The politics of South Thanet

There were local elections in Thanet and Dover in May 2011 and Thanet District Council is now 'no overall control'. Conservatives 27 Councillors, Labour 26 Councillors and Independents 3 Councillors.

The neighbouring constituencies to South Thanet are North Thanet , Canterbury and Dover.

There is currently a 'boundary review' taking place and there are likely to be boundary changes to most constituencies.

The new boundaries should be in place for the next General Election.

‘Electoral Calculus’ carries out an independent assessment of recent opinion polls and publishes a prediction for each UK seat based on those polls.

For the latest electoral calculus prediction click here

Steve Ladyman first won the seat from Jonathan Aitken, a Conservative Cabinet Minister, in 1997. At the 1992 election Mr. Aitken had a healthy majority.

The change in voting intentions was partly due to significantly changing demographics and growing unemployment under Conservative control and partly due to national changes in voting attitudes.

The local swing is often, wrongly, attributed to scandals surrounding Jonathan Aitken but the court cases involving him occurred after the 1997 election and the Conservatives did no better in 2001 with a different candidate.

Laura Sandys	Conservative	22,043	48.0%
Stephen Ladyman	Labour	14,426	31.4%
Peter Bucklitsch	Lib Dem	6,935	15.1%
Trevor Shonk	UKIP	2,529	5.5%
	Turnout	45,933	65.3%

2010 General Election the Conservatives won the South Thanet seat (Laura Sandys)

2005 General Election Labour retained the South Thanet seat (Steve Ladyman).

2001 General Election Labour Retained the South Thanet seat (Steve Ladyman)

1997 General Election Labour won the South Thanet seat (Steve Ladyman)

1992 General Election Conservatives retained the South Thanet seat (Jonathan Aitken)