Dr Robert Ford of the University of Manchester and Dr Matthew Goodwin of the University of Nottingham are the authors of Revolt on the Right.
In our recent book, Revolt on the Right, we compiled a list of the most demographically receptive seats in the country for UKIP. This allowed us to rank all seats according to how favourable their populations are for UKIP, using the most recent census data.
UKIP’s ideal seats share key characteristics: they have lots of ‘left behind’ voters who we also know from our research are the most receptive to UKIP and its policies. These seats also have very low numbers of voters who tend to remain resistant to UKIP, including university graduates, ethnic minorities and people in professional and economically secure occupations. This is a useful first exercise in filtering through all seats to find those where if UKIP stood a candidate and knocked on doors they would probably find lots of receptive voters.
Clearly, we are not saying that UKIP will enjoy strong support in all of these seats. It might be that they do not target these seats, or the local Conservative MP has a formidable majority that makes a Ukip insurgency unlikely. In order to find seats that UKIP actually has a chance of winning, you would need to look at both demography and the local political context, such as whether the vote is split across three parties, whether UKIP is targeting the seat and has been recruiting support through local elections.
Take Louth and Horncastle as an example. This is the fifth most UKIP-friendly seat in the country. But it will be incredibly difficult for UKIP to win the seat because of the very large Conservative majority (of almost 14,000). The departure of Sir Peter Tapsell will still make this fight interesting, but even still the seat imposes some obvious barriers for an insurgent party. Alternatively, look at Clacton. This was already the most favourable seat in the country for UKIP before Douglas Carswell defected. Now UKIP has the perfect storm: ideal demography and ideal politics.
So, keeping this important caveat in mind, here are the Top 100 most UKIP-friendly Conservative-held seats in the country:
Seat |
Region |
Con Majority |
Ukip 2010 |
Clacton |
Eastern |
12,068 |
– |
Boston & Skegness |
East Midlands |
12,426 |
9.5 |
Great Yarmouth |
Eastern |
4,276 |
4.8 |
Waveney |
Eastern |
769 |
5.2 |
Louth & Horncastle |
East Midlands |
13,871 |
4.3 |
Amber Valley |
East Midlands |
536 |
2 |
North East Cambridgeshire |
Eastern |
16,425 |
5.7 |
Cleethorpes |
Yorkshire |
4,298 |
7.1 |
South Holland & the Deepings |
East Midlands |
21,880 |
6.5 |
Cannock Chase |
West Midlands |
3,195 |
3.5 |
North West Norfolk |
Eastern |
14,810 |
3.9 |
Dudley South |
West Midlands |
3,856 |
8.2 |
Brigg and Goole |
Yorkshire |
5,147 |
4 |
Castle Point |
Eastern |
7,632 |
– |
South West Norfolk |
Eastern |
13,140 |
6.2 |
Erewash |
East Midlands |
2,501 |
1.8 |
Carlisle |
North West |
853 |
2.3 |
North Warwickshire |
West Midlands |
54 |
2.8 |
Sherwood |
East Midlands |
214 |
3 |
Yorkshire East |
Yorkshire |
13,486 |
4.2 |
Scarborough and Whitby |
Yorkshire |
8,130 |
3 |
Bridgwater and West Somerset |
South West |
9,249 |
4.8 |
North Thanet |
South East |
13,528 |
6.5 |
Sittingbourne and Sheppey |
South East |
12,383 |
5.4 |
Camborne and Redruth |
South West |
66 |
5.1 |
Wyre Forest |
West Midlands |
2,643 |
2.9 |
Morcambe and Lunesdale |
North West |
866 |
4.2 |
Staffordshire Moorlands |
West Midlands |
6,689 |
8.2 |
Dover |
South East |
5,274 |
3.5 |
Preseli Pembrokeshire |
Wales |
4,605 |
2.3 |
Isle of Wight |
South East |
10,527 |
3.5 |
Norwich North |
Eastern |
3,901 |
4.4 |
Aldridge-Brownhills |
West Midlands |
15,256 |
– |
Montgomeryshire |
Wales |
1,184 |
3.3 |
Mid Norfolk |
Eastern |
13,856 |
5.5 |
Havant |
South East |
12,160 |
5.9 |
Camarthen West & S Pembrokeshire |
Wales |
3,423 |
2.8 |
Bognor Regis & Littlehampton |
South East |
13,063 |
6.5 |
South Basildon & East Thurrock |
Eastern |
5,772 |
5.9 |
Tamworth |
West Midlands |
6,090 |
4.9 |
Halesowen & Rowley Regis |
West Midlands |
2,023 |
6.4 |
Torridge & West Devon |
South West |
2,957 |
5.5 |
Thanet South |
South East |
7,617 |
5.5 |
Clwyd West |
Wales |
6,419 |
2.3 |
Tiverton & Honiton |
South West |
9,320 |
6 |
Nuneaton |
West Midlands |
2,069 |
0 |
Forest of Dean |
South West |
11,064 |
5.2 |
Aberconwy |
Wales |
3,398 |
2.1 |
Penrith and the Border |
North West |
11,241 |
2.8 |
North West Leicestershire |
