Bermondsey (UK Parliament constituency)

Bermondsey was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Bermondsey district of South London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election and abolished for the 1918 general election, when its territory was represented by two new constituencies: Rotherhithe and Bermondsey West.

A new Bermondsey constituency was created for the 1950 general election, and abolished for the 1983 election, when it was largely replaced by the new Southwark and Bermondsey constituency.

[edit] History

The Bermondsey by-election, 1983 was one of the most bitterly-contested by-elections in the United Kingdom.

Year		Member	Party
	1885	James Edwin Thorold Rogers	Liberal
	1886	Alfred Lafone	Conservative
	1892	Reuben Vincent Barrow	Liberal
	1895	Alfred Lafone	Conservative
	1900	Henry John Cockayne Cust	Conservative
	1906	George Joseph Cooper	Liberal
	1909	John Molesworth Thomas Dumphreys	Conservative
	1910	Harold James Glanville	Liberal
1918		Constituency abolished: see Rotherhithe and Bermondsey West
1950		Constituency recreated
	1950	Robert Joseph Mellish	Labour
	1983	Simon Henry Ward Hughes	Liberal
1983		Constituency abolished: see Southwark and Bermondsey

Bermondsey by-election, 1983
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Simon Hughes	17,017	57.7	+50.9
	Labour	Peter Tatchell	7,698	26.1	-37.5
	Real Bermondsey Labour	John O'Grady	2,243	7.6	N/A
	Conservative	Robert Hughes	1,631	5.5	-19.4
	National Front	James Sneath	426	1.4	-2.4
	Monster Raving Loony	David Sutch	97	0.3	N/A
	Independent Patriot	Dowager Lady Birdwood	69	0.2	N/A
	New Britain Party	Michael Keulemans	62	0.2	N/A
	Independent Labour	Barry Giddings	50	0.2	N/A
	Communist	Robert Gordon	50	0.2	N/A
	Ecology	George Hannah	45	0.2	N/A
	Revolutionary Communist	Fran Eden	38	0.1	N/A
	National Labour Party	Ann King	25	0.1	N/A
	United Democratic Party	Alan Baker	15	0.1	N/A
	Anti-Common Market Free Trade Party	David Wedgwood	15	0.1	N/A
	Systems Designer	Esmond Bevan	8	0.0	N/A
Majority			9,319	27.2
Turnout			29,489	57.7	-1.6
	Liberal gain from Labour		Swing

Note: Esmond Bevan made a mistake and inserted his occupation rather than politics in the nomination paper. He was an Independent Labour candidate.

The results for the previous election were:

1979 General Election: Bermondsey
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Mellish	19,338	63.6	-9.8
	Conservative	Alexander Duma	7,582	24.9	+11.1
	Liberal	Thomas Taylor	2,072	6.8	-1.3
	National Front	James Sneath	1,175	3.9	-0.9
	Workers' Revolutionary	Anthony Moore	239	0.8	N/A
Majority			11,756	38.7	-20.9
Turnout			30,406	59.3	-2.9
	Labour hold		Swing	-10.5