Portsmouth South (UK Parliament constituency)

Portsmouth South
Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
Boundary of Portsmouth South in Hampshire.
Location of Hampshire within England.
County	Hampshire
Electorate	71,947 (December 2010)[1]
Current constituency
Created	1918 (1918)
Member of Parliament	Mike Hancock (Liberal Democrat)
Number of members	One
Created from	Portsmouth
Overlaps
European Parliament constituency	South East England

Portsmouth South 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 voting system. The current MP, since the 1997 general election, is Mike Hancock of the Liberal Democrats.

Contents 1 Boundaries 2 History 3 Members of Parliament 4 Elections 4.1 Elections in the 2010s 4.2 Elections in the 2000s 4.3 Elections in the 1990s 4.4 Elections in the 1980s 5 See also 6 Notes and references

Boundaries

The constituency represents part of the city of Portsmouth. The northern part is represented by Portsmouth North. It also includes Fratton, the seaside resort of Southsea and HMNB Portsmouth (Portsmouth Naval Dockyard).

History

The constituency was created in 1918 when the larger Portsmouth constituency was split into three divisions: Central, North and South. The Central constituency was abolished in 1950.

In the 2010 General Election campaign independent candidate Les Cummings distributed a leaflet claiming that incumbent MP Mike Hancock was a paedophile. This was later proved in court to be false. Cummings was subsequently convicted under the 1983 Representation of the People Act for distributing material which was known to be false with the intention of smearing or defaming to affect the return of a member of parilament. Cummings was fined £500.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [2]	Party
	1918	Herbert Cayzer	Conservative
	1922 by-election	Leslie Wilson	Conservative
	1923 by-election	Sir Herbert Cayzer, Bt.	Conservative
	1939 by-election	Sir Jocelyn Lucas, Bt.	Conservative
	1966	Bonner Pink	Conservative
	1984 by-election	Mike Hancock	SDP
	1987	David Martin	Conservative
	1997	Mike Hancock	Liberal Democrat

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

General Election 2010: Portsmouth South [3][4][5][6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Mike Hancock	18,921	45.9	+4.2
	Conservative	Flick Drummond	13,721	33.3	-0.4
	Labour	John Ferrett	5,640	13.7	-8.7
	UKIP	Robert Robinson	876	2.1	-0.2
	BNP	Geoff Crompton	873	2.1	+2.1
	Green	Tim Dawes	716	1.7	+1.7
	English Democrats	Ian Ducain	400	1.0	+1.0
	Independent	Les Cummings	117	0.3	+0.3
Majority			5,200	12.6
Turnout			41,264	58.7	+1.3
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	+2.3

Elections in the 2000s

General Election 2005: Portsmouth South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Mike Hancock	17,047	42.2	−2.4
	Conservative	Caroline Dinenage	13,685	33.9	+4.8
	Labour	Mark Button	8,714	21.6	−2.3
	UKIP	Dennis Pierson	928	2.3	+1.5
Majority			3,362	8.3
Turnout			40,374	56.9	+6.0
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	−3.6

General Election 2001: Portsmouth South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	Mike Hancock	17,490	44.6	+5.1
	Conservative	Philip Henry Warr	11,397	29.1	-2.1
	Labour	Graham Heaney	9,361	23.9	-1.4
	Socialist Alliance	John Christopher Molyneux	647	1.6	N/A
	UKIP	Mike Tarrant	321	0.8	+0.5
Majority			6,093	15.5
Turnout			39,216	50.9	-12.9
	Liberal Democrat hold		Swing	+3.2

Elections in the 1990s

General Election 1992: Portsmouth South[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Martin	22,798	42.5	−0.8
	Liberal Democrat	Mike Hancock	22,556	42.0	−0.9
	Labour	Syd Rapson	7,857	14.6	+1.7
	Green	Aleksander Zivkovic	349	0.7	+0.7
	Natural Law	William A. Trend	91	0.2	+0.2
Majority			242	0.5	+0.1
Turnout			53,651	69.1	−2.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.0

Elections in the 1980s

Portsmouth South by-election, 1984
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SDP–Liberal Alliance (Social Democrat)	Mike Hancock	15,358	37.6	+12.1
	Conservative	Patrick Rock	14,017	34.3	-15.7
	Labour	Sally Thomas	10,846	26.5	+4.0
	National Front	Gordon Knight	226	0.5	0.0
	Ecology	Terry Mitchell	190	0.5	N/A
	Independent Liberal	Alan Evens	113	0.3	-0.8
	Independent Ecology	Thomas Layton	50	0.1	N/A
	Independent	Anthony Andrews	42	0.1	N/A
	New National Party	Peter Smith	41	0.1	N/A
Majority			1,341	3.3	-21.3
Turnout				54.5	-12.8
	Social Democrat gain from Conservative		Swing

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Hampshire

Notes and references

Constituencies in South East England (84) Conservative (74) Aldershot Arundel and South Downs Ashford Aylesbury Banbury Basingstoke Beaconsfield Bexhill and Battle Bognor Regis and Littlehampton Bracknell Brighton Kemptown Canterbury Chatham and Aylesford Chesham and Amersham Chichester Crawley Dartford Dover East Hampshire East Surrey East Worthing and Shoreham Epsom and Ewell Esher and Walton Fareham Faversham and Mid Kent Folkestone and Hythe Gillingham and Rainham Gosport Gravesham Guildford Hastings and Rye Havant Henley Horsham Hove Isle of Wight Maidenhead Maidstone and The Weald Meon Valley Mid Sussex Milton Keynes North Milton Keynes South Mole Valley Newbury New Forest East New Forest West North East Hampshire North Thanet North West Hampshire Oxford West and Abingdon Portsmouth North Reading East Reading West Reigate Rochester and Strood Romsey and Southampton North Runnymede and Weybridge Sevenoaks Sittingbourne and Sheppey South Thanet South West Surrey Spelthorne Surrey Heath Tonbridge and Malling Tunbridge Wells Wantage Wealden Winchester Windsor Witney Woking Wokingham Worthing West Wycombe Labour (4) Oxford East Slough Southampton Itchen Southampton Test Liberal Democrats (4) Eastbourne Eastleigh Lewes Portsmouth South Green (1) Brighton Pavilion Speaker (1) Buckingham South East England European constituency: Conservative (4) UKIP (2) Liberal Democrats (2) Green (1) Labour (1)