Sea wall (British politics)

The Sea wall is a term used by psephologists to refer to 108 constituencies along the UK coastline, generalising them as marginal. They formed before the July 2024 election a majority of Conservative pluralities, so seats, many or most marginal enough to be vulnerable to Labour according to opinion polls. As to the Red and Blue walls, the Sea wall overlaps both and was used in some coverage of the 2024 general election. From the 2019 general election to July 2024, Labour held 24 of these seats.

These seats in England and Wales are noted, relative to the national average, for deprivation. They are personified by tourism-based economies, the cost of living crisis, and poor connectivity. Coastal residents bring home on average lower wages. The availability of affordable housing has also been an issue.

Before the 2024 general election, the think tank Onward called coastal areas “the forgotten battleground that could decide [this] election”.