It is a measure of the defeat inflicted upon the Tories in 1997 that Conservative Jim Cran was returned to Beverley and Holderness with a majority of just over 1,000 - a close call considering this seat had been one of the very safest for the Conservatives since the end of World War Two.
The name of this constituency, formed from the old seats of Bridlington and Boothferry, can be misleading. Beverley suggests a seat with urban qualities, but actually it contains only a small portion of the seat of the town of Beverley, with the mainstay of the electorate, some 39,000, residing in the obscure local government borough of Holderness.
Collectively, Beverley and Holderness is primarily composed of farmland - natural Conservative territory. The coastal town of Easington is also a hive of activity, where much of the UK's natural gas is brought ashore.
Unemployment in Holderness, in contrast to Beverley, is above the national average and communication and transport links to this area are poor. This area includes the southernmost section of the Yorkshire coast, from Hornsea down through Withernsea to Spurn Head, the spit of land projecting into the North Sea from the mouth of the Humber, which is an ornithologist's paradise.