Southend West (UK Parliament constituency)

Southend West
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Southend West in Essex.
Location of Essex within England.
County	Essex
Electorate	66,780 (December 2010)
Major settlements	Southend-on-Sea, Leigh-on-Sea, Westcliff-on-Sea
Current constituency
Created	1950
Member of parliament	David Amess (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Southend
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	East of England

Southend West is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by David Amess, a Conservative.

Because four members of the Guinness family have held the seat (or its predecessor, Southend) it has been dubbed in political analyses in the media as "Guinness-on-Sea".

It is currently represented by David Amess, previously MP for Basildon.

1950-1983: The County Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh, Milton, Prittlewell, St Clements, Victoria, and Westborough.

1983-2010: The Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Belfairs, Blenheim, Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh, Prittlewell, and Westborough.

2010-present: The Borough of Southend-on-Sea wards of Belfairs, Blenheim Park, Chalkwell, Eastwood Park, Leigh, Prittlewell, St Laurence, Westborough, and West Leigh.

The constituency comprises a small part of the West of Southend-on-Sea, and includes Leigh-on-Sea and Westcliff-on-Sea. It is bounded to the North and East by Rochford and Southend East, to the North by Rayleigh and Wickford, to the West by Castle Point, and to the South by the very end of the Thames estuary.

Workless claimants (registered jobseekers) were in November 2012 close to the national average of 3.8%, at 3.5% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.