About Newcastle East constituency

Newcastle East is a new Parliamentary constituency to be fought at the next General Election (i.e. by May 2010) following boundary changes.

The old Newcastle East and Wallsend seat will lose the Wallsend and Northumberland wards to North Tyneside, but will gain North Jesmond, South Jesmond, and Ouseburn wards from Newcastle Central.

Consequently, the new constituency includes the following Newcastle City Council wards: Dene, North Heaton, South Heaton, Walkergate, Byker, Walker, North Jesmond, South Jesmond, and Ouseburn. The Lib Dems hold 18 out of the 27 council seats compared to 9 for Labour and none for the Conservatives.

The net effect makes this seat less safe for Labour and gives the Lib Dems a greater opportunity. Had the 2005 General Election result been fought on these new boundaries, the estimated result would have been as follows (UK Polling Report projection)

Labour: 17256 (50.9%)

Liberal Democrat: 11363 (33.5%)

Conservative: 4185 (12.3%)

Other: 1121 (3.3%)

Majority: 5893 (17.4%)

The Liberal Democrats have reduced the Labour majority from more than 25,000 in 1997 to under 6,000 today. The Conservative vote has flatlined at below 13% for the last three general elections.

The new constituency has one of the highest concentrations of student voters of any in the country.