Thanet North (UK Parliament constituency)

North Thanet
County constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of North Thanet in Kent.
Location of Kent within England.
County	Kent
Electorate	67,110 (December 2010)
Major settlements	(Margate, Birchington-on-Sea, Herne Bay and Westgate-on-Sea
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of parliament	Sir Roger Gale (Conservative)
Number of members	One
Created from	Thanet West, Thanet East
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South East England

North Thanet is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1983 creation by Sir Roger Gale, a Conservative.

North Thanet and South Thanet were created by a rearrangement of the former Thanet West and Thanet East constituencies in 1983, which in turn had been created in 1974 by the splitting of the single Isle of Thanet seat. Apart from 1997 when it was marginal, the seat has to date been a safe seat for the Conservative Party.

The third-placed opponent in the 1983 election, for Labour, was Cherie Blair whose husband Tony Blair, was Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007.

Tourism forms an important economic activity with sandy beaches, particularly at Margate among the main attractions, the seat has a small amount of fishing relative to the 19th century or major ports of North East and Scotland, with a slightly higher proportion of retired people than the national average and incomes tending to be clustered towards the national mean. Economic developments have included close-by the Thanet Offshore Wind Project, commercial, recreational and tourism activities. Manston Airport is now closed but is subject to competing development plans including reopening the airport for freight terminal or alternatively as a mixed development business park. In unemployment terms the claimant count was third highest of the South East's 84 constituencies at the end of 2010.