The east Lancashire seat of Burnley, encompassing the heart of the county’s long-deceased cotton industry, has only once in its history returned a non-Labour MP, Vice-Admiral Gordon Campbell of the National Party, 1931 - 1935.
The Tories have not won here since 1918, although they have come close on occasion.
Following the retirement of Dan Jones in 1983 after representing Burnley for 24 years, Labour’s current incumbent Peter Pike clung on with a majority of 787 in the face of a concerted challenge by the Conservative’s Ian Bruce, the current MP for Dorset South.
The Conservatives have always been the strongest challengers to Labour in Burnley and the seat is not without some scope for the Tories.
The affluent commuting village of Worsthorne is decidedly middle-class, as are parts of the seat’s eponymous town of Burnley. Further pockets of Tory resistance can be found in the housing estates of Nelson, Pendle, Rose Hill and Rossendale.
Once a centre for textiles and mining, industries which have all but dwindled to nothing after their 19th century heyday, modern-day businesses in Burnley include high technology, engineering and manufacturing in sectors such as aerospace, plastics, paper, electronics and car components.
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