Islington South and Finsbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Islington South and Finsbury | |
---|---|
Borough constituency for the House of Commons | |
Boundary of Islington South and Finsbury in Greater London. | |
County | Greater London |
Electorate | 67,613 (December 2010)[1] |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1974 |
Member of parliament | Emily Thornberry (Labour) |
Number of members | One |
Created from | Islington South West, and Shoreditch and Finsbury |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | London |
Islington South and Finsbury /ˈɪzlɪŋtən saʊθ ənd fɪnzbri/ is a constituency[n 1] represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Emily Thornberry of the Labour Party.[n 2]
Boundaries
1974-1983: The London Borough of Islington wards of Barnsbury, Bunhill, Clerkenwell, Pentonville, St Mary's, St Peter's, and Thornhill.
1983-2010: The London Borough of Islington wards of Barnsbury, Bunhill, Canonbury East, Canonbury West, Clerkenwell, Hillmarton, Holloway, St Mary's, St Peter's, and Thornhill.
2010–present: The London Borough of Islington wards of Barnsbury, Bunhill, Caledonian, Canonbury, Clerkenwell, Holloway, St Mary’s, and St Peter’s.
The seat covers the southern part of the London Borough of Islington, including Barnsbury, Canonbury, major parts of Holloway, Kings Cross and the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, which includes Bunhill, Pentonville and Clerkenwell.
History
Islington was an early stronghold for the Social Democratic Party in which all three sitting Labour MPs defected to the party together with a majority of the Borough Council.[n 3] However in spite of their less radical position than the Labour Party of the era, they won only one seat to Labour's 59 in the 1982 Islington Council elections [2] and in the 1983 general election, Labour managed to retain the constituency narrowly. The new MP, Chris Smith was the first MP to come out as gay and was identified with the Labour left, and kept the seat with a slight increase in his majority in 1987. By 1992 the post-merged SDP, the Liberal Democrats, had locally faded and no longer had the former MP as a candidate and Smith managed to win a majority exceeding 10,000 votes.
The Liberal Democrat revival in local elections in Islington, which saw them take control of the council in 2000, began to translate to Parliamentary elections in 2001. In 2002, the Liberal Democrats won every council seat in Islington South & Finsbury, and Smith's subsequent retirement and the resultant loss of incumbency made the constituency vulnerable once again in 2005. However Smith's successor, Emily Thornberry, retained the seat with a narrow majority (484 votes) over the Liberal Democrat challenger, Barnsbury Councilor Bridget Fox.[3] — the seat therefore became one of the ten most marginal in Britain. However, in the local council elections a year later, Labour made an almost full recovery locally and won a majority of the seats in Islington South & Finsbury, defeating both Bridget Fox and the then council leader Steve Hitchins.[4] At the 2010 general election, Thornberry increased her majority over Fox. In 2014 in Liberal Democrats lost all their remaining seats on the Council.
