Riding profile

Rochester and Strood

UK constituency — England · Mixed · south east

The question

Rochester and Strood: will Labour lose this seat to Reform UK?

Editorial read

Rochester and Strood, a mixed constituency in England, elected a member with Labour in the previous cycle, with a 7-point margin. The Vote-Scope model projects Reform UK ahead at 34% vote share, against 24% for the Conservatives, and the probability of a close race is negligible.

Sitting member

Lauren Edwards

Sits with Labour

Since
2024-07-04
Parliament
59th

Current forecast

Reform UK

Safe

Probability
100%
Mean margin (pts)
9.9
P(close race)
0%

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Reform UK 34.0%
  • Conservative 24.1%
  • Labour 21.6%
  • Green 10.4%
  • Lib Dems 7.2%
  • Other 2.3%

In context

How this riding stacks up

Reform UK Conservative Labour Green
HereRochester and Strood 34.0%24.1%21.6%10.4%
National averageUnited Kingdom 25.3% +8.7 18.9% +5.2 21.7% 11.8% −1.4

Nationwide averages computed across the 650 riding-level projections (unweighted mean).

Previous election · UK 2024

Won by
Labour
Margin
6.9 pts
Margin shift vs current projection
+3.0 pts

Detailed result · UK 2024

Candidates and votes

Candidate Party Votes % Occupation
Lauren Edwards Elected Labour 15,403 36.2
Kelly Tolhurst Conservative 12,473 29.3
Daniel Dabin Reform UK 9,966 23.4
Cat Jamieson Green 2,427 5.7
Graham Colley Lib Dems 1,894 4.5
John Innes Other 245 0.6
Peter Burch Other 190 0.5

Demographics

Who lives here

Population
104,811
Median age
38
Employment rate
81.5%

Data source : ONS mid-2022 population + Jan 2026 labour market

Last model run
Cycle
uk_2029