Battleground Anglia: North East Bedfordshire

The Conservatives won the North East Bedfordshire constituency at the 2010 General Election with a majority of nearly 19,000 votes.

The constituency covers small communities to the north and east of Bedford. The historic towns of Biggleswade and Sandy are the largest population centres.

North East Bedfordshire is a popular area with wealthy London and Bedford commuters. However, employment prospects in the area have been helped by the excellent transport links and the development of new industrial and technology parks in the area.

The location is superb for research and development purposes, situated as it is with London, Cambridge and Oxford all within short commuter distances. Sandy has the headquarters of the RBPB.

• Conservative majority in 2010: 18,942

• NE Beds is the seventh safest seat of the 69 constituencies in the Anglia region

• Safest seat in Bedfordshire

• The Liberal Democrats would need a swing of 17% to win in 2015 and Labour would need a 20% swing

The current North East Bedfordshire constituency was created by boundary changes in 1997 and slightly altered again in 2010.

The north western part of the seat is in the Bedford Borough council area, while the south east corner, around Sandy and Biggleswade, is in Central Bedfordshire. Bedford Borough has been a hung council since 1986 with no one party having enough council seats to secure and outright majority.

Former Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt has been the Conservative MP for North East Bedfordshire since 2001.

Candidates in 2015

• Saqhib Ali - Labour

• Mark Bowler - Green

• Alistair Burt - Conservative

• Peter Morris - Liberal Democrats

• Adrianne Smyth - UKIP