Constituency profile
The constituency was in 2005 described as
'A part-grand, part-poor metaphor for New Labour; Tony Blair lived here prior to his election as prime minister. Its dinner tables are routinely maligned as the natural habitat of the hypocritical, well-off, ostensibly liberal "chattering classes".'[5]
And in 2010 as "a seat sometimes seen as the citadel of constitutional reform."[6]
Members of Parliament
Election | Member[7] | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
Feb 1974 | George Cunningham | Labour | |
1982 | SDP | ||
1983 | Chris Smith | Labour | |
2005 | Emily Thornberry | Labour |
Election Results
Elections in the 2010s
General Election 2015: Islington South and Finsbury[8][9][10] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Emily Thornberry | 22,547 | 50.9 | +8.7 | |
Conservative | Dr Mark Lim | 9,839 | 22.2 | +2.8 | |
Liberal Democrat | Terry Stacy | 4,829 | 10.9 | −23.2 | |
UKIP | Pete Muswell | 3,375 | 7.6 | +6.0 | |
Green | Charlie Kiss | 3,371 | 7.6 | +6.0 | |
CISTA | Jay Marvin Kirton | 309 | 0.7 | +0.7 | |
Majority | 12,708 | 28.7 | +20.5 | ||
Turnout | 44,270 | 65.0 | +0.6 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | +3.0 | |||
General Election 2010: Islington South and Finsbury[11][12][13] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Emily Thornberry | 18,407 | 42.3 | +2.4 | |
Liberal Democrat | Mrs Bridget C. Fox | 14,838 | 34.1 | −4.2 | |
Conservative | Antonia Cox | 8,449 | 19.4 | +4.6 | |
Green | James Humphreys | 710 | 1.6 | −3.1 | |
UKIP | Rose-Marie McDonald | 701 | 1.6 | +0.1 | |
English Democrats | John Dodds | 301 | 0.7 | N/A | |
Animals Count | Richard Deboo | 149 | 0.3 | N/A | |
Majority | 3,569 | 8.2 | |||
Turnout | 43,555 | 64.4 | +10.8 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | +3.3 | |||
Elections in the 2000s
General Election 2005: Islington South and Finsbury[14] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Emily Thornberry | 12,345 | 39.9 | −14.0 | |
Liberal Democrat | Mrs Bridget C. Fox | 11,861 | 38.3 | +10.2 | |
Conservative | Miss Melanie L. McLean | 4,594 | 14.8 | +1.1 | |
Green | James Humphreys | 1,471 | 4.8 | N/A | |
UKIP | Miss Patricia T. Theophanides | 470 | 1.5 | N/A | |
Monster Raving Loony | Andy "the Hat" J.E. Gardner | 189 | 0.6 | N/A | |
Independent | Chris Gidden | 31 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Majority | 484 | 1.6 | |||
Turnout | 30,961 | 53.6 | +6.2 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | −12.1 | |||
General Election 2001: Islington South and Finsbury[15] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Christopher Robert Smith | 15,217 | 53.9 | −8.6 | |
Liberal Democrat | Keith Sharp | 7,937 | 28.1 | +6.8 | |
Conservative | Nicola Ann Morgan | 3,860 | 13.7 | +0.7 | |
Socialist Alliance | Miss Janine Sandra Booth | 817 | 2.9 | N/A | |
Independent | Thomas John McCarthy | 276 | 1.0 | +0.5 | |
Stuckist Party | Charles Geoffrey Thomson | 108 | 0.4 | N/A | |
Majority | 7,280 | 25.8 | |||
Turnout | 28,215 | 47.4 | −16.3 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Elections in the 1990s
General Election 1997: Islington South and Finsbury[16] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Christopher Robert Smith | 22,079 | 62.5 | ||
Liberal Democrat | Sarah Ludford | 7,516 | 21.3 | ||
Conservative | David Berens | 4,587 | 13.00 | ||
Referendum | Jane Bryett | 741 | 2.10 | ||
Independent | Alan Laws | 171 | 0.5 | ||
Natural Law | Martin Creese | 121 | 0.3 | ||
Independent | Erol Basarik | 101 | 0.29 | ||
Majority | 14,563 | 41.2 | |||
Turnout | 35,316 | 63.7 | |||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
General Election 1992: Islington South and Finsbury[17] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Christopher Robert Smith | 20,586 | 51.1 | +11.0 | |
Conservative | Mark V. Jones | 9,934 | 24.7 | +4.1 | |
Liberal Democrat | Christopher J. Pryce | 9,387 | 23.3 | − | |
Justice From British Rail | Ms. Rhona Hersey | 149 | 0.37 | ||
Monster Raving Loony | Marie Avino | 142 | 0.35 | ||
Natural Law | Michael Avino | 83 | 0.21 | ||
Majority | 10,652 | 26.44 | |||
Turnout | 72.52 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Elections in the 1980s
