Surrey Heath (UK Parliament constituency)

Surrey Heath is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Al Pinkerton, a Liberal Democrat. The Home counties suburban constituency is in the London commuter belt, on the outskirts of Greater London. Surrey Heath is in the north west of Surrey and borders the counties of Berkshire and Hampshire.

History
The seat was created under the Fourth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies in 1997 from the most part of North West Surrey, a seat that was abolished, and smaller parts of Woking and Guildford, seats that remain.

On its creation, Nick Hawkins was elected to parliament as Surrey Heath's MP, after Michael Grylls, who had in 1992 achieved a majority of 28,392, retired. One of Hawkins' opponents for selection was future Speaker John Bercow, selected for Buckingham the same day.

In 1999 then-party chairman Michael Ancram intervened to prevent a move to deselect Hawkins following local party disquiet about him leaving his wife of 20 years for a local councillor. In 2004, the Conservative constituency association, then the richest in the country, deselected Hawkins for the next election, following accusations of racism, in the hope of obtaining an MP of cabinet calibre.

Until the 2019 general election, the constituency was seen as one of the Conservative Party's safest seats. This election saw an unexpected 11.1% swing to the Liberal Democrats' candidate Al Pinkerton, polling the second-highest second place since the constituency's creation, with Labour recording the lowest share of the vote since the seat's creation.

Fourth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies
Surrey Heath as a seat and heath occupies much of the northwest corner of the county. From its inception in 1997 until 2024, it covered the Borough of Surrey Heath and the Guildford wards knows as 'The Ashes'.:
 * Bagshot, Bisley and West End, Frimley, Frimley Green, Heatherside, Lightwater, Mytchett and Deepcut, Old Dean, Parkside, St Michaels, St Pauls, Town, Watchett, and Windlesham & Chobham in the Surrey Heath District
 * Ash South and Tongham, Ash Vale, and Ash Wharf in the Borough of Guildford.

2023 Boundary review
Since the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, enacted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Order 2023, the constituency from the 2024 United Kingdom general election has the following wards:

Surrey Heath Borough – all wards.

Guildford Borough – Normandy and Pirbright. (The two wards were amalgamated into one two-member ward, after the review began, so figure individually in the review and Statutory Instrument.)

The electorate is cut by one ward to bring it within the permitted range: by transferring the three Guildford Borough wards which constitute Ash to a new seat, Godalming and Ash; and adding the two small wards of Normandy and Pirbright that lay in the Woking seat.

Constituency profile
70% of homes were detached or semi-detached at the 2011 census. The detached percentage (45.2%) was at that time the second highest in the South East, behind the New Forest. The area is well connected to London Heathrow Airport, IT, telecommunications and logistics centres of the M3 and M4 corridors, and to the military towns of Aldershot and Sandhurst. Farnborough, with its civil, private aviation base with certain military uses, is also nearby, as is Blackbushe Airport.

Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.7% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.

According to the British Election Study, it was the most right-wing seat in the UK as at 2014.

Constituents on balance voted to leave the European Union in 2016 but an analysis of YouGov polling by Focaldata suggested support for remain rose from 48% then to 50.2% in August 2018.

Surrey Heath is seen as the Liberal Democrats' 60th target seat under new boundary changes, having taken control in 2023 ending a 49 years of continuous Conservative administration and pushed the Conservatives to the lowest number of councillors on Guildford Borough Council since its creation in 1973.

Members of Parliament
North West Surrey, Guildford and Woking prior to 1997