Wolverhampton South West (UK Parliament constituency)

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Wolverhampton South West
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
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Boundary of Wolverhampton South West in West Midlands.
Outline map
Location of West Midlands within England.
County West Midlands
Electorate 59,846 (December 2010)[1]
Major settlements Wolverhampton
Current constituency
Created 1950
Member of parliament Rob Marris (Labour)
Number of members One
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency West Midlands

Wolverhampton South West is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Boundaries

1950-1955: The County Borough of Wolverhampton wards of Blakenhall and St John's, Graiseley, Penn, St George's, St Mark's and Merridale, St Matthew's, and St Philip's.

1955-1974: The County Borough of Wolverhampton wards of Blakenhall and St John's, Graiseley, Park, Penn, St George's, St Mark's and Merridale, St Matthew's, and St Philip's.

1974-1983: The County Borough of Wolverhampton wards of Graiseley, Merry Hill, Park, Penn, St Peter's, Tettenhall Regis, and Tettenhall Wightwick.

1983-2010: The Metropolitan Borough of Wolverhampton wards of Graiseley, Merry Hill, Park, Penn, St Peter's, Tettenhall Regis, and Tettenhall Wightwick.

2010-present: The City of Wolverhampton wards of Graiseley, Merry Hill, Park, Penn, St Peter's, Tettenhall Regis, and Tettenhall Wightwick.

Wolverhampton South West is one of three constituencies covering the city of Wolverhampton, covering the city centre (including the University and Civic Centre) as well as western and south-western parts of the city. The boundaries run south from the city centre towards Penn and north-west towards Tettenhall.

Constituency profile

This hyper-marginal seat contains a mix of different areas; St Peter's, Graiseley and Park are relatively deprived inner city wards, with significant ethnic minority populations, mainly of Asian origin and are Labour voting-areas. Penn and Merry Hill are more mixed and suburban with mostly Conservative voters. Tettenhall Regis and Tettenhall Wightwick are affluent suburbs on the western fringe of the West Midlands conurbation and are the strongest Tory wards in the seat.

The seat includes Molineux stadium, home to Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C..

History

Wolverhampton South West was once regarded as a Conservative safe seat until Labour gained it in their 1997 landslide.

The constituency is heavily associated with the controversial Conservative politician Enoch Powell who was MP for the seat from 1950 until 1974, when he departed to the Ulster Unionist Party. It was during this time that he served in Ted Heath's shadow cabinet, from which he was dismissed in 1968 after his controversial Rivers of Blood speech in which he predicted severe civil unrest if mass immigration from the Commonwealth continued. This speech was reportedly the result of Powell's meeting with a woman in the constituency who was the last white person living in her street.[2]

He was succeeded by fellow Conservative Nicholas Budgen, who held the seat until 1997. Budgen is best known as one of the Maastricht rebels of the mid 1990s. He was defeated in the 1997 election by Labour's Jenny Jones, the seat being one of many gained by Labour from the Conservatives in that election. As the next general election loomed, she announced that she would not be seeking re-election. From the 2001 general election, the constituency was represented by Rob Marris of the Labour Party for nine years until he lost it in the 2010 general election to Paul Uppal of the Conservative Party, who coincidentally had exactly the same numerical majority (691) as Powell did in 1950. Marris regained the seat from Uppal at the 2015 general election.

Members of Parliament

Election Member[3] Party
1950 Enoch Powell Conservative
Feb 1974 Nicholas Budgen Conservative
1997 Jenny Jones Labour
2001 Rob Marris Labour
2010 Paul Uppal Conservative
2015 Rob Marris Labour

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Wolverhampton South West[4][5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Rob Marris 17,374 43.2 +4.2
Conservative Paul Uppal 16,573 41.2 +0.5
UKIP Dave Everett 4,310 10.7 +7.0
Green Andrea Cantrill 1,058 2.6 +2.6
Liberal Democrat Neale Upstone 845 2.1 -13.9
Independent Brian Booth 49 0.1 +0.1
Majority 801 2.0
Turnout 40,209 66.6
Labour gain from Conservative Swing +1.9
General Election 2010: Wolverhampton South West[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Paul Uppal 16,344 40.7 +2.6
Labour Rob Marris 15,653 39.0 −4.5
Liberal Democrat Robin Lawrence 6,430 16.0 +2.5
UKIP Amanda Mobberley 1,487 3.7 +1.2
Equal Parenting Alliance Raymond Barry 246 0.6 +0.6
Majority 691 1.7
Turnout 40,160 67.9 +4.8
Conservative gain from Labour Swing +3.5

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Rob Marris 18,489 44.4 −3.9
Conservative Sandip Verma 15,610 37.5 −2.2
Liberal Democrat Colin Ross 5,568 13.4 +5.0
UKIP Douglas Hope 1,029 2.5 +0.8
BNP Edward Mullins 983 2.4 N/A
Majority 2,879 6.9
Turnout 41,679 62.1 0.0
Labour hold Swing −0.8
General Election 2001: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Rob Marris 19,735 48.3 −2.1
Conservative David Chambers 16,248 39.7 −0.2
Liberal Democrat Mike Dixon 3,425 8.4 +0.2
Green Wendy Walker 805 2.0 N/A
UKIP Doug Hope 684 1.7 N/A
Majority 3,487 8.6
Turnout 40,897 62.1 −10.4
Labour hold Swing