General Election 1987: Islington South and Finsbury[18] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Christopher Robert Smith | 16,511 | 40.06 | ||
Social Democratic | George Cunningham | 15,706 | 38.10 | ||
Conservative | Andrew Mitchell | 8,482 | 20.58 | ||
Green | Peter Carlton Powell | 382 | 0.93 | ||
Socialist (GB) | Stephen Dowsett | 81 | 0.20 | ||
Humanist | Judith Helen Early | 56 | 0.14 | ||
Majority | 805 | 1.95 | |||
Turnout | 71.18 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
General Election 1983: Islington South & Finsbury[19] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Christopher Robert Smith | 13,460 | 36.31 | ||
Social Democratic | George Cunningham | 13,097 | 35.33 | ||
Conservative | Arthur Johnston | 9,894 | 26.69 | ||
National Front | John B. Donegan | 341 | 0.92 | ||
Islington and Finsbury Party | J. Murphy | 102 | 0.28 | ||
BNP | D. Stentiford | 94 | 0.25 | ||
Socialist (GB) | Clifford Slapper | 85 | 0.23 | ||
Majority | 363 | 0.98 | |||
Turnout | 62.0 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Elections in the 1970s
General Election 1979: Islington South & Finsbury | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | George Cunningham | 12,581 | 52.04 | -9.41 | |
Conservative | Nigel Waterson | 8,237 | 34.07 | +13.15 | |
Liberal | Antony Dean | 1,991 | 8.24 | -7.23 | |
National Front | Paul Kavanagh | 824 | 3.41 | N/A | |
Communist | Marie Betteridge | 330 | 1.36 | -0.80 | |
New Britain | Dennis Delderfield | 136 | 0.56 | N/A | |
Socialist (GB) | Ralph Critchfield | 78 | 0.32 | N/A | |
Majority | 4,344 | 17.97 | |||
Turnout | 62.92 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
General Election October 1974: Islington South & Finsbury | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | George Cunningham | 14,544 | 61.45 | +7.14 | |
Conservative | P. Hodgson | 3,951 | 20.92 | -2.42 | |
Liberal | R. Adams | 3,661 | 15.47 | -4.05 | |
Communist | Marie Betteridge | 512 | 2.16 | +0.39 | |
Majority | 9,593 | 40.53 | |||
Turnout | 56.02 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
General Election February 1974: Islington South & Finsbury | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | George Cunningham | 15,064 | 54.31 | ||
Conservative | J. Szemerey | 6,473 | 23.34 | ||
Liberal | R. Adams | 5,415 | 19.52 | ||
Communist | Marie Betteridge | 492 | 1.77 | ||
Independent | A. Lomas | 293 | 1.06 | ||
Majority | 8,591 | 30.97 | |||
Turnout | 66.06 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing | ||||
See also
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Islington
Notes and references
- Notes
- ↑ A borough constituency (for the purposes of election expenses and type of returning officer)
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ This was at the time when the Labour Party voted for in Conference leaving the EEC (Common Market) and abolishing nuclear weapons during the Cold War which largely triggered the split.
- References
- ↑ "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
- ↑ http://data.london.gov.uk/documents/LBCE_1982-5-6.pdf pp.40-41
- ↑ Personal Website of Bridget Fox
- ↑ LDA website document 488
- ↑ Constituency Profile written in 2005
- ↑ Wintour, Patrick (25 November 2010). "Labour big beasts say no to voting reform". The Guardian.
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "I"
- ↑ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ↑ http://www.islington.gov.uk/involved/involvedvoting/votingelection/general-election-2015/Pages/general-elections-results.aspx
- ↑ http://www.islington.gov.uk/publicrecords/library/Democracy/Publicity/Public-notices/2015-2016/(2015-04-09)-Statement-of-Persons-Nominated-South.pdf
- ↑ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- ↑ http://www.islington.gov.uk/DownloadableDocuments/CouncilandDemocracy/Pdf/electoral/sopn_south.pdf
- ↑ BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/c37.stm. Missing or empty
|title=
(help) - ↑ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- ↑ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- ↑ "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- ↑ "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- ↑ "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- ↑ "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
|
Coordinates: 51°32′17″N 0°06′22″W / 51.538°N 0.106°W