Houghton and Sunderland South (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 54°51′30″N 1°26′30″W / 54.85833°N 1.44167°W

Houghton and Sunderland South
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Houghton and Sunderland South in Tyne and Wear.
Location of Tyne and Wear within England.
County	Tyne and Wear
Electorate	70,115 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created	2010
Member of parliament	Bridget Phillipson (Labour)
Number of members	One
Created from	Sunderland South, Houghton and Washington East
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	North East England

Houghton and Sunderland South /ˈhoʊtən.ənd.ˈsʊn.dərˌlənd.saʊθ/^[2] is a constituency^{[n 1]} represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Bridget Phillipson of the Labour Party.^{[n 2]}

Constituency profile

Houghton and Sunderland South is a medium density inland area^{[n 3]} partly on the south banks of the River Wear mostly populated by people of working age that has a minority of the population who live in rural villages. The majority of the population historically relied on coal mining, steelworks and shipbuilding from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries on Wearside with Tyne and Wear at the forefront of some of the earliest Labour Party activity and several of its earliest Members of Parliament. During the 2010 Parliament, Houghton and Sunderland South is the 70th safest Labour seat in the country.^[3] The largest opposition was in 2010 from the Conservative Party.

Boundaries

The City of Sunderland wards of Copt Hill, Doxford, Hetton, Houghton, St Chad’s, Sandhill, Shiney Row, and Silksworth.

Following their review of parliamentary representation in Tyne and Wear, the Boundary Commission for England reorganised constituencies covering the City of Sunderland. Elements of the former Sunderland South and Houghton and Washington East seats were combined to create this as a new seat in 2010.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[4]	Party
2010		constituency replaced Sunderland South and Houghton and Washington East
	2010	Bridget Phillipson	Labour

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2015: Houghton and Sunderland South[5][6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bridget Phillipson	21,218	55.1	+4.8
	UKIP	Richard Elvin	8,280	21.5	+18.8
	Conservative	Stewart Hay[7]	7,105	18.5	-2.9
	Green	Alan Robinson	1,095	2.8	+2.8
	Liberal Democrat	Jim Murray[8]	791	2.1	-11.8
Majority			12,938	33.6
Turnout			38,489	56.3
	Labour hold		Swing

This seat was fought for the first time at the 2010 general election, and was the first seat to declare its results, continuing the record of the former Sunderland South constituency which had been first to declare in the previous four general elections.^[9] The vote share change comes from the notional, not actual, results as this is a new seat.

General Election 2010: Houghton and Sunderland South[10][11][12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bridget Phillipson	19,137	50.3	-11.7
	Conservative	Robert Oliver	8,147	21.4	+5.2
	Liberal Democrat	Christopher Peter Boyle	5,292	13.9	-0.6
	Independent	Colin Wakefield	2,462	6.5	+6.5
	BNP	Karen Allen	1,961	5.2	+1.4
	UKIP	Richard Peter Elvin	1,022	2.7	+2.7
Majority			10,990	28.9
Turnout			38,021	55.3	+2.1
	Labour hold		Swing	-8.5

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Tyne and Wear

Notes

1. A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
2. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years.
3. However it borders the coastal constituencies of Hartlepool and Sunderland Central.

References

1. "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
2. In Northern English and Southern Welsh dialects ʊ is spoken otherwise /ˈʌ/
3. [Current Opinion Poll Seats Ranked by Electoral Calculus http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/orderedseats.html]
4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 4)
5. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
6. Election 2015. BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000754. Retrieved 7 May 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
7. "Conservative Parliamentary Candidates Chosen". Sunderland.
8. "list of selected candidates". Lib Dems. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
9. Daily Record; May 6, 2005; Sunderland Leads the Way
10. "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
11. http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=8437&p=0
12. "BBC NEWS – Election 2010 – Houghton & Sunderland South". BBC News.