Eastleigh – why it is target seat at the next general election

With the Conservative Party polling on average 20 points behind Labour, seats such as Eastleigh will be critical if the Tories want to win the next general election, which political analysts anticipate could take place a year from now.

Eastleigh will be one of the constituencies to keep an eye on at the next general election. The Conservatives retained the seat back in 2019, with a majority of 15,000. However, this seat has a recent history of returning a Liberal Democrat MP.  

The Liberal Democrats gained the seat in the 1994 by-election, when David Chidgey won with a swing of over 16%, whilst the Conservatives fell to third place. 

David Chidgney stood aside at the 2005 general election, where the Liberal Democrats performed well nationally, sweeping across the West Country.

Eastleigh remained Lib Dem with Chris Huhne now as the MP and with a slender majority of less than 600 votes.  

Chris Huhne remained Eastleigh’s MP until 2013 when he was stood down during a national scandal. The ensuing by-election was a national talking point, the Liberal Democrats retained the seat with a majority of over 1,000 votes. 

The ensuing scandal plus the controversies involving the coalition government meant that the Lib Dem celebrations were short-lived. 

Since, 2015 the constituency has been held by two Conservatives MPs. The current MP for Eastleigh, Paul Holmes who was first elected in 2019, won’t be standing again at the next general election.