Crawley
Borough constituency for theHouse of Commons
Interactive map of boundaries from 1997
Boundary of Crawley in South East England
County	West Sussex
Electorate	74,446 (2023)[1]
Major settlements	Crawley
Current constituency
Created	1983
Member of Parliament	Peter Lamb (Labour)
Seats	One
Created from	Horsham and Crawley andMid Sussex[2]

Crawley is aconstituency^{[n 1]} inWest Sussex represented in theHouse of Commons of theUK Parliament since2024 byPeter Lamb of theLabour Party.^{[n 2]}

The Crawley constituency is located inWest Sussex. It covers the large town ofCrawley and is coterminous with itsborough. Traditionally a ruralmarket town, Crawley grew rapidly afterWorld War II when it was designated as anew town to accommodate theLondon overspill. The constituency includesGatwick Airport, the country's second-busiest airport and a significant local employer.^[3] Deprivation in the town is above average,^[4] particularly in the neighbourhoods ofBroadfield andBewbush, whilst the village ofWorth is in the 10% least-deprived areas ofEngland.^[5]

On average, residents of Crawley are young and have low levels of education and professional employment compared to nationwide figures.^[4] In the2021 census, 73% of residents wereWhite.Asians formed the largest ethnic minority group at 15%, concentrated in theLangley Green area where they made up around a third of the population.^[6] At the local council level, most of the town is represented byLabour Party councillors whilst the wealthier areas in the south-east of the town electedConservatives. An estimated 58% of voters in Crawley favoured leaving theEuropean Union in the2016 referendum, a higher percentage than the country as a whole (52%).^[4]

1983–1997: The Borough of Crawley, and the District of Mid Sussex wards of Balcombe, Copthorne and Worth, Crawley Down, Slaugham, and Turners Hill.

1997–present: The Borough of Crawley.

TheBoundary Commission analysed population increase and recommended that changes to the constituency be made for the2010 general election so the seat is now coterminous with the borough.

The2023 review of Westminster constituencies left the boundaries unchanged.^[7]

Before the1983 general election, Crawley had been part of theHorsham & Crawley,Horsham, andHorsham & Worthing constituencies at times. Due to the growth of Crawley, which was a small town, into a substantial new town in the 1960s and 70s, theBoundary Commission took the decision to separate it from Horsham in 1983 and create a new seat.

The constituency of Crawley is abellwether seat, having elected an MP from the Party which won each general election since its creation in 1983. Its first MP wasConservativeNicholas Soames, a grandson of former prime ministerSir Winston Churchill. Having been re-elected in 1987 and 1992, he stood down for the1997 election and was selected for and won the neighbouring seat ofMid Sussex, which he continued to represent until his retirement in 2019.

The seat was subsequently won byLaura Moffatt of theLabour Party with 'safe' majorities in 1997 and 2001. Labour retained the seat with the mostmarginal result in2005 with a margin of only 37 votes.

In the2010 election Conservative,Henry Smith, won the seat having twice failed, by 5,928 votes. He gained a not unprecedented (averaged two-party)swing of 6.3%.^[8] Smith's later majorities have been 6,526 in2015; and 2,459 in2017, elections where theLiberal Democrats, Scepanovic, along with the 2017 candidate for East Worthing and Shoreham in West Sussex lost theirdeposits by failing to attract 5% of the vote. In 2019, the Liberal Democrat Candidate, Khalil Yousuf increased the Liberal Democrat vote share by 1.7% against the last election, keeping their deposit.^[9]

Smith won again in 2019 with an increased majority over Labour candidatePeter Lamb. In 2024, Smith stood down and Lamb captured the seat after the Conservative vote more than halved.

Horsham & Crawley andMid Sussex prior to 1983

The Brexit Party announced Wayne Bayley as their candidate, but he was withdrawn as part of the UK-wide Brexit Party decision not to oppose sitting Conservative candidates.^[13]

TheGreen Party announced Richard Kail as their candidate, but he did not stand.UKIP also decided not to stand a candidate for the first time since 1997.

TheChristian Peoples Alliance announced Katherine Mills as candidate,^[19] but she did not stand.

This constituency underwent boundary changes between the 1992 and 1997 general
elections and thus change in share of vote is based on a notional calculation.

• parliamentary constituencies in West Sussex
• List of parliamentary constituencies in the South East England (region)

• Election result, 2005 (BBC)
• Election results, 1997 – 2001 (BBC)
• Election results, 1997 – 2001 (Election Demon)
• Election results, 1983 – 1992Archived 19 August 2000 at theWayback Machine (Election Demon)
• Election results, 1992 – 2005Archived 29 August 2012 at theWayback Machine (Guardian)

• Crawley UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 1997 – April 2010) atMapIt UK
• Crawley UK Parliament constituency (boundaries April 2010 – May 2024) atMapIt UK
• Crawley UK Parliament constituency (boundaries from June 2024) atMapIt UK

51°07′48″N0°10′59″W / 51.13°N 0.183°W /51.13; -0.183

• Parliamentary constituencies in West Sussex
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1983
• Crawley

• Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Webarchive template wayback links
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension