THE constituency of South West Wiltshire, which includes Westbury, is set to be contested with its newly-drawn boundaries for the first time in this year’s general election.
The central part of South West Wiltshire will remain the same, but the south east of the constituency will lose a considerable section to Salisbury. The northern boundary will stretch just beyond Hilperton but will not include Wingfield or Steeple Ashton.
Mere will remain in South West Wiltshire, but the area south of Sherrington Wood will be transferred over to the redrawn constituency of Salisbury.
South West Wiltshire has been represented in the House of Commons by Andrew Murrison since the constituency was created in 2010. He had also been the MP for the previous constituency of Westbury since 2001.
Andrew Murrison was re-elected as the Conservative MP with a vote share of 60.2% in the 2019 general election. Emily Pomroy-Smith has not yet been confirmed as the official Labour candidate, but she is standing for selection.
Garry Irvin of the Reform Party has also announced he will be running for the seat. According to an analysis published by the BBC, if the 2019 election had used the new constituencies, South West Wiltshire would have still been won by the Conservatives.
Data from YouGov released in January 2024 suggests that the Conservatives remain the current favourite.
However, their predicted majority appears to have dropped to 34%, with Labour following behind at 27%. The largest towns in the constituency are Trowbridge, Westbury and Warminster, with a combined population of over 71,000 people.
