Constituency Information


Crewe and Nantwich is a socially and politically divided seat.
Crewe is a working class town, famous for its engineering works and major railway junction - the West Coast mainline splits at Crewe, with one line going on to Liverpool and one to Manchester.
The world-famous cars of Rolls-Royce and more recently Bentley have been manufactured in the Pym’s Lane car plant.
Crewe is a town very much in transformation. As the traditional engineering works continue to decline, the town’s excellent transport links have earned the area a number of new businesses.
Crewe Business Park is home to several national and international companies including Bentley, Adtranz, Fujitsu and Osmetech.
Manchester Metropolitan University has a large campus outside the town which is undergoing expansion.
Crewe town centre and the railway and bus stations have been awaiting redevelopment for many years - something that has become a bone of contention.
Another major issue in recent years is immigration. Crewe has seen the influx of thousands of Polish migrants since the country joined the EU, placing a strain on the local jobs market, schools and local services.
By contrast Nantwich is a traditional, relatively affluent market town, famous for its Tudor buildings, antique shops and smaller enterprises, including cheese-making.
The town hosts a number of popular festivals each year including the Battle of Nantwich re-enactment, Food and Drink Festival and International Cheese Show.
The events have made it a popular tourist destination, with a growing tourist economy.
Between 1945 and 2008 Crewe was represented by just two MPs, both of them Labour.
In 1983 the Conservative wards of Nantwich were added, but Labour's Gwyneth Dunwoody remained the MP of the newly expanded seat until her death in 2008.
The subsequent by-election was won by Conservative Edward Timpson, the first time the Tories had taken a seat from Labour at a by-election since 1978.

UK Independence Party

James Clutton, 22, of Wistaston, was born in Crewe at Leighton Hospital in 1988.
He attended school locally and in 2004 obtained 10 GCSE s at St Thomas More Catholic High School.
He then attended South Cheshire College and obtained four A-Levels.
In 2006, James went to study law at Staffordshire University and graduated with honours in 2009. For several years, he was was a member of the local Air Training Corps squadron.

Independent

Mike Parsons, grew up in Nantwich and went to Nantwich and Acton Grammar School. At the age of 27 he married Lesley and moved to Middlewich.
A short time later they had two daughters, Michelle and Louise. Mike worked in transport and distribution for 28 years and during this time became a qualified logistician.
However, after taking early retirement, he was eager to take his work in the community further and he became involved in several local campaigns, including reopening the rail link between Northwich and Crewe.
In 2002 Mike joined forces with other independently minded individuals to set up Middlewich First, a group designed to put the wishes and interests of the local people before any other concern.
He was first elected to Middlewich Town Council and Congleton Borough Council in 2003, and is a former Borough Mayor.
He is currently a member of Cheshire East Council.

Conservative

Edward Timpson was born in 1973 in Cheshire.
He is married to Julia and they have three children, a boy Sam , five, and two girls, Elizabeth, four, and Lydia, who is one, all born at Leighton Hospital, Crewe.
He has an elder sister and brother as well as two adopted younger brothers. His parents have also fostered 87 children over the last 30 years, many of whom Edward grew up with.
Having been selected as the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Crewe and Nantwich at an open primary in July 2007, Edward spent the next ten months campaigning hard in the constituency before the death of Gwyneth Dunwoody MP in April 2008.
In the by-election that followed, Edward overturned a 7,000 Labour majority and was elected as MP for Crewe and Nantwich on the 22nd May 2008. He has led on a variety of campaigns since taking office.
These include campaigns to save the Weston Road Sorting Office and the Oak Street Tax Office in Crewe, the Ambulance First Responders in Nantwich, and a variety of employment and transport issues including Bombardier, Bentley and the National Railway Skills Academy for Crewe.

Labour

David Williams was born on July 19 in 1966 - the year England won the World Cup - and raised in Middlewich. Having left Middlewich High at 16, he secured an apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars in Crewe, qualifying as a time-served coach trimmer.
As part of the apprenticeship David attended day-release classes at South Cheshire College attaining a City and Guilds in Vehicle Body Engineering.
David spent a short time working as a driver for London Buses before returning to Crewe and driving for PMT, then based at Crewe Bus Station driving for Midland Red. Soon after David worked as a research assistant for the late Gwyneth Dunwoody MP and was her agent in the 1992 General Election.
David is a lifelong trade unionist. He was a shop steward at Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars in Crewe and at Crewe Bus Station.
He's now the national political officer for the shopworkers' trade union Usdaw, working out of their Crewe Office.

Liberal Democrats

Roy Wood, aged 62, is a former scientist and retired maths teacher.
He was brought up in Liverpool and studied chemistry at Liverpool University. He has lived on the Wirral since graduating 40 years ago.
After working as a computer systems analyst for Littlewoods and United Liverpool Hospitals for six years, he took a mature teacher training course.
He then taught maths in Liverpool for three years and for more than 20 years he was head of the maths GCSE group in a large Wirral comprehensive.
For the next seven years, he was responsible for the delivery of ‘gifted and talented’ education across the school and for encouraging more students to aspire to higher education. During that time, he also introduced and taught an A-level course in critical thinking.
Mr Wood, who retired last year, joined the Liberal Party in 1973 and has worked continuously for the party at a local level ever since.
He was the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Birkenhead in 1997 and 2001 and chair of the local Party from 2006 to 2009.
He is a governor of a large comprehensive on the Wirral and also of a nursery school and children’s centre.


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