South East Cambridgeshire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Lucy Frazer, a member of the Conservative Party who has served as the Culture Secretary since 2023. It was established for the 1983 general election. The constituency has always been based on the cathedral city of Ely. History The constituency was created in 1983 from parts of the former seats of Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely. Its first MP, Francis Pym, was a Conservative Cabinet Minister, serving in roles such as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1973–1974) in the Heath government and Secretary of State for Defence (1979–1981), Leader of the House of Commons (1981–1982) and most prominently Foreign Secretary (1982–1983, during the Falklands War) under Margaret Thatcher. However, during the four years he served South East Cambridgeshire, he was a Tory 'wet' backbencher, having been sacked by Thatcher for famously remarking during the 1983 election that "Landslides don't on the whole produce successful governments". It has to date been a safe Conservative seat, although in 2010 the margin was cut to a relatively small 10.3% by the Liberal Democrat candidate (possibly helped by controversies surrounding the Labour candidate). In 2015 and 2017 Labour achieved the largest increase in their share of the vote; in 2017 they achieved their highest ever vote share in the seat (27.7%) and overtook the Liberal Democrats for the first time since 1997; despite this, the Conservatives achieved over 50% of the vote in the seat for the first time since 1992. According to approximate analysis of the 2016 EU membership referendum, South East Cambridgeshire (which is made up of wards from East Cambridgeshire District Council, which voted 51% to leave, as well as South Cambridgeshire District Council, which voted 60% to remain) voted 54% to remain in the EU. Constituency profile The constituency is predominantly low-lying and agricultural, with many residents commuting to work in Cambridge. Workless claimants were in November 2012 significantly lower than the national average of 3.8%, at 1.4% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian. Boundaries and boundary changes 1983–1997: The District of East Cambridgeshire wards of Bottisham, Burwell, Cheveley, Dullingham Villages, Ely North, Ely South, Ely West, Fordham Villages, Isleham, Soham, The Swaffhams, and Woodditton, and the District of South Cambridgeshire wards of Abington, Balsham, Bar Hill, Castle Camps, Coton, Cottenham, Elsworth, Fulbourn, Girton, Histon,