Battleground Anglia: Kettering

The Conservatives won the Kettering constituency in Northamptonshire at the 2010 General Election with a majority of more than 9,000 votes. Credit: ITV News Anglia

This Northamptonshire seat is made up of three semi-industrial towns: Burton Latimer, Desborough and Rothwell, and the borough of Kettering. It also includes numerous villages around the Welland Valley, and some commuter villages from the area covered by Daventry District Council.

It is now a relative safe Conservative seat but in the past has been marginal for both Labour and the Conservatives.

  • Conservative majority in 2010: 9,094

  • Kettering is the Labour target number 18 in the Anglia region of 66 seats

  • Labour would need a swing of 10% to win in 2015 and the Lib Dems would need a 17% swing

Kettering was a Labour marginal in 1997 with a majority of 189 which was boosted slightly to 665 in 2001 before Philip Hollobone won it for the Tories in 2005 with a majority of 3,301.

Boundary changes ahead of the 2010 election made it ultra-marginal with the real majority of 3,301 reduced to a notional majority of just 176.

At the last local elections to Kettering District Council in May 2011, the Conservatives retained their overall majority taking a 49% share of the vote. Labour took 37% of the vote.

Candidates in 2015

  • Jonathan Bullock - UKIP

  • Derek Hilling - English Democrats

  • Philip Hollobone - Conservative

  • Rhea Keehn - Labour

  • Chris McGlynn - Liberal Democrats

  • Rob Reeves - Green