Hull East was, after 1997, the safest of the city's three constituencies for Labour, and Deputy Leader John Prescott was returned here in 1997 with a majority of 23,318. The east end of Hull contains the Humber city's main industrial area, several miles of commercial docks, and several square miles of council estates and collectively adds up to classic Labour territory.
All the wards which make up the seat have nearly always returned Labour councillors to the city council, now a unitary authority following the abolition of Humberside authority. A good example of one of these Labour strongholds is Marfleet - by the river and including the easternmost docks. Six out of ten residents in Marfleet live in council housing, two-thirds do not have access to a car, and over one-tenth are single-parent families. On several occasions the Conservatives have not bothered, or been able, to put up candidates in local elections in Hull.
Mr Prescott, deputy prime minister since 1997, has been the MP for Hull East since 1970. A graduate of Hull University via Ruskin College, Oxford, he spent eight years as a merchant seaman - mostly as a Cunard steward, and eventually as a seaman's union official.