Oxford East

Oxford East
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Oxford East in Oxfordshire.
Location of Oxfordshire within England.
County	Oxfordshire
Electorate	81,644 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Oxford and Cowley
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of parliament	Anneliese Dodds (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Oxford (majority) (abolished), Mid Oxfordshire and Henley
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South East England

Oxford East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Anneliese Dodds of the Labour Party.

The constituency covers the eastern and southern parts of Oxford in Oxfordshire. It borders Oxford West and Abingdon to the West and Henley to the North, East and South.

The constituency includes Oxford city centre and the majority of the Oxford colleges, Cowley (famous for its car factory) and the Blackbird Leys council estate, but it contains a large percentage of students from Oxford and Oxford Brookes universities (the latter being based in the seat, in leafy suburban Headington). At the end of 2010 unemployment claimant count was 2.3%, 45th of the 84 South East constituencies and close to the mean of 2.45%.

Until 1983, the whole of Oxford, including most of this seat, was part of the Oxford constituency.

For the first four years Oxford East was served by Conservative Steven Norris. He was defeated by Labour candidate Andrew Smith, who held the seat for the next 30 years. The Conservative share of the vote fell to 18.8% in 2010. The seat became a Labour–Liberal Democrat marginal in 2005, as Smith came within a thousand votes of losing the seat.