Wyre and the former Lancaster constituency, represented from 1970 to 1997 by one of the Commons' more colourful characters, the right-winger, Dame Elaine Kellet-Bowman. Wyre contains the seaside retirement towns of Poulton-le-Fylde, Thornton, Hambleton and Knott-End-on-Sea and was held by Tory Keith Mans between 1987 and 1997. Lancaster, on the seat's northern border with Morecambe and Lunesdale, is the largest town in a primarily rural constituency. Its university is one of the major employers and 16% of the population are students. There is a mixture of isolated settlements - small, pretty villages such as Hambleton and Pilling, historic market towns like Garstan and Poulton and coastal Clevelys. The age profile is older. Unemployment is low - the main sectors being education, health and social work and public administration and defence. Thornton is home to ICI. Most of the dwellings are owner-occupied houses. Labour's majority in 1997 of 1,295 was more than outweighed by the vote of the Referendum Party and in 2001 by the 1,600 votes cast for the Greens. Hilton Dawson, the victor in 1997, was only the second Labour MP in the seat - the first was Stanley Henig who lost in 1970. Hilton Dawson has decided to stand down at this election. Standing instead for Labour will be Ann Sacks, who was selected from an all-women shortlist. With a majority of only 481 votes, this is Labour's fourth most marginal seat.

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