List of Parliamentary constituencies in Essex


The county of Essex
is divided into 18 Parliamentary constituencies. The county saw the majority of its population and seats removed on the creation of the county of Greater London in 1965. Since then, the Conservatives have won a majority of the seats in the revised county, with all of Essex's seats being won by Conservative MPs at the 2019 United Kingdom general election.

Constituencies

2010 boundary review

Under the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the Boundary Commission for England increased Essex's representation from 17 to 18 MPs, with the creation of the constituency of Witham. This had a significant impact on the boundaries of the majority of the existing constituencies and also resulted in several name changes.

Proposed boundary changes

The Boundary Commission for England submitted their final proposals in respect of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster Constituencies in September 2018. Although the proposals were immediately laid before Parliament they were not brought forward by the Government for approval. Accordingly, they did not come into effect for the 2019 election which took place on 12 December 2019, and which was contested using the constituency boundaries in place since 2010.
Under the terms of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, the Sixth Review was based on reducing the total number of MPs from 650 to 600 and a strict electoral parity requirement that the electorate of all constituencies should be within a range of 5% either side of the electoral quota.
On 24 March 2020, the Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, Chloe Smith, issued a written statement to Parliament setting out the Government's thinking with regard to parliamentary boundaries. They propose to bring forward primary legislation to remove the statutory obligation to implement the 2018 Boundary Review recommendations, as well as set the framework for future boundary reviews in time for the next review which is due to begin in early 2021 and report no later than October 2023. It is proposed that the number of constituencies now remains at the current level of 650, rather than being reduced to 600, while retaining the requirement that the electorate should be no more than +/- 5% from the electoral quota.

Results history

Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019

2019

The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Essex in the 2019 general election were as follows:
PartyVotes%Change from 2017SeatsChange from 2017
Conservative577,11864.5%6.0%180
Labour189,47121.2%7.8%00
Liberal Democrats95,07810.6%4.8%00
Greens20,4382.3%0.8%00
Others12,5021.4%3.8%00
Total894,607100.018

Percentage votes

11974 & 1979 - Liberal Party; 1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance
* Included in Other

Seats

11974 & 1979 - Liberal Party; 1983 & 1987 - SDP-Liberal Alliance

Maps

Historical representation by party

A cell marked → indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.
Key: bulk or all of areas marked † form part of present-day Greater London.

1885 to 1918

1918 to 1945

1945 to 1974

1974 to present