Aberavon (UK Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Aberavon (National Assembly for Wales constituency).

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Aberavon is a county constituency of the House of commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

The constituency is in south Wales, situated on the right bank of the River Afan, near its mouth in Swansea Bay. The original village of Aberavon or Aberafan is now a district of Port Talbot (so named to reflect the involvement of wealthy local landowner and MP Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot in improving Aberavon's harbour). The valley of the Afan as from about 1840 a place of much metallurgical activity, resulting in tinplate and engineering works (now mostly closed down).

The town derives its name from the river Avon (corrupted from Afan), which also gave its name to a mediæval lordship. On the Norman conquest of Glamorgan, Caradoc, the eldest son of the defeated prince, Iestyn ab Gwrgant, continued to hold this lordship, and for the defence of the passage of the river built a castle whose foundations now lie underneath the streets around St Mary's church. His descendants (who from the 13th century onwards styled themselves De Avan or D'Avene) established, under line protection of the castle, a chartered town, which in 1372 received a further charter from Edward le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer, into whose family the lordship had come on an exchange of lands. In modern times these charters were not acted upon, the town being deemed a borough by prescription, but in 1861 it was incorporated under the Municipal Corporations Act. From 1832 it belonged to the Swansea parliamentary district of boroughs, uniting with Kenfig, Loughor, Neath and Swansea to return one member; later it acquired its own MP, the most famous to hold the constituency having been Ramsay MacDonald who would become the first Labour prime minister. Aberavon has been one of the Labour Party's safest seats since its creation.

Aberavon village hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1932 and 1966.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1918	John Edwards	Labour
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1922	Ramsay Macdonald	Labour
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1929	William George Cove	Labour
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1959	John Morris	Labour
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	2001	Hywel Francis	Labour

Boundary Changes

The boundaries of this constituency have not been changed by boundary changes due to take effect in time for the next UK General Election. No notional results are required.

Election results

General Election 2005: Aberavon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hywel Francis	18,077	60.0	-3.1
	Liberal Democrats	Claire Waller	4,140	13.8	+4.0
	Plaid Cymru	Philip Evans	3,545	11.8	+2.1
	Conservative	Annunziata Rees-Mogg	3,064	10.2	+2.6
	Veritas	Jim Wright	768	2.6	+2.6
	Green	Miranda La Vey	510	1.7	+1.7
Majority			13,937	46.3	-7.1
Turnout			30,104	58.9	-1.9
	Labour hold		Swing	-3.6

General Election 2001: Aberavon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Hywel Francis	19,063	63.1	-8.2
	Plaid Cymru	Lisa Turnbull	2,955	9.8	+4.0
	Liberal Democrats	Chris Davies	2,933	9.7	-1.6
	Conservative	Ali Miraj	2,296	7.6	-0.3
	Independent	Andrew Tutton	1,960	6.5	N/A
	New Millennium Bean	Captain Beany	727	2.4	+1.4
	Socialist Alliance	Martin Chapman	256	0.8	N/A
Majority			16,108	53.3
Turnout			30,190	61.0	-10.9
	Labour hold		Swing	{{{swing}}}

General Election 1997: Aberavon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Morris	25,650	71.3
	Liberal Democrats	Ronald McConville	4,079	11.3
	Conservative	Peter Harper	2,835	7.9
	Plaid Cymru	Philip Cockwell	2,088	5.8
	Referendum Party	Peter David	970	2.7
	Independent	Captain Beany	341	1.0
Majority			21,571	62.8
Turnout			35,963	71.9

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in West Glamorgan