Battleground Anglia: North West Cambridgeshire

This constituency mostly comprises the northern half of Huntingdonshire district and the western region of Peterborough’s unitary area. Bisected north to south by the busy A1, it contains a mix of suburban land around the city of Peterborough and a large expanse of rural land that stops just short of Stamford in the north.

The Peterborough wards are generally incongruous with the rest of the constituency. They comprise some of the poorest areas of the Peterborough unitary authority, and have higher concentrations of residents in receipt of public funds, and higher levels of council tenancies than the rest of the city.

The rest of the constituency is more affluent, and is characterised by small towns, private housing estates and rural areas.

It has the largest electorate of any seat in the Anglia region - 91,189 in 2013

• Conservative majority in 2010: 16,667

• NW Cambs is the second safest seat in Cambridgeshire

• The Lib Dems would need a swing of 14% to win in 2015 and Labour would need a 17% swing

• UKIP are targeting the seat

North West Cambridgeshire has been held by the Conservative since the seat was created in 1997. The current incumbent is Justice Minister Shailesh Vara who has been the MP since 2005.

The constituency is partly in the Peterborough City council area and partly in Huntingdonshire. In both places there was a strong showing by UKIP at the 2104 local elections. The party gained a 31% share of the vote in Huntingdonshire district and a 17% shared in the Peterborough unitary area.

UKIP have seven councillors in Huntingdonshire and three in Peterborough.

Candidates in 2015

• Fay Belham - Christian Peoples Alliance

• Nicola Day - Green

• Peter Reeve - UKIP

• Nick Sandford - Liberal Democrats

• Nick Thulbourn - Labour

• Shailesh Vara - Conservative