BBC Profile:
Conservative Sir Ralph Bonner Pink represented the seat from 1966 until his death in 1984. The subsequent by-election saw SDP candidate Mike Hancock win the seat with a majority of 1,341.

Hancock subsequently lost the seat to the Conservative David Martin by just 205 votes in 1987. In 1997 Hancock won the seat back, now as a Liberal Democrat, defeating Martin with a majority of 4,327. He was re-elected in 2001 with an improved 6,094-vote lead and again in 2005 with a smaller majority of 3,362.

At the election, there have been minimal boundary changes, consisting of small area swaps between the two Portsmouth seats. To find out what might have happened had this boundary change been in force at the last election, see a notional - or estimated - result below.

This Hampshire constituency covers the densely populated area of central Portsmouth, the smart and gentrified area of Old Portsmouth with the historic dockyard and the resort of Southsea.

The modern naval dockyard is a major employer, with large numbers of people also working in private-sector defence industries such as Lockheed Martin, Marconi-GEC, VT Group (Vosper Thorneycroft) and BAE Systems.

The expanding and highly successful council owned continental ferry port employs around 2,000 people directly, and is responsible for a significant number of jobs through suppliers and servicing industries.

The regeneration of Portsmouth Harbour, backed by the Millennium Commission, has transformed t

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BBC Profile:
Conservative Sir Ralph Bonner Pink represented the seat from 1966 until his death in 1984. The subsequent by-election saw SDP candidate Mike Hancock win the seat with a majority of 1,341.

Hancock subsequently lost the seat to the Conservative David Martin by just 205 votes in 1987. In 1997 Hancock won the seat back, now as a Liberal Democrat, defeating Martin with a majority of 4,327. He was re-elected in 2001 with an improved 6,094-vote lead and again in 2005 with a smaller majority of 3,362.

At the election, there have been minimal boundary changes, consisting of small area swaps between the two Portsmouth seats. To find out what might have happened had this boundary change been in force at the last election, see a notional - or estimated - result below.

This Hampshire constituency covers the densely populated area of central Portsmouth, the smart and gentrified area of Old Portsmouth with the historic dockyard and the resort of Southsea.

The modern naval dockyard is a major employer, with large numbers of people also working in private-sector defence industries such as Lockheed Martin, Marconi-GEC, VT Group (Vosper Thorneycroft) and BAE Systems.

The expanding and highly successful council owned continental ferry port employs around 2,000 people directly, and is responsible for a significant number of jobs through suppliers and servicing industries.

The regeneration of Portsmouth Harbour, backed by the Millennium Commission, has transformed the waterfront. The centrepiece, the Millennium Spinnaker Tower since being open to the public in 2005 has proved to be a popular attraction and is already a city icon.

Rallings & Thrasher Notional:
LD 15,370 (41.63%)
C 12,415 (33.62%)
Lab 8,268 (22.39%)
UKIP 869 (2.35%)

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