Wolverhampton South West (UK Parliament constituency)

Wolverhampton South West
Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Boundary of Wolverhampton South West in West Midlands.
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

	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

Notes and references

↑ "Electorate Figures - Boundary Commission for England". 2011 Electorate Figures. Boundary Commission for England. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
↑
↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 5)
↑ "Wolverhampton South West". BBC news. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
↑ "UK Polling Report". ukpollingreport.co.uk.
↑ Wolverhampton South West, UKPollingReport
↑ "UK General Election results April 1992". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
↑ Peter Evans. "Immigrant girl will vote in despair—Powellism" (News). The Times (London). Friday, 5 June 1970. (57888), col C, p. 9.

External links

Constituencies in the West Midlands (59)

Conservative (34)	Aldridge-Brownhills Bromsgrove Burton Cannock Chase Dudley South Halesowen and Rowley Regis Hereford and South Herefordshire Kenilworth and Southam Lichfield Ludlow Meriden Mid Worcestershire North Herefordshire North Shropshire North Warwickshire Nuneaton Redditch Rugby Shrewsbury and Atcham Solihull South Staffordshire Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Stone Stourbridge Stratford-on-Avon Sutton Coldfield Tamworth Telford The Wrekin Warwick and Leamington West Worcestershire Worcester Wyre Forest

Labour (25)	Birmingham, Edgbaston Birmingham, Erdington Birmingham, Hall Green Birmingham, Hodge Hill Birmingham, Ladywood Birmingham, Northfield Birmingham, Perry Barr Birmingham, Selly Oak Birmingham, Yardley Coventry North East Coventry North West Coventry South Dudley North Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke-on-Trent Central Stoke-on-Trent North Stoke-on-Trent South Walsall North Walsall South Warley West Bromwich East West Bromwich West Wolverhampton North East Wolverhampton South East Wolverhampton South West

West Midlands European constituency: Conservative (2) Labour (2) UKIP (3)

Coordinates: 52°35′N 2°10′W / 52.59°N 2.17°W / 52.59; -2.17

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