Worthing West is a residential seaside resort with the highest proportion of pensioners in the UK. It is classic Tory ground with 81.2% of homes owner occupied, very low unemployment and a high proportion of non manual workers.
The seat is composed of the majority of voters from the old Worthing seat and 19,000 of Shoreham’s electorate. The Tories have a majority on Worthing Council, and MP Peter Bottomley came to the safety of Worthing West in 1997 from his previous seat of Eltham which Labour won.
Worthing, reflecting the age of the population, is home to Britain’s oldest croquet club and the English Bowls Association.
Oscar Wilde wrote the ‘Importance of Being Earnest’ in Worthing in 1884 and the first two works of Shelley were printed in a building in Warwick Street between 1810 and 1811.