Medway
Labour hold

A very interesting contest awaits in the Kent constituency of Medway in the putative 2001 General Election. Labour's highly independent and lively new MP, Bob Marshall-Andrews, has to resist a six pc swing to repulse the Conservative challenge of Mark Reckless. This is just the sort of seat that Labour must win to form another government, even if Mr Marshall-Andrews is far from a New Labour clone. There were many marginal wards within the seat too, closely fought in the first Medway Towns unitary elections in May 2000, but the Conservatives came out just ahead in a relatively, but not very, good year for them. It should be a thriller.

Robert (Bob) Marshall-Andrews is a rather exotic bloom, if such is not incompatible with the murk of the North Kent side of the Thames estuary. Double-barrelled only by the combination of his parents’ surnames, he was born in 1944, attended Mill Hill (as a scholarship boy) and Bristol University, and comes with a raffish bucolic look and with all the devil-may-care individualism of the successful barrister, and a partly-buried futuristic holiday home in Pembrokeshire. With a faint whiff of radical chic he has joined the Campaign Group and taken a rebellious road against the Blair government - leading a revolt on the Prime Minister’s right to nominate life peers, and predictably as a barrister, opposing jury trial curbs. Otherwise he has turned up for pretty well all the disobedience: on bombing Kosovo, disability benefit cuts, pensions linked to average earnings, air traffic control sell-off, freedom of information, and so on. Meanwhile, at the 1999 Party Conference Tribune Rally, another joker, Steve Pound, auctioning a Harrods hamper for £1,200 said: “Where’s Marshall-Andrews? That’s only an hour’s work for him.”

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   Thriving Wealthy Achievers, Suburban Areas 5.81% 14.99% 38.75 Affluent Greys, Rural Communities 0.00% 2.13% 0.00 Prosperous Pensioners, Retirement Areas 0.33% 2.49% 13.13 Expanding Affluent Executives, Family Areas 1.70% 4.43% 38.44 Well-Off Workers, Family Areas 16.54% 7.27% 227.46 Rising Affluent Urbanites, Town & City Areas 0.54% 2.56% 21.05 Prosperous Professionals, Metropolitan Areas 0.18% 2.04% 8.91 Better-Off Executives, Inner City Areas 3.01% 3.94% 76.26 Settling Comfortable Middle Agers, Mature Home Owning Areas 14.29% 13.04% 109.57 Skilled Workers, Home Owning Areas 29.00% 12.70% 228.31 Aspiring New Home Owners, Mature Communities 9.75% 8.14% 119.72 White Collar Workers, Better-Off Multi Ethnic Areas 5.67% 4.02% 140.90 Striving Older People, Less Prosperous Areas 2.52% 3.19% 79.24 Council Estate Residents, Better-Off Homes 8.02% 11.31% 70.87 Council Estate Residents, High Unemployment 2.29% 3.06% 74.73 Council Estate Residents, Greatest Hardship 0.00% 2.52% 0.00 People in Multi-Ethnic, Low-Income Areas 0.00% 2.10% 0.00 Unclassified Unclassified 0.36% 0.06% 572.49

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   £0-5K 8.02% 9.41% 85.16 £5-10K 15.03% 16.63% 90.34 £10-15K 16.07% 16.58% 96.92 £15-20K 13.89% 13.58% 102.29 £20-25K 11.02% 10.39% 106.02 £25-30K 8.42% 7.77% 108.30 £30-35K 6.34% 5.79% 109.45 £35-40K 4.76% 4.33% 109.76 £40-45K 3.57% 3.27% 109.48 £45-50K 2.70% 2.48% 108.79 £50-55K 2.05% 1.90% 107.81 £55-60K 1.57% 1.47% 106.65 £60-65K 1.21% 1.15% 105.38 £65-70K 0.94% 0.91% 104.04 £70-75K 0.74% 0.72% 102.67 £75-80K 0.58% 0.57% 101.29 £80-85K 0.46% 0.46% 99.92 £85-90K 0.37% 0.37% 98.57 £90-95K 0.30% 0.31% 97.26 £95-100K 0.24% 0.25% 95.98 £100K + 1.19% 1.34% 88.55