Reading South (UK Parliament constituency)

Reading South
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Berkshire
Major settlements	Reading
1950–1955
Replaced by	Reading
Created from	Reading
1974 (1974)–1983
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Replaced by	Reading East, Reading West and Wokingham
Created from	Reading

Reading South was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency covered an area in and around the town of Reading in the county of Berkshire.

Boundaries

1950-1955: The County Borough of Reading wards of Church, East, Katesgrove, Minster, Redlands, and West.

1974-1983: The County Borough of Reading wards of Christchurch, Park, Redlands, and Whitley, and in the Rural District of Wokingham the civil parishes of Arborfield and Newland, Barkham, Earley, Finchampstead, Shinfield, Sonning, Swallowfield, Winnersh, and Woodley and Sandford.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1950–1955

Election		Member	Party
	1950	Ian Mikardo	Labour
	1955	constituency abolished - see Reading

MPs 1974–1983

Election		Member	Party
	Feb 1974	Gerard Vaughan	Conservative
	1983	constituency abolished - see Reading East and Reading West

Election results

General Election 1979: Reading South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gerard Folliott Vaughan	30,067	53.85	+11.32
	Labour	Bernard Gale	14,422	25.83	-2.01
	Liberal	Keith Ernest Vincent Watts	10,642	19.06	-10.56
	Ecology	Peter George Chaloner Dunn	700	1.25
Turnout			55,831	76.48	+1.77
Majority			15,645	28.02	+15.89
	Conservative hold		Swing	+6.67

General Election, October 1974: Reading South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gerard Folliott Vaughan	21,959	42.53	-0.26
	Liberal	Paul Richard Burall	15,293	29.62	-3.51
	Labour	Lawrence Silverman	14,375	27.84	+3.76
Turnout			51,627	74.71	-6.23
Majority			6,666	12.91	+3.25
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.63

General Election, February 1974: Reading South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gerard Folliott Vaughan	23,735	42.79
	Liberal	Paul Richard Burall	18,376	33.13
	Labour	Gerd Hugo Kaufman	13,358	24.08
Turnout			55,469	80.94
Majority			5,359	9.66
	Conservative win (new seat)

Politics and history of the constituency

The Reading South parliamentary constituency was first created for the 1950 general election by splitting the previous parliamentary constituency of Reading into North and South divisions. The seat was contested and won for the Labour Party by Ian Mikardo, the sitting MP for the Reading constituency, who held the seat until it was merged back into a single Reading constituency for the 1955 general election.

The Reading South constituency was recreated in 1974, when it was contested and won for the Conservative Party by Gerard Vaughan, the sitting MP for the Reading constituency. For the 1983 general election the constituencies in Reading were reorganised, creating the new constituencies of Reading East and Reading West. Gerard Vaughan went on to hold the Reading East constituency until he stood down at the 1997 general election.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "R" (part 1)

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Berkshire