East Midlands |
7,511 |
2.2 |
Christchurch |
South West |
15,410 |
8.5 |
Gainsborough |
East Midlands |
10,559 |
4.2 |
Newton Abbot |
South West |
523 |
6.4 |
Hastings and Rye |
South East |
1,993 |
2.8 |
South Dorset |
South West |
7,443 |
4 |
Broadland |
Eastern |
7,292 |
4.5 |
Stourbridge |
West Midlands |
5,164 |
4.5 |
North Shropshire |
West Midlands |
15,828 |
4.7 |
Thirsk and Malton |
Yorkshire |
11,281 |
6.6 |
South East Cornwall |
South West |
3,220 |
6.2 |
Weston-Super-Mare |
South West |
2,691 |
2.7 |
Hereford & South Herefordshire |
West Midlands |
2,481 |
3.4 |
Bosworth |
East Midlands |
5,032 |
2 |
Totnes |
South West |
4,927 |
6 |
Ludlow |
West Midlands |
9,749 |
4.4 |
Folkestone and Hythe |
South East |
10,122 |
4.6 |
Suffolk Coastal |
Eastern |
9,128 |
5.7 |
Crewe and Nantwich |
North West |
6,046 |
2.8 |
Wellingborough |
East Midlands |
11,787 |
3.2 |
Berverley & Holderness |
Yorkshire |
12,987 |
3.5 |
Grantham & Stamford |
East Midlands |
14,826 |
3 |
Burton |
West Midlands |
6,304 |
2.9 |
Chatham and Aylesford |
South East |
13.9 |
3 |
Gosport |
South East |
14,413 |
3.2 |
Portsmouth North |
South East |
7,289 |
4.1 |
Bexhill and Battle |
South East |
12,880 |
0 |
Rossendale and Darwen |
North West |
4,493 |
3.4 |
South Suffolk |
Eastern |
8,689 |
7.1 |
Harlow (Essex) |
South East |
4,925 |
3.6 |
Sleaford and North Hykeham |
East Midlands |
19,905 |
3.6 |
Rochford and Southend East |
Eastern |
11,050 |
5.8 |
New Forest West |
South East |
16,896 |
5.9 |
Redditch |
West Midlands |
5,821 |
3.4 |
Kingswood |
South West |
2,445 |
3.2 |
Harwich and North Essex |
Eastern |
11,447 |
5.2 |
New Forest East |
South East |
11,307 |
5 |
South West Wiltshire |
South West |
10,367 |
5.5 |
Lincoln |
East Midlands |
1,058 |
2.2 |
South Staffordshire |
West Midlands |
16,590 |
5.5 |
Braintree |
Eastern |
16,121 |
5 |
Kettering |
East Midlands |
9,094 |
– |
West Suffolk |
Eastern |
13,050 |
6.4 |
East Worthing & Shoreham |
South East |
11,105 |
6.2 |
Weaver Vale |
North West |
991 |
2.3 |
Basildon & Billericay |
Eastern |
12,398 |
3.8 |
North Herefordshire |
West Midlands |
9,887 |
5.7 |
Rayleigh and Wickford |
Eastern |
22,338 |
4.2 |
South Derbyshire |
East Midlands |
7,128 |
2.4 |
Worthing West |
South East |
11,729 |
6 |
South Norfolk |
Eastern |
10,940 |
4.2 |
Dr Robert Ford of the University of Manchester and Dr Matthew Goodwin of the University of Nottingham are the authors of Revolt on the Right.
In our recent book, Revolt on the Right, we compiled a list of the most demographically receptive seats in the country for UKIP. This allowed us to rank all seats according to how favourable their populations are for UKIP, using the most recent census data.
UKIP’s ideal seats share key characteristics: they have lots of ‘left behind’ voters who we also know from our research are the most receptive to UKIP and its policies. These seats also have very low numbers of voters who tend to remain resistant to UKIP, including university graduates, ethnic minorities and people in professional and economically secure occupations. This is a useful first exercise in filtering through all seats to find those where if UKIP stood a candidate and knocked on doors they would probably find lots of receptive voters.
Clearly, we are not saying that UKIP will enjoy strong support in all of these seats. It might be that they do not target these seats, or the local Conservative MP has a formidable majority that makes a Ukip insurgency unlikely. In order to find seats that UKIP actually has a chance of winning, you would need to look at both demography and the local political context, such as whether the vote is split across three parties, whether UKIP is targeting the seat and has been recruiting support through local elections.
Take Louth and Horncastle as an example. This is the fifth most UKIP-friendly seat in the country. But it will be incredibly difficult for UKIP to win the seat because of the very large Conservative majority (of almost 14,000). The departure of Sir Peter Tapsell will still make this fight interesting, but even still the seat imposes some obvious barriers for an insurgent party. Alternatively, look at Clacton. This was already the most favourable seat in the country for UKIP before Douglas Carswell defected. Now UKIP has the perfect storm: ideal demography and ideal politics.
So, keeping this important caveat in mind, here are the Top 100 most UKIP-friendly Conservative-held seats in the country: