BBC NEWS | VOTE 2003

DESCRIPTION: Conwy

Conwy could once be relied upon to elect Conservatives, returning Tory MPs for most of the 1950s and 60s while Labour just occasionally intruded. Former Welsh Office Minister Sir Wyn Roberts managed to make the seat his own from 1970 but then in 1997 it fell, like so many others, to Labour. However, Conwy is the most marginal seat in Wales and remains unpredictable. This is another seat where the electorate is prepared to cast its vote differently for elections to the assembly and the House of Commons. Plaid Cymru came fourth in the 1997 Westminster election. But in 1999 Plaid�s Gareth Jones pulled off one of the most surprising results of the first assembly election to become its AM with a winning margin of just over 100. But Labour retained the Westminster seat in 2001, with Plaid slipping back to fourth. Mr Jones�s election may have been helped by the fact that he is a locally well-known former headteacher.

The �caravan� vote of the north Wales coast with its large influx of retired English voters is important in this area. Conwy includes the large holiday resort of Llandudno, as well as the smaller resorts of Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan. It also takes in the university town of Bangor, and, as often in north Wales, the inland areas tend to have a greater proportion of Welsh-speakers than the coast.

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