The county of Essex (which includes the unitary authorities of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock) is divided into 18 parliamentary constituencies (sub-classified into six of borough type and twelve of county status, affecting the level of expenses permitted and status of returning officer).
The county saw the majority of its population and seats removed on the creation of the county of Greater London in 1965. Since then, the Conservatives have won a majority of the seats in the revised county. In the 2019 general election, all of Essex's seats were won by Conservative MPs by more than 50% of the vote. However, at the 2024 election, the Conservatives were reduced to ten seats, held on significantly reduced majorities. Labour won five seats, Reform UK two seats, and the Liberal Democrats one.[1]
See also: 2024 United Kingdom general election.
For the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which redrew the constituency map ahead of the 2024 United Kingdom general election, the Boundary Commission for England retained the number of constituencies in Essex at eighteen, with minor boundary changes to reflect changes to electoral wards within the county and to bring the electorates within the statutory range. The commission opted to rename Southend West to Southend West and Leigh (although the town of Leigh-on-Sea had already been part of the Southend West constituency prior to the boundary changes), and rename Rochford and Southend East to Southend East and Rochford to acknowledge that Southend-on-Sea had achieved city status during the course of the review.[4] In addition, Saffron Walden was renamed North West Essex. These changes came into effect from the 2024 general election.
Primary data source: House of Commons research briefing - General election results from 1918 to 2019[5]
The number votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Essex in the 2024 general election were as follows:
| Party | Votes | % | Change from 2019 | Seats | Change from 2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 270,382 | 32.9% | 31.6% | 10 | 8 | |
| Labour | 235,891 | 28.7% | 7.5% | 5 | 5 | |
| Reform | 179,977 | 21.9% | New | 2 | 2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 78,238 | 9.5% | 1.1% | 1 | 1 | |
| Greens | 42,582 | 5.2% | 2.9% | 0 | ||
| Others | 14,054 | 1.7% | 0.3% | 0 | ||
| Total | 821,124 | 100.0 | 18 |
The number of votes cast for each political party who fielded candidates in constituencies comprising Essex in the 2019 general election were as follows:
| Party | Votes | % | Change from 2017 | Seats | Change from 2017 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 577,118 | 64.5% | 6.0% | 18 | 0 | |
| Labour | 189,471 | 21.2% | 7.8% | 0 | 0 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 95,078 | 10.6% | 4.8% | 0 | 0 | |
| Greens | 20,438 | 2.3% | 0.8% | 0 | 0 | |
| Others | 12,502 | 1.4% | 3.8% | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 894,607 | 100.0 | 18 |
| Election year | 1974(Feb) | 1974(Oct) | 1979 | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 40.3 | 40.9 | 52.5 | 51.9 | 54.1 | 53.9 | 40.3 | 42.8 | 46.0 | 49.2 | 50.3 | 58.5 | 64.5 | 32.9 | |
| Labour | 32.9 | 35.2 | 28.9 | 17.8 | 18.9 | 23.5 | 36.4 | 34.7 | 28.9 | 18.6 | 18.4 | 29.0 | 21.2 | 28.7 | |
| Reform | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 21.9 | |
| Liberal Democrat1 | 26.7 | 23.8 | 17.7 | 29.7 | 26.6 | 21.7 | 18.2 | 16.7 | 19.1 | 21.3 | 6.7 | 5.8 | 10.6 | 9.5 | |
| Green Party | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 3.0 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 5.2 | ||||||
| UKIP | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4.1 | 20.5 | 4.6 | ||||||
| Other | - | 0.1 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 5.8 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 1.7 |
* Included in Other
| Election year | 1974(Feb) | 1974(Oct) | 1979 | 1983 | 1987 | 1992 | 1997 | 2001 | 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2019 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 11 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 10 | |
| Labour | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
| Reform | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | |
| Liberal Democrat1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| UKIP | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 14 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
A cell marked → (with a different colour background to the preceding cell) indicates that the previous MP continued to sit under a new party name.
Key: bulk or all of areas marked † form part of present-day Greater London.