Mole Valley (UK Parliament constituency)

Mole Valley
Mole Valley
Former County constituency; for the House of Commons
	Boundary of Mole Valley in Surrey
	Location of Surrey within England
County	Surrey
Electorate	72,568 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Dorking, Leatherhead, Fetcham and Great Bookham
1983–2024
Seats	One
Created from	Dorking and Epsom & Ewell
Replaced by	Dorking and Horley

Mole Valley is a former constituency in Surrey represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Sir Paul Beresford, a Conservative, until it was abolished in 2024, primarily replaced by Dorking and Horley.

Boundaries

Map of boundaries 1997-2024

1983–1997: The District of Mole Valley, and the Borough of Guildford ward of Tillingbourne.

1997–2024: The District of Mole Valley wards of Beare Green, Bookham North, Bookham South, Box Hill and Headley, Brockham, Betchworth and Buckland, Capel, Leigh and Newdigate, Charlwood, Dorking North, Dorking South, Fetcham East, Fetcham West, Holmwoods, Leatherhead North, Leatherhead South, Leith Hill, Mickleham, Westhumble and Pixham, Okewood, and Westcott; and the Borough of Guildford wards of Clandon and Horsley, Effingham, Lovelace, Send, and Tillingbourne.

The constituency was larger than the Mole Valley District of Surrey as it included five wards in the east of the Borough of Guildford, three of which are nearer to Woking than to Dorking. The largest town in the Mole Valley constituency was Dorking, the second largest was Leatherhead and there are many rural and semi-rural villages, generally within one hour's reach of London so properly classed as part of the London Commuter Belt.

Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat underwent boundary changes, adding the town of Horley, and losing Leatherhead. As a consequence, it was reformed as the new seat of Dorking and Horley, starting from the 2024 general election.^[3]

History and constituency profile

The county constituency was created in 1983; much of the same area was covered by the Dorking constituency which preceded it. It was a Conservative safe seat in terms of length of party tenure and great size of its majorities. It has a majority adult demographic of affluent middle-class families living in commuter towns and villages speedily connected to business parks by road and central London by rail, it was one of a few seats to return a new candidate as Conservative MP who won a majority in excess of 10,000 in the 1997 Labour landslide; the main opposition since 1983 was the Liberal Democrats and their largest predecessor party, the Liberal Party.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member^[4]	Party
	1983	Kenneth Baker	Conservative
	1997	Sir Paul Beresford	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General election 2019: Mole Valley^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul Beresford	31,656	55.4	―6.5
	Liberal Democrats	Paul Kennedy	19,615	34.4	+15.1
	Labour	Brian Bostock	2,965	5.2	―8.7
	Green	Lisa Scott-Conte	1,874	3.3	+0.7
	Independent	Robin Horsley	536	0.9	New
	UKIP	Geoffrey Cox	464	0.8	―1.6
Majority			12,041	21.0	―21.6
Turnout			57,110	76.5	+0.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	―10.7

General election 2017: Mole Valley^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul Beresford	35,092	61.9	+1.3
	Liberal Democrats	Paul Kennedy	10,955	19.3	+4.8
	Labour	Marc Green	7,864	13.9	+5.6
	Green	Jacquetta Fewster	1,463	2.6	―2.8
	UKIP	Judy Moore	1,352	2.4	―8.8
Majority			24,137	42.6	―3.5
Turnout			56,866	76.3	+2.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	―1.8

General election 2015: Mole Valley^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul Beresford^[8]	33,434	60.6	+3.1
	Liberal Democrats	Paul Kennedy	7,981	14.5	―14.2
	UKIP	Paul Oakley^[9]	6,181	11.2	+6.1
	Labour	Leonard Amos^[10]	4,565	8.3	+1.3
	Green	Jacquetta Fewster^[11]	2,979	5.4	+3.8
Majority			25,453	46.1	+17.3
Turnout			55,329	74.2	―0.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	+8.7

General election 2010: Mole Valley^[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul Beresford	31,263	57.5	+2.7
	Liberal Democrats	Alice Humphreys	15,610	28.7	―1.8
	Labour	James Dove	3,804	7.0	―3.7
	UKIP	Leigh Jones	2,752	5.1	+2.1
	Green	Rob Sedgwick	895	1.6	New
Majority			15,653	28.8	+4.5
Turnout			54,324	74.8	+3.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	+2.3

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2005: Mole Valley^[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul Beresford	27,060	54.8	+4.3
	Liberal Democrats	Nasser Butt	15,063	30.5	+1.5
	Labour	Farmida Bi	5,310	10.7	―5.9
	UKIP	David Payne	1,475	3.0	+0.2
	Veritas	Roger Meekins	507	1.0	New
Majority			11,997	24.3	+2.8
Turnout			49,415	72.5	+3.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.4

General election 2001: Mole Valley^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul Beresford	23,790	50.5	+2.5
	Liberal Democrats	Celia Savage	13,637	29.0	―0.3
	Labour	Dan Redford	7,837	16.6	+1.8
	UKIP	Ronald Walters	1,333	2.8	+2.0
	ProLife Alliance	William Newton	475	1.0	New
Majority			10,153	21.5	+2.8
Turnout			47,072	68.9	-9.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.4

Elections in the 1990s

This constituency underwent boundary changes between the 1992 and 1997 general elections and thus change in share of vote is based on a notional calculation.

General election 1997: Mole Valley^[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Paul Beresford	26,178	48.0	―13.3
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen Cooksey	15,957	29.3	+0.6
	Labour	Christopher Payne	8,057	14.8	+5.4
	Referendum	Nick Taber	2,424	4.4	New
	Ind. Conservative	Richard Burley	1,276	2.3	New
	UKIP	Ian Cameron	435	0.8	New
	Natural Law	Judith Thomas	197	0.4	―0.4
Majority			10,221	18.7	-10.3
Turnout			54,524	78.4	−3.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	―6.9

General election 1992: Mole Valley^[16]^[17]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Kenneth Baker	32,549	59.3	―1.5
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Watson	16,599	30.3	+0.4
	Labour	Tim Walsh	5,291	9.6	+0.3
	Natural Law	Judith Thomas	442	0.8	New
Majority			15,950	29.0	―1.9
Turnout			54,881	82.0	+5.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	―0.9

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1987: Mole Valley^[18]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Kenneth Baker	31,689	60.8	±0.0
	Liberal	Susan Thomas	15,613	29.9	―0.8
	Labour	Christopher King	4,846	9.3	+0.8
Majority			16,076	30.9	+0.8
Turnout			52,148	77.0	+2.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.4

General election 1983: Mole Valley^[19]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Kenneth Baker	29,691	60.8
	Liberal	Susan Thomas	14,973	30.7
	Labour	Fanny Lines	4,147	8.5
Majority			14,718	30.1
Turnout			48,811	75.0
	Conservative win (new seat)

References

Bibliography

Election result, 2017 & 2015 (BBC)
Election result, 2010 (BBC)
Election result, 2005 (BBC)
Election results, 1997 - 2001 (BBC)
Election results, 1997 - 2001 Archived 21 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine (Election Demon)
Election results, 1983 - 1992 (Election Demon)
Election results, 1992 - 2010 (Guardian)
Election result, 2010 (UKPollingReport)

External links

Mole Valley UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) at MapIt UK

51°15′58″N 0°19′41″W / 51.266°N 0.328°W / 51.266; -0.328

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