St Helens South (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 53°26′53″N 2°43′52″W / 53.448°N 2.731°W / 53.448; -2.731

St Helens South
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of St Helens South in Merseyside for the 2005 general election.
Location of Merseyside within England.
County	Merseyside
1983–2010
Number of members	One
Replaced by	St Helens South and Whiston
Created from	St Helens, Widnes and Huyton^[1]
European Parliament constituency	North West England

St Helens 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.

Boundaries

The constituency was one of two covering the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, the other being St Helens North. It contained the southern part of the borough including the town centre of St Helens, the south of the town, Clock Face and Rainhill.

Following recommendations made by the Boundary Commission for England, St Helens South was replaced with a new St Helens South and Whiston constituency, which will include three wards from Knowsley borough.

History

The forerunner seat had been represented by members of the Labour Party since 1935.

The constituency was formed in 1983, and was represented by Labour's Gerry Bermingham from then until he stood down in 2001. He was replaced by Shaun Woodward, who had defected from the Conservatives to Labour in December 1999. Woodward was deemed unlikely to retain his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire as a Labour candidate (it was subsequently won by David Cameron, now Leader of the Conservatives and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom), and was instead selected for this safe seat. Woodward has won all three elections however lost his position in the cabinet because of the Labour party defeat to the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition government in the 2010 General Election.

Members of Parliament

	Member ^[2]	Party
1983	Gerry Bermingham	Labour
2001	Shaun Woodward	Labour
2010	Constituency abolished: see St Helens South and Whiston

Elections

Elections in the 1980s

General Election 1983: St Helens South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gerry Bermingham	22,906	46.9	N/A
	Conservative	Richard George Bull	13,244	27.1	N/A
	Social Democratic	Philip James Briers	10,939	22.2	N/A
	Independent	Melvyn Henry Davies	1,780	3.6	N/A
Majority			9,622	19.8	N/A
Turnout			48,869	70.6	N/A
	Labour win (new seat)

General Election 1987: St Helens South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gerry Bermingham	27,027	54.6	+7.7
	Conservative	John Anthony Brown	13,226	26.7	−0.4
	Social Democratic	Philip James Briers	9,252	18.7	−3.7
Majority			13,801	27.9
Turnout			49,505	71.3	+4.0
	Labour hold		Swing	+4.1

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1992: St. Helens South^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gerry Bermingham	30,391	61.0	+6.4
	Conservative	Mrs Patricia Marilyn Buzzard	12,182	24.5	−2.3
	Liberal Democrat	Brian Thomas Spencer	6,933	13.9	−4.8
	Natural Law	Dr. Harriet Sarah Jump	295	0.6	N/A
Majority			18,209	36.6	+8.7
Turnout			49,801	73.8	+2.5
	Labour hold		Swing	+4.3

General Election 1997: St Helens South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Gerry Bermingham	30,367	68.6	+7.6
	Conservative	Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Junker Marking Russell	6,628	15.0	−9.5
	Liberal Democrat	Brian Thomas Spencer	5,919	13.4	−0.5
	Referendum	William Francis Andrew Patrick Holdaway	1,165	2.6	N/A
	Natural Law	Dr. Harriet Sarah Jump	179	0.4	−0.2
Majority			23,739	53.6
Turnout			44,258	66.5
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2001: St Helens South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Shaun Woodward	16,799	49.7	−18.9
	Liberal Democrat	Brian Thomas Spencer	7,814	23.1	+9.7
	Conservative	Lee Stuart Rotherham	4,675	13.8	−1.1
	Socialist Alliance	Neil Thompson	2,325	6.9	N/A
	Socialist Labour	Michael Roy Perry	1,504	4.4	N/A
	UKIP	Bryan Hilton Slater	336	1.0	N/A
	Independent	Michael Anastasio Murphy	271	0.8	N/A
	Independent	David Oswald Braid	80	0.2	N/A
Majority			8,985	26.6
Turnout			33,804	51.4	−15.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 2005: St Helens South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Shaun Woodward	19,345	54.5	+4.8
	Liberal Democrat	Brian Thomas Spencer	10,036	28.3	+5.2
	Conservative	Una Riley	4,602	13.0	−0.8
	UKIP	Malcolm James Hamilton Nightingale	847	2.4	+1.4
	Socialist Labour	Michael Roy Perry	643	1.8	−2.6
Majority			9,309	26.2
Turnout			35,473	53.4	+2.0
	Labour hold		Swing	−0.2

Notes and references

↑ "'St Helens South', June 1983 up to May 1997". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 1)
↑ "UK General Election results April 1992". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 2010-12-06.

Constituencies in North West England (75)

Labour (51)	Ashton-under-Lyne Barrow and Furness Birkenhead Blackburn Blackley and Broughton Blackpool South Bolton North East Bolton South East Bootle Burnley Bury South Chorley City of Chester Copeland Denton and Reddish Ellesmere Port and Neston Garston and Halewood Halton Heywood and Middleton Hyndburn Knowsley Lancaster and Fleetwood Leigh Liverpool Riverside Liverpool Walton Liverpool Wavertree Liverpool West Derby Makerfield Manchester Central Manchester Gorton Manchester Withington Oldham East and Saddleworth Oldham West and Royton Preston Rochdale St Helens North St Helens South and Whiston Salford and Eccles Sefton Central Stalybridge and Hyde Stockport Stretford and Urmston Wallasey Warrington North West Lancashire Wigan Wirral South Wirral West Workington Worsley and Eccles South Wythenshawe and Sale East

Conservative (22)	Altrincham and Sale West Blackpool North and Cleveleys Bolton West Bury North Carlisle Cheadle Congleton Crewe and Nantwich Eddisbury Fylde Hazel Grove Macclesfield Morecambe and Lunesdale Pendle Penrith and The Border Ribble Valley Rossendale and Darwen South Ribble Tatton Warrington South Weaver Vale Wyre and Preston North

Liberal Democrats (2)	Southport Westmorland and Lonsdale

North West England European constituency: Conservative (2) Labour (3) UKIP (3)

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