Vale of Glamorgan LAB Hold

Welsh assembly election

constituency

	Vale of Glamorgan	LAB Hold

	CANDIDATE	PARTY	VOTES	%	+/-%
	Jane Hutt	LAB	12267	44.0	9.1
	David Melding	CON	9614	34.5	2.4
	Christopher Franks	PC	3921	14.1	-9.9
	Nilmini De Silva	LD	2049	7.4	-1.6
		MAJORITY	2653	9.5
		TURNOUT	28029	40.7	-7.9

ELECTORATE	68947

Top-up region: South Wales Central

DESCRIPTION: Vale of Glamorgan

The Vale of Glamorgan was once the most marginal seat in Britain, and it could prove to be a close contest again. Labour holds the seat at Westminster and also won it at the first assembly election. But it has been a Conservative parliamentary seat in the past, and the Tories hope they can regain ground. Labour grabbed the Vale in a dramatic by-election in the early 1990s, the Conservatives took it back with a 19-seat majority in 1992, only for Labour to regain its grip in 1997. Labour also took the assembly seat in 1999. The AM, Jane Hutt, has been health minister throughout the assembly’s first term and her brief has probably come under more scrutiny than any other area. Her majority is under 1,000, and her Tory opponent is the party’s health spokesman, David Melding.

The local council is under no overall control but the Conservatives are the biggest group. The council’s reputation has not been helped by a series of controversies which have included the dismissal of the chief executive for gross misconduct in July 2000, and guilty pleas by the former Labour leader, Shaun Stringer, to charges of abusing public office. Among the constituency’s biggest employers are the aircraft repair centre at RAF St Athan, where a recently-confirmed £77m investment has secured thousands of jobs. The Vale is also home to the growing Cardiff International Airport near Rhoose.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

	1999 WELSH ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	11448	34.9
	CON	10522	32.1
	PC	7848	23.9
	LD	2938	9

	2001 GENERAL ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	20524	45.4
	CON	15824	35
	LD	5521	12.2
	PC	2867	6.3
	UKIP	448	1