History
The constituency was created in 1997 from parts of the former seats of Holland with Boston and East Lindsey. Parts of the more rural south were separated from Holland with Boston to create South Holland and The Deepings. It is a safe seat for the Conservative Party. Despite this its first MP, Richard Body, only held the seat at the 1997 general election with a wafer-thin majority, attributed in part to his own personal popularity. This was due to him having previously been the MP for Holland with Boston from 1966 to 1997.
After retiring from Parliament Body left the Conservatives and joined the UK Independence Party. UKIP came third in Boston and Skegness in the 2005 election, with one of its strongest showings in the country.
Body was succeeded by Mark Simmonds at the 2001 general election. The seat remained a marginal between the Conservatives and Labour until 2005, when Simmonds was re-elected with a substantially increased majority. After his re-election Simmonds was made Shadow Minister for International Development, before being promoted to a Shadow Health Minister in July 2007. He returned to the backbenches following the 2010 general election but in the 2012 reshuffle was appointed as a junior Foreign Office Minister under Secretary of State William Hague.
Read more about this topic: Boston And Skegness (UK Parliament Constituency)
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