Since
2001 (inclusive) election campaigns have resulted in a minimum of 35.1% of votes at each election consistently for the same two parties' choice for candidate, the next-placed party's having fluctuated between 3.3% and 15.7% of the vote—such third-placed figures attained higher percentages in
1992 and
1997.
The result in
2017 was the 24th-closest nationally (of 650 seats), whereby 174 voters would have been capable of changing the outcome by their choice of candidate, the margin of votes being 346.[2]
Boundaries
1983–2010: The Borough of Hastings, the District of Rother wards of Camber, Fairlight, Guestling and Pett, Rye, Winchelsea
2010–present: The Borough of Hastings, the District of Rother wards of Brede Valley, Eastern Rother, Marsham, Rye
The constituency is set in a relatively isolated part of the southeast from the railways perspective and so does not enjoy some of the more general affluence of this part of the country. In the 2000 index of multiple deprivation a majority of wards fell within the bottom half of rankings so it can arguably be considered a deprived area.[4] Hastings has some light industry, while Rye has a small port, which includes hire and repair activities for leisure vessels and fishing. Hastings is mostly Labour-voting, whereas Rye and the rest of the areas from Rother council are Conservative.
Property prices in the villages are however rising and are in affluent areas, unlike residential estates in the towns. Three Oaks does enjoy a nearby train station for its residents, which has services allowing connecting services to London.
History
The constituency was created in 1983 by combining most of
Hastings with a small part of
Rye. The
Conservative MP for Hastings since 1970,
Kenneth Warren, won the new seat.[n 2]. Warren held Hastings and Rye until he chose to retire in 1992; during this period its large majorities suggested it was a Conservative
safe seat, with the
Liberal Party (now the
Liberal Democrats) regularly coming second.
Jacqui Lait won the seat on Warren's retirement, but in 1997 the
Labour candidate
Michael Foster narrowly defeated Lait, becoming the second-least expected (on
swing) Labour MP in the landslide of that year[citation needed] and since 2001 setting a pattern that suggests the seat is a two-way Labour-Conservative
marginal. Foster held the seat, again with slim majorities over Conservatives, in 2001 and 2005, but lost it to
ConservativeAmber Rudd in 2010. Rudd was re-elected with an increased majority in 2015.
In the
2017 general election, the
Green Party declined to contest the seat and instead called on its supporters to back the
Labour candidate.[5] Rudd held the seat with a slim majority of 346.