Worcester had never been won by Labour before May 1997. From 1961 until 1992, the constituency was held by Conservative 'wet' Peter Walker, a member of the Cabinet under both Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher. Peter Luff then took on the Conservative mantle, winning the seat by 6,000 votes from Labour in the 1992 election. However, this figure was almost certainly reduced by boundary changes, which removed approximately 10,000 mainly rural electors from the seat, now based to a greater extent; on the city of Worcester itself. Wisely, Luff followed the minority of his electors to the newly created Mid Worcestershire, where he could rely on a near-10,000 majority even in 1997. Meanwhile, back in Worcester, a nationally average swing of 10% swept Michael Foster into parliament with a majority of almost 7,500.

Foster has gained a certain amount of fame or notoriety since his election for introducing a private members bill in the Commons to ban fox hunting with hounds. For various well-documented reasons, the bill ran out of parliamentary time despite a huge majority in its support at second reading (411-151). Back in Worcester, Labour's narrow local election lead of 1998 became a narrow deficit in 1999, and they also trailed the Conservatives by over 8% at the 1999 Euro elections. Foster will hope that he does not follow the fate of his bill and run out of time in Worcester; he probably just about starts as favourite against Conservative Richard Adams, but this could be a close and hard-fought battle.

Parliamentary Statistics pre-Election 2001

Labour majority 7,425 (14.4%)  Conservative target 118
MP Mike Foster
1997 (Turnout 74.6%)
Labour	25,848	50.1%
Conservative	18,423	35.7%
Liberal Democrat	6,462	12.5%
UK Independence	886	1.7%

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For Worcester 2001 Election result - click here.