South Staffordshire | |
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County constituency | |
for the House of Commons | |
Boundary of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire. |
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Location of Staffordshire within England. |
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County | Staffordshire |
Electorate | 74,189 (December 2010)[1] |
Current constituency | |
Created | 1983 |
Member of Parliament | Gavin Williamson (Conservative) |
Number of members | One |
Created from | South West Staffordshire |
1832–1868 | |
Number of members | Two |
Type of constituency | County constituency |
Replaced by | East Staffordshire and West Staffordshire |
Created from | Staffordshire |
Overlaps | |
European Parliament constituency | West Midlands |
South Staffordshire is a parliamentary 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.
There was a previous constituency of South Staffordshire or Staffordshire Southern which existed from 1832 to 1868, covering a much larger area.
Contents |
The constituency is made up of about two-thirds of the South Staffordshire local government district. It wraps round the western edge of the city of Wolverhampton and it does not contain any large towns. Its settlements include Brewood, Cheslyn Hay, Codsall, Featherstone, Great Wyrley, Kinver, Perton and Wombourne.Most electoral wards are safely Conservative with Labour's only real area of strength being the ex-mining town of Cheslyn Hay.
The ancient county constituency of Staffordshire was divided under the Great Reform Act into two two-member constituencies, while other parts of the old constituency were made into or added to borough constituencies. These were formally the Northern division of Staffordshire and the Southern division of Staffordshire, also called Southern Staffordshire or Staffordshire South. The Reform Act 1867 abolished the Southern Division with effect from the 1868 general election, replacing it with two new two-seat constituencies: East Staffordshire and West Staffordshire.
The present South Staffordshire constituency was established in 1983, although in reality this was merely a renaming of the Staffordshire South West constituency formed in 1974 from parts of the former constituencies of Brierley Hill and Cannock. It covered the whole of the South Staffordshire district until 1997, when the area around Penkridge was included in the Stafford constituency.
It is a safe seat for the Conservative Party, with Sir Patrick Cormack having held it from its creation in 1974 until he retired in 2010, when he was succeeded by Gavin Williamson.
On 30 April 2005, the Liberal Democrat candidate Josephine Harrison died of an undisclosed illness at the age of 53. Election procedures require that in the event of a candidate's death after the close of nominations, the returning officer has to direct the general election poll (due to be held on May 5) to be abandoned, and to call a fresh general election poll in South Staffordshire, under the same writ of election, 28 days after having seen proof of death. As the poll was strictly not a by-election, but rather a part of the general election, it was run under general election regulations, for instance not qualifying for the significantly higher election expenses available at by-elections.
The original candidates were:
On 9 May, the Labour candidate, Penny Barber, announced that she was standing down as she could not afford to take any more time off work. The constituency Labour Party had to select a new candidate, choosing Paul Kalinauckas who had been their candidate in the 2001 election. The Liberal Democrats selected Jo Crotty as their replacement candidate. In addition, three additional candidates who had not been nominated for the original poll fought the delayed election: Kate Spohrer of the Green Party, Rev. David Braid of Clause 28 Children's Protection Christian Democrats, and most notably the journalist Garry Bushell representing the English Democrats Party. Bushell had already stood in the Greenwich and Woolwich constituency on May 5, where he had polled 3.4%.
The election was eventually held on 23 June 2005, with Sir Patrick Cormack retaining the seat. With the seat being safely Conservative, and with the results of the general election in other constituencies already known, the election attracted a considerably lower turnout (37.3%) than in other constituencies. Cormack increased his majority to 34.5% (a 9.1% swing), while the United Kingdom Independence Party saw one of their best results of 2005, with 10.4% of the vote.
Election | First member [2] | First party | Second member | Second party[3] | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1832 | Edward John Littleton | Whig | Sir John Wrottesley, Bt | Whig | ||
1835 by-election | Sir Francis Holyoake-Goodricke, Bt | Whig | ||||
1837 | George Anson | Whig | The Viscount Ingestre | Conservative | ||
1849 by-election | William Walter Legge, Viscount Lewisham | Conservative | ||||
1853 by-election | Edward Richard Littleton | Whig | ||||
1854 by-election | Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge | Whig | ||||
1857 | William Orme Foster | Whig | Henry John Wentworth Hodgetts-Foley | Whig | ||
1868 | Constituency abolished: replaced by East Staffordshire and West Staffordshire |
Election | Member [2] | Party | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1983 | Patrick Cormack | Conservative | Previously MP for South West Staffordshire | |
2010 | Gavin Williamson | Conservative |
The vote share change in 2010 comes from the notional, not actual, results because of boundary changes.
General Election 2010: South Staffordshire [4] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | Gavin Williamson | 26,834 | 53.2 | +2.5 | |
Labour | Kevin McElduff | 10,244 | 20.3 | +0.3 | |
Liberal Democrat | Sarah Fellows | 8,427 | 16.7 | +3.3 | |
UKIP | Mike Nattrass | 2,753 | 5.5 | −4.7 | |
BNP | David Bradnock | 1,928 | 3.8 | N/A | |
Independent | Andrew Morris | 254 | 0.5 | N/A | |
Majority | 16,590 | 32.9 | |||
Turnout | 50,440 | 68.7 | +31.1 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +1.1 |
General Election 2005: South Staffordshire | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | Sir Patrick Cormack | 13,343 | 52.0 | +1.6 | |
Labour | Paul Kalinauckas | 4,496 | 17.6 | −16.6 | |
Liberal Democrat | Jo Crotty | 3,540 | 13.8 | +2.2 | |
UKIP | Malcolm Hurst | 2,675 | 10.4 | +6.7 | |
English Democrats | Garry Bushell | 643 | 2.5 | N/A | |
Green | Kate Spohrer | 437 | 1.7 | N/A | |
Freedom Party | Adrian Davies | 434 | 1.7 | N/A | |
Clause 28 Children's Protection Christian Democrats | Rev. David Braid | 67 | 0.3 | N/A | |
Majority | 8,847 | 34.5 | +18.2 | ||
Turnout | 25,609 | 37.3 | −23.0 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | +9.1 |
General Election 2001: South Staffordshire | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | Sir Patrick Cormack | 21,295 | 50.5 | +0.5 | |
Labour | Paul Kalinauckas | 14,414 | 34.2 | −0.5 | |
Liberal Democrat | Josephine Harrison | 4,891 | 11.6 | +0.3 | |
UKIP | Mike Lynch | 1,580 | 3.7 | N/A | |
Majority | 6,881 | 16.3 | |||
Turnout | 42,180 | 60.3 | −13.9 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing |
General Election 1997: South Staffordshire[5] | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | Patrick Cormack | 25,568 | 50.02 | −9.7 | |
Labour | J LeMaistre | 17,747 | 34.7 | +8.6 | |
Liberal Democrat | J Calder | 5,797 | 11.3 | −2.9 | |
Referendum Party | P Carnell | 2,002 | 3.9 | −3.9 | |
Majority | 7,821 | 15.3 | −18.2 | ||
Turnout | 68,896 | 74.2 | -7.3 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | −9 |
General Election 1992: South Staffordshire[6] | |||||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Conservative | Patrick Cormack | 40,266 | 59.7 | −1.2 | |
Labour | BA Wylie | 17,633 | 26.1 | +7.1 | |
Liberal Democrat | IL Sadler | 9,584 | 14.2 | −5.9 | |
Majority | 22,633 | 33.5 | −7.2 | ||
Turnout | 67,483 | 81.5 | +3.4 | ||
Conservative hold | Swing | −4.1 |