The current seat of former Chancellor Ken Clarke’s is predominantly rural, sitting on the southern edge of Nottingham, Rushcliffe’s electorate are mainly owner occupiers, 98% white and this was the only Nottinghamshire seat to remain Tory in 1997.
The middle class commuter suburb of West Bridgford lying across the Trent Bridge from the centre of Nottingham is the largest community in the constituency. Forest football ground, the Test cricket ground and the Nottinghamshire County Council headquarters are all situated within West Bridgford.
There is often a strip of Labour support around the North East of the West Bridgford area concentrated in the Abbey, Musters and Lady Bay wards. The other usually Labour inclined community is that of Cotgrave (Ash Lea ward) where the first coal mine south of the Trent was sunk in the 1960s: its closure after thirty years has left Cotsgrave with many of the social and economic problems characteristic of ex-mining communities.
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