| South Basildon and East Thurrock | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 2010 |
| Type: | Borough |
| Previous: | Basildon, Billericay and Thurrock[1] |
| Electorate: | 73,322 (2023) [2] |
| Region: | England |
| European: | East of England |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
South Basildon and East Thurrock is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by James McMurdock of Reform UK.
The seat has a very similar proportion (4.0%) of jobseekers to the national average of 3.8%, based on The Guardians November 2012 study. This is higher than the average for the Eastern counties of 3.1% but significantly lower than Bedford, Great Yarmouth, Peterborough, Luton South, Rochford and Southend East, and Thurrock seats.[3]
The seat was created for the 2010 general election following a review of the Parliamentary representation of Essex by the Boundary Commission for England. It was formed from the majority of the abolished constituency of Basildon, but excluding the centre of Basildon itself, together with the town of Pitsea from the abolished Billericay constituency.
Its predecessor seat, Basildon, was a much-referenced bellwether seat, having consistently voted for the most successful party (in terms of number of seats) in each election since its 1974 creation. However, the boundaries of the new South Basildon and East Thurrock seat were considered much more favourable to the Conservatives than those of the old Basildon seat.[4]
Before 1974 the area came within the older version of the Billericay constituency and, for just five years before 1950, this area was the eastern part of the Thurrock seat – from 1885 to 1945 the area was within the South East Essex seat. From 1832 to 1885 the area was in the South Essex seat.
Despite its long name, this new constituency is to the greatest extent the successor to the Basildon constituency.
The Basildon constituency that existed after 1997 was never wholly within the Basildon district, nor even contained the whole of the Basildon urban area, but it extended south into the Thurrock council area to take in towns such as Stanford-le-Hope and Corringham.
This new seat retained all of the Thurrock wards, lost some areas around central Basildon, and replaced them with Pitsea to the east of Basildon. Additionally, the ward of East Tilbury was added from the Thurrock constituency.
Further to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which came into effect for the 2024 general election, the composition of the constituency is as follows (as they existed on 1 December 2020):
The Borough of Basildon ward of Vange was transferred to Basildon and Billericay, and polling district DN in the Pitsea South East ward (equivalent to the civil parish of Bowers Gifford and North Benfleet) was added to Castle Point. To compensate, the Borough of Thurrock ward of Chadwell St Mary was transferred from Thurrock.
Basildon, Billericay and Thurrock prior to 2010
| Election | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Stephen Metcalfe | Conservative | ||
| 2024 | James McMurdock | Reform UK | ||