South Basildon and East Thurrock (UK Parliament constituency)

South Basildon and East Thurrock
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of South Basildon and East Thurrock in Essex.
Location of Essex within England.
County	Essex
Electorate	71,819 (December 2010)
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of parliament	Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Basildon, Billericay and Thurrock
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	East of England

South Basildon and East Thurrock is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation by Stephen Metcalfe, a Conservative.

Its predecessor seat, Basildon, was a much-referenced bellwether seat, having consistently voted for the most successful party (in terms of number of seats) in each election since its 1974 creation. In 2010, South Basildon and East Thurrock maintained this tradition by electing a Conservative MP, Stephen Metcalfe. The average Essex swing voters to which either party needs to appeal to win an election (matching the national outcome since 1966), have been represented by the combination of the old Billericay seat and its southern-part, Basildon replacements, this being the latest of these.

Before 1974 the area came within the older version of the Billericay constituency and, for just five years before 1950, this area was the eastern part of the Thurrock seat – from 1885–1945 the area was within the South East Essex seat. From 1832–1885 the area was in the South Essex seat.

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Essex, the Boundary Commission for England made a number of radical changes to existing constituencies to allow for an extra seat to be awarded to the county.