Croydon South (historic UK Parliament constituency)

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Croydon South Borough constituency
Created:	1918
Abolished:	1974
Type:	House of Commons

This seat should not be confused with the current Croydon South constituency

Croydon South was a 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.

It was created for the 1918 general election when the then borough of Croydon had grown and was split into two parliamentary seats. In 1974, the seat was renamed Croydon Central when Purley and Coulsdon became part of the London Borough of Croydon and a new seat of Croydon South was created to the south of its previous location, with little overlap.

Contents 1 Boundaries 2 Member of Parliament 1918 - 1974 3 Election results 4 Politics and history of the constituency

[edit] Boundaries

[edit] Member of Parliament 1918 - 1974

• Richard Thompson, Conservative (1970 - Feb 1974)
• David Winnick, Labour (1966 - 1970)
• Richard Thompson, Conservative (1955 - 1966)

From 1950 until 1955, the seat was divided into east and west, represented by Conservatives Herbert Williams and Richard Thompson respectively.

• David Rees-Williams, Labour (1945 - 1950)
• Herbert Williams, Conservative (1932 - 1945)
• William Mitchell-Thomson, Conservative (1923 - 1932)
• Allan Smith, Conservative (1922 - 1923)
• Ian Malcolm, Conservative (1918 - 1922) (previously MP for Croydon)

[edit] Election results

General Election 1945: Croydon South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Lt. Col. David Rees-Williams	27,650	53.4	24.4
	Conservative	Sir Herbert Williams	24,147	46.6	−15.7
Majority			3,503	6.8
Turnout			51,797	70.1
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

General Election 1935: Croydon South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Herbert Williams	31971	62.3%	-18.0%
	Labour	T Crawford	14,900	29.0%	+9.3%
	Liberal	D W A Llewellyn	4,440	8.7%	+8.7%
Majority			17,071	33.3%
Turnout			45,860	65.2%
	Conservative hold		Swing

[edit] Politics and history of the constituency

The seat was created in 1918 and the first MP was Ian Malcolm who had been the MP for all of Croydon. H.T. Muggeridge, father of Malcolm Muggeridge, fought the seat for Labour four times from 1918, later becoming MP for Romford. The seat saw a by-election in 1932, won by Herbert Williams.

Croydon South had twice seen Croydon's only Labour MPs before the 1990s. David Rees-Williams had held the seat from the 1945 Labour landslide until unfavourable boundary changes in 1950. David Winnick won the seat in 1966 before losing in 1970. Otherwise the seat, and indeed the rest of Croydon, had always been firm Conservative territory.

From 1950 until 1955, the seat was divided into east and west, represented by Conservatives Herbert Williams and Richard Thompson respectively.