Prior to the 2024 United Kingdom General election, the island was the highest populated Westminster constituency in the country.
Elizabeth I breathed some life into the town by awarding two parliamentary seats but this ultimately made it one of the most notorious of the Rotten Boroughs.
However, a "Home Rule" campaign led to a separate Isle of Wight County Council being established in 1890, and the island has remained independent of mainland local government ever since.
However, since there was no provision made in the Local Government Act 1972 for unitary authorities, the Island had to retain a two-tier structure, with a county council and two boroughs, Medina and South Wight.
[8] The sitting MP Andrew Turner stepped down at the 2017 United Kingdom general election held on 8 June after a controversy regarding remarks he made about homosexuality.
[14] Eleven candidates stood for the Isle of Wight constituency in the 2010 United Kingdom general election which was held on 6 May 2010.
The Isle of Wight was a part of the South East England region for the purposes of European Parliamentary elections.
This became more of an issue towards the end of the twentieth century, when it became more economically and technically feasible to build such a link, with the bridge to the Isle of Skye as a model.
In 2002, the Isle of Wight Council debated the issue and made a policy statement against the proposal, whilst MP Andrew Turner remains opposed to the construction of a link.
Arguments in favour of a fixed link tend to concentrate upon the increased ease of access to and from the Island and a possible economic benefit from improved communications with the mainland.
[35] Arguments against a fixed link include the inevitable rise in property prices stemming from making it easier to commute to cities like London (thus increasing strain on lower wage families); the risk of losing local services and facilities to the much larger and economically more active south Hampshire conurbation; the expected rise in rural crime (which increased sharply in Hampshire in 2014);[36] and a risk to the unique island culture and environment.
Since the 1990s the debate has largely taken the form of a campaign to have the Isle of Wight recognized as a distinct region by organizations such as the EU, due to its relative poverty within southern England.
One argument in favour of special treatment is that this poverty is not acknowledged by such organizations as it is distorted statistically by retired and wealthy (but less economically active) immigrants from the mainland.
In 2022, as part of the Levelling Up White Paper, an "Island Forum" was proposed, which would allow local policymakers and residents on the Isle of Wight to work alongside their counterparts in Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles and Anglesey on common issues, such as broadband connectivity, and provide a platform for them to communicate directly with the government on the challenges island communities face in terms of levelling up.
[40][41][42] Wind turbines has been an issue the island has remained divided over since proposals were first put forward, with many residents in the West Wight, where they are likely to be built claiming they would be unsightly and create a lot of noise.
[46] General views from residents on the island have been mixed to proposals, and it is therefore unclear when and where wind turbines will eventually be constructed.
The Isle of Wight Council stated that in a survey carried out at the beginning of 2009 on local residents attitudes towards wind turbines were two to one against, with 612 in favour and 1,328 against Cheverton Down proposals.