About Vale Of Clwyd

Matt Wright is the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for the Vale of Clwyd and was previously the Welsh Assembly candidate.

Latest result: Assembly Election 2007

Swing from Labour to Conservative of 7.4%. Conservatives increased their vote by 46%. Labour majority only 92.

Labour 8,104 Ann Jones

Conservative8,012 Matt Wright

Plaid 3,884

Lib 2,275

The seat is a two-horse race between Conservative and Labour.

2007 Results in detail:

CANDIDATES
Name Party Votes % +/- %
Ann Jones LAB 8,104 36.4 -9.6
Matthew Wright CON 8,012 36.0 +5.2
Mark Jones PC 3,884 17.4 +3.3
Mark Young LD 2,275 10.2 +1.1
Majority 92 0.4
Turnout 22,275 40.3 +3.9
Swing: 7.4% from LAB to CON

At the last Welsh Assembly election the results were:

2003 Welsh Assembly Election - Vale of Clwyd Constituency FPTP Results
Jones, Ann Labour Party 8,256 46.15% +8.50%
Millar, Darren Conservative Party 5,487 30.67% +8.07%
Evans, Malcolm Plaid Cymru 2,516 14.06% -5.28%
Feeley, Robina Liberal Democrats 1,630 9.11% +2.91%
Lab Majority 2,769 15.48% +0.43%
0.22% swing Con to Lab; Electorate 49,319; Total votes cast 17,889 (36.27%)

Results at the last general election further confirm the Welsh Conservatives are the main opposition:

Results GE 2005
Labour Labour 46.0%
Conservative Conservative 31.6%
Liberal Democrat Liberal Democrat 11.8%
Swing: 1.7% from LAB to CON
Name Party Votes % +/- %
Chris Ruane Labour 14,875 46.0 -4.0
Felicity Elphick Conservative 10,206 31.6 -0.6
Elizabeth Jewkes Liberal Democrat 3,820 11.8 +2.3
Mark Jones Plaid Cymru 2,309 7.1 0.0
Mark Young Independent 442 1.4 +1.4
Edna Khambatta UK Independence Party 375 1.2 0.0
Jeff Ditchfield Legalise Cannabis Alliance 286 0.9 +0.9
Majority 4,669 14.4
Turnout 32,313 62.2 -1.4

Demographic Statistics

The Vale of Clwyd constituency came into existence in 1997, following a Boundary Commission review in 1995. It incorporates about half of Denbighshire with contiguous boundaries from the coast down to just below Denbigh. It comprises areas previously included in the Clwyd North-West and Delyn constituencies.

Towns, Villages and People
The Vale consists of about 27,000 dwellings with 57,000 eligible voters.
The main towns are Rhyl, Prestatyn, Rhuddlan, Denbigh, St Asaph plus many villages such as Tremerchion, Bodfari and Llandyrnog.

Just over half of the population (53%) are of working age and roughly 3% are unemployed. Rhyl West has the highest proportion of unemployment (8%) whilst Trefnant has the lowest (1%). Traditionally employment was in agriculture and tourism though both sectors have been in decline in recent years. As in the rest of the country, farming has been adversely affected by issues such as the Common Agriculture Policy, the weakness of the Euro, the failure to enforce animal welfare and health and safety rules on food imports, and such like. Tourism has been strangled by the failure to adapt to changing tourist markets. A near death blow was dealt with the white elephant scheme of the Children's Village in Rhyl, which destroyed the sea view promenade and left local taxpayers with an £8 million debt.

Towns such as Rhyl are in urgent need of a practical business-led regeneration project. However, there are real problems in Rhyl West where large numbers of young social security dependents have settled and there are issues of crime and the drug culture.

New businesses are being established and a number of light industrial estates have sprung up in Rhyl and Denbigh but the flagship employment centre is the St. Asaph Business Park, a spacious and beautifully landscaped area sited alongside the A55 express-way connecting North Wales within 60 minutes to Manchester and Liverpool airports and the UK motorway network.

Growth sectors are optronics, instrumentation, metal goods, rubber and plastics, food and drink, communications and health-related activity. New opportunities are emerging for Research and Development, Film industry, Financial Services, Conferences and Training. The constituency has an above-average proportion of its population employed in management, agriculture and craft-related occupations.

Electoral Statistics

Although currently held by Labour, statistics show that had the constituency existed in 1992, it would have been a Conservative victory:

Vale of Clwyd 1992 General Election Results
(Notional)
Conservative Party 19,118 43.7%
Labour Party 16,941 38.8%
Liberal Democrats 5,435 12.4%
Plaid Cymru 2,095 4.8%
Others 123 0.3%

In the 1997 General Election we were sadly unable to win the new seat. The local Conservative vote was particularly hit by abstentions. In addition a number of former Liberal Democrat and Conservative voters seemingly switched to Labour:

Vale of Clwyd 1997 General Election Results
Labour Party 20,617 52.7%
Conservative Party 11,662 29.8%
Liberal Democrats 3,425 8.8%
Plaid Cymru 2,301 5.9%
Referendum Party 834 2.1%
UK Independence Party 293 0.7%

Although the defeat in 1997 was disillusioning, local Conservatives were buoyed by a victory in the 1999 European Elections. You can view a bar chart of the following results:

Vale of Clwyd 1999 European Election Results
Conservative Party 4,749 31.3%
Labour Party 4,590 30.2%
Plaid Cymru 3,383 22.3%
Liberal Democrats 1,072 7.1%
UK Independence Party 725 4.8%
Green Party 306 2.0%
Pro Euro Conservative Party 195 1.3%
Socialist Labour Party 121 0.8%
Natural Law Party 44 0.3%

In the 2001 General Election, Labour's vote dropped by 4,500 and their majority was reduced by 3,194 to 5,761. This was equivalent to a 2.55% Lab-Con swing. Both the swing to the Conservatives and the share of the Conservative Party vote achieved in the Vale of Clwyd were higher than the corresponding UK national averages. We did well compared to similar marginal seats in other parts of the country and were the most successful of the North Wales Conservative target seats in terms of the swing achieved. Nevertheless, the poor showing of the Conservative Party nationally was clearly evident here, and many people who switched to Labour in 1997, both from the Conservatives and from the Lib Dems, decided to re-elect the Labour Party, albeit on a markedly reduced turnout:

Vale of Clwyd 2001 General Election Results
Labour Party 16,179 50.0%
Conservative Party 10,418 32.2%
Liberal Democrats 3,058 9.5%
Plaid Cymru 2,300 7.1%
UK Independence Party 391 1.2%

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