Gower
Labour hold

The Gower peninsula, with its attractive seaside villages and plethora of sandy beaches, may give its name to this constituency but not it does not set its political tone, which comes from the working class and ancestrally Labour ex-coal mining valleys on the other side of Swansea, round which this seat curls like a kidney. Gorseinon and Pontardulais and Pontardawe are more typical than the Mumbles or Langland Bay. Through the 20th Century Gower was actually one of Labour's most reliable constituencies, and there is little reason for this to change in the 21st.

Martin Caton, a bearded former political assistant to a local MEP, and earlier a scientific officer at a plant breeding station in Aberystwyth, was elected here in 1997. English-born (1951) and educated at Newport Grammar School, Essex, and Norfolk School of Agriculture, he arrived in Wales as a student at Aberystwyth College of Further Education. Not without a certain wit, he wondered in a debate on sustainable development if there were "theories at the bottom of your jargon", and perhaps dangerously dubbed his constituents "Jerks" for being half-way between people in Llanelli (known as 'Turks') and Swansea (known as 'Jacks'). He has been moderately rebellious on lone parent benefit cuts, the Prime Minister's power to nominate life peers, the pensions link to average earnings and means testing of incapacity benefit.

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   Thriving Wealthy Achievers, Suburban Areas 32.37% 14.99% 215.92 Affluent Greys, Rural Communities 2.81% 2.13% 132.00 Prosperous Pensioners, Retirement Areas 3.87% 2.49% 155.72 Expanding Affluent Executives, Family Areas 3.01% 4.43% 68.05 Well-Off Workers, Family Areas 5.79% 7.27% 79.66 Rising Affluent Urbanites, Town & City Areas 2.01% 2.56% 78.33 Prosperous Professionals, Metropolitan Areas 0.02% 2.04% 0.85 Better-Off Executives, Inner City Areas 0.00% 3.94% 0.00 Settling Comfortable Middle Agers, Mature Home Owning Areas 24.17% 13.04% 185.37 Skilled Workers, Home Owning Areas 5.84% 12.70% 45.98 Aspiring New Home Owners, Mature Communities 12.40% 8.14% 152.29 White Collar Workers, Better-Off Multi Ethnic Areas 0.90% 4.02% 22.41 Striving Older People, Less Prosperous Areas 2.71% 3.19% 85.23 Council Estate Residents, Better-Off Homes 3.40% 11.31% 30.07 Council Estate Residents, High Unemployment 0.06% 3.06% 1.95 Council Estate Residents, Greatest Hardship 0.63% 2.52% 24.92 People in Multi-Ethnic, Low-Income Areas 0.00% 2.10% 0.00 Unclassified Unclassified 0.00% 0.06% 0.00

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   £0-5K 8.13% 9.41% 86.34 £5-10K 15.99% 16.63% 96.11 £10-15K 16.96% 16.58% 102.32 £15-20K 14.34% 13.58% 105.54 £20-25K 11.09% 10.39% 106.69 £25-30K 8.28% 7.77% 106.50 £30-35K 6.11% 5.79% 105.47 £35-40K 4.50% 4.33% 103.95 £40-45K 3.34% 3.27% 102.15 £45-50K 2.49% 2.48% 100.21 £50-55K 1.87% 1.90% 98.23 £55-60K 1.42% 1.47% 96.24 £60-65K 1.09% 1.15% 94.30 £65-70K 0.84% 0.91% 92.41 £70-75K 0.65% 0.72% 90.60 £75-80K 0.51% 0.57% 88.86 £80-85K 0.40% 0.46% 87.20 £85-90K 0.32% 0.37% 85.61 £90-95K 0.26% 0.31% 84.09 £95-100K 0.21% 0.25% 82.64 £100K + 1.00% 1.34% 74.64