East Midlands
The East Midlands consists of the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland. In electoral terms, it contains one of the most conservative counties in the country (Lincolnshire) as well as traditionally Labour cities of Derby, Nottingham and Leicester.
Over the last half century it has followed the trends of the nation. From the mid-1960s it gradually shifted rightwards, this peaked in 1983 when the region returned 34 Conservative MPs to just 8 Labour members. Although some of this is explained by the non-Tory vote was split between Labour, the Liberals and the SDP. From 1983 onwards the region shifted towards Labour and delivered 34 seats to them in the landslide election of 1997. In the twenty-first century the region moved back to the Conservatives, most evidently in 2010 when they picked up 15 seats.
It has been a common pattern for Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire to vote more strongly Conservative then the nation as a whole. Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire have normally favoured Labour more then the country. However in 2019 all five counties were to the right of the nation. Derbyshire sent 9 Conservative MPs to Westminster, the only remaining Labour MPs in the county represent the city of Derby. This is a big shift from earlier periods, even when Thatcher was winning her landslide in 1983, Derbyshire still returned 4 Labour MPs and 6 Conservatives.
Two wrinkles should be noted when reviewing data about the East Midlands. Two parts of Lincolnshire are included in Yorkshire and the Humber (due to the creation and subsequent abolition of Humberside). This means the area around Scunthorpe and Grimbsby are dealt with in analysis of Yorkshire and the Humber. Also, no seperate data is reported for Rutland as the county is so small that it has had to share a seat either with Lincolnshire or Leicestershire.