Lancaster & Wyre
Labour hold

Hilton Dawson must be uneasy. Currently he occupies one of Labour's most vulnerable seats of all, No.7 in the Conservatives' national target list and requiring a swing of only just over one pc for a Tory regain. The 1999 local elections offered little solace. Although the Labour vote held up well in the city of Lancaster, the more rural Wyre section returned no Labour councillors except for a couple in the small town of Preesall. In June of the same year the Conservatives outpolled Labour by over 20pc within the seat - one of only five constituencies in the whole of Britain in which this margin was in that range. One suspects that Lancaster and Wyre will indeed be one of the first (or possibly even only) ten to go, even if Labour again does outstandingly well.

Hilton Dawson, elected in 1997, a local councillor and child-care-officer-turned-social services manager, born 1953 and educated at Ashington Grammar School, and Warwick Lancaster Universities, has rebelled against lone parent benefit cuts, a total ban on hand guns, and the Prime Ministers right to nominate life peers - a spattering of dissidence untypical of the on-message intake of 1997. He has a ponderous mode of speech.

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   Thriving Wealthy Achievers, Suburban Areas 19.50% 14.99% 130.09 Affluent Greys, Rural Communities 2.93% 2.13% 137.89 Prosperous Pensioners, Retirement Areas 7.26% 2.49% 292.03 Expanding Affluent Executives, Family Areas 4.97% 4.43% 112.28 Well-Off Workers, Family Areas 2.29% 7.27% 31.52 Rising Affluent Urbanites, Town & City Areas 1.02% 2.56% 39.80 Prosperous Professionals, Metropolitan Areas 0.00% 2.04% 0.00 Better-Off Executives, Inner City Areas 4.74% 3.94% 120.17 Settling Comfortable Middle Agers, Mature Home Owning Areas 30.38% 13.04% 232.99 Skilled Workers, Home Owning Areas 8.98% 12.70% 70.72 Aspiring New Home Owners, Mature Communities 6.11% 8.14% 75.04 White Collar Workers, Better-Off Multi Ethnic Areas 7.06% 4.02% 175.46 Striving Older People, Less Prosperous Areas 0.87% 3.19% 27.38 Council Estate Residents, Better-Off Homes 3.33% 11.31% 29.45 Council Estate Residents, High Unemployment 0.17% 3.06% 5.67 Council Estate Residents, Greatest Hardship 0.21% 2.52% 8.34 People in Multi-Ethnic, Low-Income Areas 0.00% 2.10% 0.00 Unclassified Unclassified 0.16% 0.06% 263.99

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   £0-5K 7.68% 9.41% 81.64 £5-10K 16.26% 16.63% 97.74 £10-15K 17.39% 16.58% 104.86 £15-20K 14.55% 13.58% 107.13 £20-25K 11.12% 10.39% 106.95 £25-30K 8.21% 7.77% 105.59 £30-35K 6.00% 5.79% 103.67 £35-40K 4.40% 4.33% 101.53 £40-45K 3.24% 3.27% 99.33 £45-50K 2.41% 2.48% 97.16 £50-55K 1.81% 1.90% 95.07 £55-60K 1.37% 1.47% 93.07 £60-65K 1.05% 1.15% 91.18 £65-70K 0.81% 0.91% 89.39 £70-75K 0.63% 0.72% 87.70 £75-80K 0.49% 0.57% 86.11 £80-85K 0.39% 0.46% 84.61 £85-90K 0.31% 0.37% 83.20 £90-95K 0.25% 0.31% 81.86 £95-100K 0.20% 0.25% 80.60 £100K + 1.00% 1.34% 74.04