Reading Central
South East · Borough constituency · Reading borough
About the Reading Central constituency
Reading Central is a borough constituency in the South East. The sitting MP is Matt Rodda (Labour), first elected in June 2017. At the 2024 general election, Labour won with 47.7% to 19.8% for the Conservatives, a majority of 12,637 votes on a 61.5% turnout. PollCheck's current projection, at the seven-poll average, has Labour on 44.5% and the Greens on 19.7%, a margin of 24.9 points.
Who lives in Reading Central? Constituency demographics
From the 2021 Census and 2016 EU referendum estimates. Constituency-level data on 2024 boundaries.
How did Reading Central vote in 2024 and how would it vote now?
2024 vote shares from the HoC Library. Current projection is at the 7-poll average.
2024 general election
Current projection
Map of Reading Central
Switch between GE2024 ward winners (modelled estimates, ~4pp average error) and a demographic view from the 2021 Census. Hover any area for detail. How the map is built ›
Reading Central within Reading
Reading Central sits entirely within Reading Council. The figures below are from the council elections held on 7 May 2026. About this layer ›
Council overlap
| Council | Share of seat | Projection |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | 100% | View projection › |
Most recent council ward results
Latest council winner per ward - May 2026 results where the council voted, otherwise the most recent available result. How this table is sourced ›
| Ward | GE2024 winner | Latest council winner | Shift since GE2024 | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbey | Labour 46.9%vs Conservative 18.9% | May 2026 Green 37.6%vs Labour 32.5% | Labour→Green +19.7pp | 32.4% |
| Battle | Labour 54.5%vs Conservative 15.0% | May 2026 Labour 41.6%vs Green 35.2% | Labour share -12.9pp | 38.2% |
| Caversham | Labour 50.1%vs Conservative 20.5% | May 2026 Labour 38.4%vs Green 24.6% | Labour share -11.7pp | 49.4% |
| Caversham Heights | Labour 40.7%vs Conservative 30.6% | May 2026 Conservative 36.0%vs Labour 24.8% | Labour→Conservative +10.7pp | - |
| Coley | Labour 50.9%vs Conservative 19.0% | May 2026 Green 33.4%vs Labour 33.1% | Labour→Green +20.1pp | 41.8% |
| Emmer Green | Labour 41.3%vs Conservative 29.1% | May 2026 Conservative 27.8%vs Green 26.8% | Labour→Conservative +10.6pp | 52.5% |
| Katesgrove | Labour 47.3%vs Green 19.8% | May 2026 Green 50.8%vs Labour 22.9% | Labour→Green +27.7pp | 35.0% |
| Park | Labour 46.8%vs Green 23.2% | May 2026 Green 65.2%vs Labour 20.6% | Labour→Green +34.1pp | 42.8% |
| Redlands | Labour 47.8%vs Green 21.4% | May 2026 Green 54.8%vs Labour 25.0% | Labour→Green +28.1pp | 40.2% |
| Southcote | Labour 50.7%vs Conservative 20.3% | May 2026 Labour 36.0%vs Reform 21.8% | Labour share -14.7pp | 37.1% |
| Thames | Labour 50.6%vs Conservative 18.2% | May 2026 Green 39.1%vs Labour 28.4% | Labour→Green +24.5pp | 42.4% |
Projection trajectory
PollCheck's projection for Reading Central at each of the last 60 GB polls. Hover the chart for the underlying poll details.
Who has won Reading Central at past general elections?
2024 and notional 2019 rows are on current boundaries; 2010-2017 rows are on the boundaries in force at the time. More on boundaries ›
| Year | Result | MP | Lab | Con | LD | Majority | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010predecessor | Con hold | Rob Wilson Reading East MP | 25.5% | 42.6% | 27.3% | 7,605 | 66.7% |
| 2015predecessor | Con hold | Rob Wilson Reading East MP | 33.1% | 46.0% | 7.4% | 6,520 | 69.0%+2.3 |
| 2017predecessor | Lab gain from Con | Matt Rodda Reading East MP | 49.0% | 42.3% | 6.1% | 3,749 | 73.1%+4.1 |
| 2019notional | Labour winner | Mathew Rodda Reading East MP, pre-review boundary | 52.6% | 36.4% | 6.4% | 8,351 | 72.3% |
| 2024 | Lab hold | Matt Rodda | 47.7% | 19.8% | 8.8% | 12,637 | 61.5%-10.8 |
Reading Central was created or substantially redrawn by the 2023 boundary review. Pre-2024 rows below are for the predecessor seat Reading East (the seat that covered most of this area), so vote shares and majorities aren’t directly comparable to the post-2024 figures.
Constituencies most like Reading Central
Five seats with similar demographic profiles to Reading Central. Politics shown for context.
- ↓Owner-occupied48.1 / 47.3vs 61.9
- ↑Private rent37.3 / 32.4vs 20.2
- ↑Graduate45.2 / 42.9vs 33.7
- ↑Private rent37.3 / 35.8vs 20.2
- ↓Owner-occupied48.1 / 44.3vs 61.9
- ↑Graduate45.2 / 45.7vs 33.7
- ↑Employed64.1 / 65.2vs 57.3
- ↓Age 65+13.8 / 15.8vs 22.7
- ↑Graduate45.2 / 41.1vs 33.7
- ↑Graduate45.2 / 49.4vs 33.7
- ↓Leave44.9 / 40.8vs 53.2
- ↑Private rent37.3 / 28.3vs 20.2
- ↓Owner-occupied48.1 / 44.4vs 61.9
- ↑Graduate45.2 / 45.3vs 33.7
- ↑Private rent37.3 / 30.9vs 20.2
What would change this seat?
Move the sliders to set national vote shares. The per-seat projection updates live. Reset returns to the current 7-poll average.
Related
Sources
Every figure on this page is computed from the sources below. Read the full methodology ›
Show full source list
- 2024 general election results · UK Parliament Election Results portal and House of Commons Library briefing CBP-10009.
- Notional 2019 results on 2024 boundaries · UK Parliament Election Results portal. Recalculated by Parliament; carries assumptions about how 2019 voters would have distributed across the redrawn boundaries.
- Historic general election results (2010-2017) · House of Commons Library historic results files (on the boundaries in force at the time).
- Ward-level GE2024 estimates · Britain Elects / New Statesman - article by Ben Walker, underlying spreadsheet. Modelled from constituency totals; average ~4pp per-ward MoE.
- May 2026 council ward results · Democracy Club via PollCheck's locals 2026 dataset.
- Earlier council ward results (2014-2024) · DCLEAPIL v1.0 (Jason Leman, drawing on Andrew Teale's LEAP dataset and Democracy Club).
- Demographics · ONS Census 2021 (England and Wales), aggregated to constituency level using the ONS LSOA21 -> PCON24 best-fit lookup.
- EU referendum 2016 estimates · Constituency-level Leave vote estimates (Hanretty 2017 method).
- MP details and Cabinet roles · UK Parliament Members API. MP photos are fetched live from the same source.
- Boundary geometry and lookups · ONS Open Geography Portal (PCON24 boundaries, LSOA21 boundaries, LSOA21-WD24-LAD24 best-fit lookup).
- Current projection and trajectory · PollCheck's demographic swingometer applied to the rolling 7-poll average from aggregated GB polls. Not a true MRP - vote-share movements are applied through per-constituency sensitivity multipliers derived from demographic regressions.
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