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1997: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Jenny Jones 24,657 50.4 +10.5
Conservative Nicholas Budgen 19,539 39.9 −9.4
Liberal Democrat Matthew Green 4,012 8.2 −0.3
Liberal Mike Hyde 713 1.5 −0.8
Majority 5,118 10.5
Turnout 48,921 72.4
Labour gain from Conservative Swing
General Election 1992: Wolverhampton South West[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Nicholas Budgen 25,969 49.3 −1.4
Labour Simon Murphy 21,003 39.9 +9.2
Liberal Democrat Mark Wiggin 4,470 8.5 −10.1
Liberal Colin Hallmark 1,237 2.3 N/A
Majority 4,966 9.4 −10.6
Turnout 52,679 78.2 +2.7
Conservative hold Swing +5.3

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1987: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Nicholas Budgen 26,235 50.7 +0.1
Labour Roger Lawrence 15,917 30.7 +3.2
SDP–Liberal Alliance (Social Democratic) Beris Lamb 9,616 18.6 −2.9
Majority 10,318 20.0 −3.1
Turnout 51,768 75.5 +3.1
Conservative hold Swing
General Election 1983: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Nicholas Budgen 25,214 50.6 −1.1
Labour Bob Jones 13,694 27.5 −4.7
SDP–Liberal Alliance (Social Democratic) Edgar Harwood 10,724 21.5 +8.0
Anti-Common Market John Deary 201 0.4
Majority 11,520 23.1
Turnout 49,833 72.4
Conservative hold Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1979: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Nicholas William Budgen 26,587 52.5 +8.3
Labour Ivan Geffen 15,827 31.2 −1.8
Liberal Joseph Wernick 6,939 13.7 −5.8
National Front June Lees 912 1.8 −1.5
Anti-Common Market John Deary 401 0.8
Majority 10,760 21.2
Turnout 50,666 76.6 +2.9
Conservative hold Swing
General Election October 1974: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Nicholas William Budgen 20,854 44.2 −1.5
Labour Ivan Ernest Geffen 15,554 33.0 +0.9
Liberal Joseph Abraham Wernick 9,215 19.5 +0.3
National Front Garth Anthony Cooper 1,573 3.3 +0.3
Majority 5,300 11.2
Turnout 47,196 73.7 −5.9
Conservative hold Swing
General Election February 1974: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Nicholas William Budgen 23,123 45.7
Labour Helene Middleweek 16,222 32.1
Liberal Joseph Abraham Wernick 9,691 19.2
National Front Garth Anthony Cooper 1,523 3.0
Majority 6,901 13.6
Turnout 50,559 79.6
Conservative hold Swing
General Election 1970: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Enoch Powell 26,220 64.3 +5.2
Labour Joshua Bamfield 11,753 28.8 −12.1
Liberal Eric Robinson 2,459 6.0
Communist Pete Carter 189 0.5
Independent Gavin Menzies[8] 77 0.2
Independent Dharam Dass 52 0.1
Majority 14,467 35.5
Turnout 40,750 76.0 +2.4
Conservative hold Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1966: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Enoch Powell 21,466 59.1 +1.7
Labour Alexander Collier 14,881 40.9 +9.5
Majority 6,585 18.1
Turnout 36,347 73.6 −1.7
Conservative hold Swing
General Election 1964: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Enoch Powell 21,736 57.4 −6.5
Labour Antony Gardner 11,880 31.4 −4.7
Liberal Nick Lloyd 4,233 11.2
Majority 9,856 26.0
Turnout 37,849 75.3 −3.1
Conservative hold Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Enoch Powell 25,696 63.9 +3.9
Labour Eric Thorne 14,529 36.1 −3.9
Majority 11,167 27.8
Turnout 40,225 78.4 +0.7
Conservative hold Swing
General Election 1955: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Enoch Powell 25,318 60.0
Labour Lewis Burgess 16,898 40.0
Majority 8,420 20.0
Turnout 42,216 77.7
Conservative hold Swing
General Election 1951: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Enoch Powell 23,660 53.6 +7.6
Labour Annie Llewelyn-Davies 20,464 46.4 +2.0
Majority 3,196 7.2
Turnout 44,124 86.3 -0.9
Conservative hold Swing
General Election 1950: Wolverhampton South West
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Enoch Powell 20,239 46.0
Labour Herbert Hughes 19,548 44.4
Liberal William Frederick Hubert Rollason 4,229 9.6
Majority 691 1.6
Turnout 44,016 87.2
Conservative gain from Labour Swing

See also

Notes and references

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  2. [1]
  3. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 5)[self-published source][better source needed]
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  6. Wolverhampton South West, UKPollingReport
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  8. Peter Evans. "Immigrant girl will vote in despair—Powellism" (News). The Times (London). Friday, 5 June 1970. (57888), col C, p. 9.

External links

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