Bridlington & The Wolds.
Conservative and Unionist Party MP Charlie Dewhirst holds the seat on 34.6% of the vote.
8 Jun 2026
Coastal Wolds market towns, fragmented and contested
Bridlington and The Wolds is an older, overwhelmingly rural seat on the East Yorkshire coast and the chalk uplands behind it, with a median age of 52 and a population that is 98.2% White and only a quarter degree-educated. The constituency is anchored by the seaside town of Bridlington, home to roughly 35,000 people and more than a third of the seat, but it is far from a one-town place: Driffield, Market Weighton and Hornsea each add several thousand residents, with the remainder scattered across villages and open countryside. It is best read as a coastal-and-market-town network stitched together by farmland. One authority runs local services across the whole seat -- East Riding of Yorkshire Council, a unitary, which holds all six of the constituency's wards.
Ward politics here are markedly fragmented. Across the most recent contests the seat divides almost evenly between Conservatives, Independents, Liberal Democrats and the Yorkshire Party, with no single force holding a clear local upper hand and several wards last fought back in 2023. At Westminster the picture is firmer but not commanding: the Conservatives took the seat in 2024 on 34.6%, with Labour the runner-up on 27.3%, a margin of roughly seven points on the first contest fought on these new boundaries. Charlie Dewhirst, the sitting Conservative MP since that election, sits within this mixed terrain rather than above it, speaking most often on the economy, local government and defence.
The standing position appears genuinely contested rather than settled, with a divided council chamber beneath a Conservative parliamentary win secured on barely a third of the vote. Recent local coverage has had a flat, administrative character, dominated by council-tax setting, funding pressure on the unitary, and routine community matters rather than by national controversy, and the seat has kept a low national profile in recent months. Taken together, the figures point to a seat that is neither safely held nor obviously turning, but one in which local allegiance is plural and the next contest looks open.
Ward-level direction-of-travel: who controls what, who flipped recently, who holds the line.
| Ward | Latest winner | Votes | Council | Last cycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridlington Central and Old Town(2 seats) | Dealtry · Ibbotson | 1,452 | East Riding of Yorkshire Con | May 2023 |
| Bridlington North(3 seats) | Phoenix · Heslop-Mullens · Robson | 5,759 | East Riding of Yorkshire Con | May 2023 |
| Bridlington South(3 seats) | Walker · Arrand · Norman | 2,037 | East Riding of Yorkshire Con | May 2023 |
| Driffield and Rural(3 seats) | Blakeston · Rogers · Lee | 3,958 | East Riding of Yorkshire Con | May 2023 |
| East Wolds and Coastal | Jonathan Bibb | 3,105 | East Riding of Yorkshire Con | Jul 2024 |
| North Holderness(2 seats) | Jefferson · Whittle | 2,915 | East Riding of Yorkshire Con | May 2023 |
Source · Democracy Club · DCLEAPIL v1.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The seat’s population is concentrated in Bridlington (35,265), with Rural & dispersed (14,558) as the second pole. Total population across named built-up areas: 93,130.
Source · ONS Built-Up Areas · Census 2021
| Settlement | Pop. | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Bridlington | 35,265 | large town |
| Rural & dispersed | 14,558 | town |
| Driffield | 14,218 | town |
| Market Weighton | 8,576 | town |
| Hornsea | 8,202 | town |
| Full Sutton | 2,391 | village |
Headline indicators.
| Indicator | Local | National | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment rate | 48.4% | 57.1% | -15% |
| Owner-occupied | 68.7% | 63.1% | +9% |
| Private rented | 20.8% | 20.0% | +4% |
| Social rented | 10.3% | 16.8% | -39% |
Ethnicity.
Source · Census 2021
Population by age & sexCensus 2021 · 18 bands · click to expand
Source · Census 2021 (ONS) · % of usual residents; tick marks the median seat per band
Income tax contribution.
| Total income tax | £177m |
| Taxpayers | 44,000 |
| Median per taxpayer | £2,190 |
| Mean per taxpayer | £4,000 |
Source · HMRC SPI · ±8% confidence
Where the money flows back in.
This constituency is served by East Riding of Yorkshire. Each council’s service spend, peer rank and supplier list lives on its own page — open from the meta block above or the compass strip below.
Move the income slider on My place to see income tax, NI, VAT and council tax against your earnings — the household lens.
Headline rate.
By category.
Source · data.police.uk · 3-month rate per 1,000 pop
2024 — full result.
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charlie DewhirstWON | Con | 14,846 | 34.6 |
| Sarah Carter | Lab | 11,721 | 27.3 |
| Maria Bowtell | Ref | 10,350 | 24.1 |
| Jayne Phoenix | LD | 3,097 | 7.2 |
| Gill Leek | Grn | 1,595 | 3.7 |
| Tim Norman | Ind | 915 | 2.1 |
| Tom Cone | Ind | 309 | 0.7 |
| Carlo Verda | Ind | 104 | 0.2 |
Turnout 42,937
Prior contests.
Created on the 2023 boundary review. 2024 General Election was the first contest on these boundaries.
Sources, methods & last update
2023 boundary review
DCLEAPIL v1.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Census 2021
National avg over 575 seats
±8% confidence
LSOA-aggregated · rolling 12mo