Battleground Anglia: Northampton South

The Conservatives won the Northampton South constituency at the 2010 General Election with a majority of more than 6,000 votes. Credit: ITV

The Northampton South constituency includes much of the town centre. It is the smallest seat in the Anglia region in terms of size of electorate.

Outside the town of Northampton itself, the seat takes in the rural and commuter hinterland to the south, including a good deal of green-belt land.

This seat bears little relation to its namesake before the 2010 boundary changes. It's now a largely urban seat whereas the old Northampton South was largely rural.

As such, at the 2010 election it was deemed to be a notional Labour seat even though the sitting MP was Conservative Brian Binley.

  • Conservative majority in 2010: 6,004

  • Labour target number 16 of 66 seats in the Anglia region

  • Labour would need a swing of 8% to win in 2015 and the Lib Dems would need an 11% swing

Northampton South was a notional Conservative gain from Labour at the 2010 General Election because boundary alterations had changed the nature of the constituency.

However Brian Binley has been the Conservative MP for the seat since 2005. He is retiring at this election. Tony Clarke held the seat for Labour between 1997 and 2005 and is standing this time for the Greens in Northampton North.

Candidates in 2015

  • Sadik Choudhury - Liberal Democrats

  • Rose Gibbins - UKIP

  • Julie Hawkins - Green

  • David Mackintosh - Conservative

  • Kevin McKeever - Labour

  • Kevin Willsher - Independent