[n 2] This industrial Essex seat, east of London, includes the towns of Grays, Tilbury and Purfleet, and 18 miles of the north bank of the Thames.

Retail and distribution are big employers, while Tilbury Power Station has closed and Coryton oil refinery is being redeveloped as a business park.

Workless claimants, registered jobseekers, were in November 2012 higher than the national average of 3.8%, at 4.8% of the population based on a statistical compilation by The Guardian.

The post-Falklands War election in 1983 gave a majority of less than 4% of the vote to a recently-split Labour Party (the breakaway faction, the SDP, came third).

[6] At the 2024 general election, the seat was gained by Labour's Jen Craft by a comfortable majority of over 17%, with the incumbent Conservative Doyle-Price placing third behind Reform UK.

The House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1944 set up Boundaries Commissions to carry out periodic reviews of the distribution of parliamentary constituencies.